D. H. LAWRENCE, by Adriana
Cruz
BIOGRAPHY
David Herbert Richards Lawrence, his birth name, was
born in Eastwood,
England, the 11th of September 1885, and he died in
Vence, France, on the 2nd of March 1930 (the cause of death was tuberculosis).
He was married to Frida von Richthofen, a German literate.
Lawrence was an English writer, author of novels,
poems, plays, essays, short stories, travel books, paintings, translations, and
literary criticism. His literature exposes an extensive reflection on the
dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. Lawrence views on all
these matters caused him many personal problems. As a consequence, he had to
spend most of his life in voluntary exile, which he himself called a “wild pilgrimage”.
Among his most notable works there are Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in
Love, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. He got distinctions like the James Tait Black
Award.
In his childhood, he studied at Beauvale Board School,
becoming the first local student to win a county council scholarship to
Nottingham High School.
He also studied at the University of London, where
served as a teacher and received a teaching diploma in 1908. In the autumn of
the same year, Lawrence left the home of his youth for London, although he
continued to work as a teacher for a few more years.
Lawrence had a very close relationship with his
mother.
He had an affair with a married woman six years older
than him with three small children, and they flew to Freida’s parents’ home
in Metz. Afterwards, they got married.
He spent the rest of his life travelling in the
company of his wife around several countries. Finally, they arrived in the
United States in September 1922, where they met Mabel Dodge Luhan, a public
figure, and contemplated establishing a utopian community on what was then
Kiowa Ranch near Taos, New Mexico.
They acquired the property, known today as the D. H.
Lawrence Ranch.
SUMMARY
The story tells of a middle-class family with three
children (a boy and two girls), who live in a good house with a garden, with
discreet servants. Although so that everyone could notice, they kept up
appearances. The mother is haunted by a sense of failure, always thinking that
she needs more than she has. Her husband did not earn as much as she wanted and
the life he would like to have with her luxuries and extravagance. Her children
feel this anxiety, even claiming they can hear the house whisper, “There must
be more money.”
The boy Paul was playing with his wooden horse in
search of luck and ordered his horse to take him where the luck is.
Basset, the gardener, told him about horse racing and
the two became partners.
One day, the boy is questioned by his uncle on the
subject, and he is surprised when he tells him the name of the winner. Uncle
Oscar, intrigued, asks how he knows who will win, but Paul tells him that he
only knows who wins and doesn’t tell him his secret. That’s how the guy finds
out about his earnings and successes.
Uncle Oscar Cresswell becomes a partner with them. The
boy and Bassett make huge bets on the horses Paul names.
When Paul decides to give the mother a gift of £1,000,
on her every birthday, for five years, so that he can ease her commitments, but
only makes her spend more.
Disappointed, Paul tries harder than ever to be
“lucky.” As the Derby draws near, Paul is determined to meet the winner.
The mother, returning from a party, discovers his
secret; She has spent hours riding his rocking horse, sometimes all night,
until he “arrives”, in a clairvoyant state where he can be sure of the winner’s
name.
Her uncle and the Gardener bet and won big on the
investment of 14 to 1 of everything he had.
The mother now had a lot of money, but she did not
have her son.
The boy told his mother, “Mom, I’ll ever leave you:
I’m lucky”.
QUESTIONS
His mother
His father
His uncle
The gardener
Why do you think the mother couldn’t love her children?
Do you think money can make happiness?
And what about luck? Can it make you happy?
Being lucky is something that depends on the causality, or can you do something to be lucky? Remember the saying “Fortuna helps the brave”.
Are you pro or against lotteries? Why?
Paul’s mother became unlucky when she got married? Do you think marriage can change people so much?
Mantra is a commonly repeated word or phrase, especially in advocacy or for motivation. In the story we can find two or more mantras (“There must be more money”, “I want luck”). Do you think mantras can be useful or effective? (Perhaps you remember old people saying the rosary.)
Why do you think uncle Oscar is lucky?
Do you believe in intuitions or hunches?
The mother got some money for her birthday. Was she happy then? Why?
Does our childhood determine the way we are as adults?
Some interpretations of this story say that the boy has the Oedipal complex and that his rocking on the horse is like a kind of masturbation. What is your opinion about this interpretation?
What is the symbolic meaning of the story according to your point of view?
VOCABULARY
thrust, grinding, racked, champing, smirking, pram, brazening
it out, peer, careered, steed, batman, blade, sport, honour bright, daffodil, romancer,
fiver, spinning yarns, writs, writhed, drapers, sequins, overwrought, quaint, prance,
uncanny, Master, as right as a trivet, tossing