David Herbert Lawrence was a 20th-century English poet, critic, and author of short stories, plays, travel books, and letters. Lawrence gained immense attention for his novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” which was banned in 1959 and 1960 in the US and England. He is one of the most notable 20th-century writers.
Being a modernist writer, Lawrence portrays the destructive effects of industrialization and modernism. Lawrence also presents certain other issues like vitality, sexual issues, and psychological health. In the latter part of his life, Lawrence faced sharp opposition and censorship for the ambiguous and creative mode of his work.
He lived in a self-imposed exile during this age and called himself to be in “savage pilgrimage”. However, he was considered as “the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation” by E.M. Forster later on. Likewise, F.R. Leavis, a notable literary critic, mastered his moral integrity and artistic imagination.
The novels, “Women in Love” and “Sons and Lovers” are the most notable works of Lawrence that give an account of his writing style. Most of his works have a stark concept of sexuality and openness to the restricted discussions of the time.
A Short Biography of D. H. Lawrence
D.H. Lawrence was born as the fourth child of the Lawrence family on 11 September 1885 in Nottinghamshire, a minor mining town of Eastwood. His father, Arthur John Lawrence, was a coal miner who began working from a young age. His mother, Lydia Lawrence, was a teacher who was from South England and was an educated and refined lady.
With the family’s weak financial conditions, Lydia joined a lace-making factory to help her family through difficult times. She was the motivation for Lawrence’s love for literature and good prospects because she was herself a lover of literary education. However, the couple’s weak marital relationship became the subject of most of Lawrence’s works.
From 1891 to 1898, Lawrence attended Beauvale Board School. He was a frail and lone child and struggled to make friends in academic life. However, he became the first local student in Eastwood’s history to win a scholarship to the Nottingham High School in Nottingham. Three years later in 1901, he quitted the school and began working as a clerk in Haywood’s surgical appliances factory.
When Lawrence’s elder brother fell ill and died the preceding winter, he was also diagnosed with severe pneumonia due to the grief. Therefore, he left the job. Later on, he joined the British School in Eastwood as a teacher from 1902 to 1906. There he met Jessie Chambers, a young lady. In her companionship, Lawrence developed the love of writing and began to write poetry. He also began to write his first novel at that time, which was published as “The White Peacock”.
Late in 1907, in Nottingham Guardian, Lawrence won a short story competition for “An Enjoyable Christmas: A Prelude”. This was his first time to gain a notable position for his literary genius. He also earned a teaching certificate from University College Nottingham in 1908.
Early Writing Career
In 1908, after completing his teacher’s degree, he left for London to begin teaching in Croydon, Davidson Road School. At that time, Jessie Chambers submitted some of his poetry to Ford Madox Ford who was the editor of the English Review. His work was published in 1909. Then Ford Hueffer (Madox) published Lawrence’s “Odour of Chrysanthemums” that grasped the interest of a London publisher, William Heinemann.
Hueffer also recommended Lawrence’s “The White Peacock” to Heinemann who finally published it in 1911. The novel was based on mismatched marriages and class conflict. In this way, his writing career began, although he still taught for a year more. That year Lawrence’s mother died that gave him lasting pain. Due to the incident, he remained in illness and depression.
Formal Writing
The next year (1912), Lawrence wrote “The Trespasser”. It foreshadows the relationship of one of his colleagues with a married man. She committed suicide later. It also depicts Lawrence’s intimacy with an old school friend, Louie Burrows. Through this novel, he succeeded in gaining the attention of Edward Garnett, an influential editor.
Biographical Effect
He helped Lawrence revise and edit “Paul Morel” that Garnett published as “Sons and Lovers” in 1913. It is one of the remarkable novels of the 20th-century. Due to his close relationship with his mother, Lawrence suffered great stress and sickness after her death. This depiction of mother-son attachment can be seen in his novel “Sons and Lovers”, in which a son feels devastated at the death of his beloved mother.
In this novel with autobiographical instances, Lawrence reflects on his provincial life. He also depicts his brief intimate relationship with Jessie Chambers from 1909 (Christmas) to 1910. Then he got engaged to Louie Borrows but due to his illness (another attack of Pneumonia), he left her. Later, he went to meet Ernest Weekley, his former modern languages professor. He fell in love with his wife Frieda Weekley and eloped with her to Frieda’s home in Germany.
High Time of Writing
He left his teaching career and adopted the profession of a writer. With his newly found love by his side, Lawrence wrote the first edition of poetry “Love Poems and Others” and the play “Daughter-In-Law” (1912).
When Lawrence and Frieda returned to England and got married in 1914, Lawrence wrote at a considerable pace during that time. He published a notable collection of short stories “The Prussian Officer”. In 1915, he printed “The Rainbow”, a novel that was sexually too vulgar for the society of his time. It was banned for its sexually explicit nature in that era.
Wartime Troubles
In his devastation and anger, Lawrence moved to the southwestern side of Great Britain, Cornwall. It is because he could not travel abroad due to World War-I. However, because of the sensitive situation, Lawrence was banished from the place in 1915 because he was a questioned writer with a German wife. Even in this situation, he published some editions of poetry i.e. Amores (1916), New Poems (1918), Look! We Have Come Through! (1919), and Bay: A Book of Poems (1919).
After the war, he moved to Italy where he spent 2 years of productive writing and traveling. In 1920, Lawrence published “Women in Love”, a novel that was widely considered to be the second part of “The Rainbow”. In 1922, he published “My England and Other Stories” that he composed in wartime.
In his determination to travel America, he left Europe for the east and moved through Ceylon and Australia to New Mexico, US. There he worked on a highly appreciated American criticism book “Studies in Classic American Literature”. Later in his life, Lawrence traveled across the US, Mexico, and England and wrote several other notable works. These include “Boy in the Bush” a 1924 novel, “St Mawr” (1925), and “The Plumed Serpent” in 1926.
Writing in Lawrence’s Illness
When Lawrence was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he moved back to Italy in 1927. There he wrote and published his most infamous novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” in 1928. It explains with a graphic representation the love affair and sexual intimacy of an aristocratic lady and her working-class lover. The novel was banned in the US and England in 1959 and 1960.
However, after a court trial, the novel was not found guilty of violating the rules of obscene writing. Therefore, Penguin Books was given permission to publish the book. With this publication, English literature received a renewed and broader freedom of representing sexual relations in the popular culture.
In his last times, Lawrence wrote little due to deteriorating physical strength. At the end, he wrote “Apocalypse”, a critical intersection of the Western religion. It provided a commentary on the Book of Revelation. He also composed the poem collection “Last Poems” in his last days of illness. Both of these works were published in 1930.
Legacy
Lawrence died in 1930 at the age of 44 because of TB. Though, he was considered a pornographic and obscene writer in contemporary times. He became one of the greatest modernist writers of the 20th-century. Lawrence’s former controversial writing became revolutionary and comprehensive in the modern world. He wrote about a wide range of topics including a detailed account of women’s sexuality, love, war, psychological world, and different genres.
These features made him a remarkable 20th-century writer. Moreover, he committed to writing on the oppressive and biased traits of the Western system of beliefs and determined to expose the hidden truth in things.
The Writing Style of D. H. Lawrence
Lawrentian Style
Lawrence is one of those writers who left bulky volumes of works. He wrote about ten editions of poetry, several travel books, translations, plays, novels, and critical works. Most of Lawrence’s works are marked by a single similar structure of plot, narration, imagery, and theme selection. His writing style is so unique and unified that his name creates an adjective “Lawrentian” for the style of Lawrence.
Even from the beginning of his literary career, Lawrence earned a reverend place and recognition among the highly learned people of the society. For example, Bertrand Russell and the prime minister, Herbert Asquith, took notice of him. He also gained the recognition and appreciation of famous publishers of the time. His fame and appreciation lie in the fact that his works have a striking unity of purpose and target.
A Sense of Unity
He roamed across different places to find a unified sense of existence in various cultures. This can be seen in Lawrence’s writing as he even compares animal instincts to the sensibility of humans, as in “Kangaroo”.
Sensual Writing Style
There is an erotic sensuality in Lawrence’s style. He even faced severe criticism for his obscene writing. However, this differentiates him as an open and realistic writer who succeeds in portraying what he feels to be right. For instance, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” has erotic graphic representation that banned its publication in Lawrence’s time. His prose works are also in lyrical tone and have a disconnected prose style.
Psychological Complexity
Lawrence’s writing reflects the complexity of his personality. The biographical elements hint at the complicated psychological setup of his life. For example, “Son and Lovers” is a representation of Lawrence’s approach towards different women in his life. Likewise, his “Apocalypse” represents Lawrence’s concept of religion intermingled with an ancient purity.
Themes
Fall of Western Civilization
In Lawrence’s poetry, humans often sink in lower states due to aggression. His depiction of the class struggles and money pursuit draws on the theme of the decline of western civilization. He once said that “If there weren’t so many lies in the world . . . I wouldn’t write at all”. Lawrence always depicted the neglected truths and the false ways of his society. For instance, in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, Lawrence represents the extravagance of the upper-class women. However, it was banned for the naked truth of these people.
Contempt for Financial Gains
He also depicted how money played a vital role in shaping relationships and lives. As it was the time of industrialization and modernism, people strived to become stable and gain high status in society. His works reflect on Lawrence’s contempt for the emerging love of money and gains due to the rising middle-class. This causes the ethical fall of western civilization.
Autobiographical Influences
Another crucial theme of Lawrence’s writing is the impression of his autobiographical instances on his artistic creations. He would explain a certain situation in a way as if it has affected him. For instance, in “Sons and Lovers”, many biographical factors of Lawrence’s life can be seen. Just like Paul’s mother’s death and his grievances for her in the story, Lawrence was also close to his mother. Similarly, the protagonist’s intimate relationship with another lady foreshadows Lawrence’s intimacy with Jessie and Louie. His other notable works also predict the effect of the surroundings on his life.
Animal Comparisons
Most of Lawrence’s works have the comparison of animals to human thinking. As Lawrence had roamed across many countries including Australia, Mexico, US, he wrote the exotic work, “Kangaroo” within six weeks of his travel. Similarly, he discussed even small insects like mosquitoes. Through this depiction of animal life and instincts, he tries to develop a relationship of human instincts and contrasts human thinking with animal actions.
The Idea of Death
In much of his later life works, Lawrence’s obsession with death and the mysterious journey is predicted. As he was inflicted with tuberculosis, in his illness, Lawrence deeply felt that death was nearer. Therefore, he was struggling to reconcile with the idea of death. For example, he wrote “The Escaped Cock” in 1929, its title was later changed into “The Man Who Died”. Another short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner” (1926) also ends in death and misery.
Religious Concept
Furthermore, in Lawrence’s later works, there are heavy allusions to Christianity and the bible. For instance, “Apocalypse” that was published in 1930, refers sharply to the values of the bible’s Book of Revelation through its critical examination. However, Lawrence did not stick to the overwhelming religious beliefs. He also referred to the ancient pagan belief systems. It is because he wanted to move back to the ancient purer and mystical form of religion rather than the version affected by logic and rationale. In a way, he strived to achieve a natural state of things.
Discussion of Sexuality
Another significant theme of Lawrence’s writing is his vivid depiction of sexuality. He talked about many sexual relationships explicitly. Although such instances happened in contemporary social settings, they were condemned to be discussed openly. However, Lawrence did not stop to think about the consequences of such depictions. For example, in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”, “Women in Love”, “Sons and Lovers”, and “The Rainbow”, Lawrence openly discussed the sexuality of the time.
He even faced criticism for his views and “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was banned, but later it got wide recognition. These clear representations of social life categorized him as a realist writer because he did not want to fake or exaggerate what was real.