Dehumanization In Lady Chatterley's Lover

Great Essays
In Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a strong, powerful female protagonist takes the lead against the repressed mental state (that’s a first). “A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it” (Lawrence 73). And Lawrence evokes powerful messages, or lessons. “Perhaps only people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the universe. The others have a certain stickiness, they stick to the mass” (Lawrence 271). In other words, adhering to the mechanized mental state will stain the mind from realness and closeness and love. He makes this message, and the image of a postwar mechanized mental state as a product of the Industrial Age, very clear throughout the entirety of the text. Workers are dehumanized …show more content…
At the time the novel was read differently for different types of people. For one, “When I was nineteen I wasn’t able to finish it. I think the prose style and class assumptions put me off. Had I finished reading the novel then I think it would have been very harmful” (Green 281). For another, “I saw myself reflected on those pages where Stephen Gordon lived.” Author Donna Allegra: “I, a black girl, Brooklyn-born and raised, had something important in common with this upper-class British noblewoman, something beyond a love for fencing and riding horses” (Green 281). Hall says of the primary purpose of her novel: “To encourage inverts to face up to a hostile world in their true colors and this with dignity and courage. To spur all classes of inverts to make good through hard work, faithful and loyal attachments and sober and useful living. To bring normal men and women of good will to a fuller and more tolerant understanding of the inverted” (Souhami 23). Hall gives us the pain of the struggle against England’s mechanized mental state with Stephen’s struggle to overcome a society restricting girls and women. Stephen Gordon envied boys; she envied her kid neighbor Roger; she envied his “…right to be perfectly natural; above all she envied his splendid conviction that being a boy constituted a privilege in life; she could well understand that conviction, but this only increased her envy” (Hall 47). Veritably, Hall was truly ahead of her time; she inspired a change of construct through this novel, teaching the uneducated about inversion and sexuality. However, some critics have thrown distaste at the novel’s end, saying Hall in the end conformed to heterosexual plot—making it “one thing or the other” (Green 289). Hall gave a voice to the new era and a voice to the lesbians and transgenders. More so, Stephen is very identifiable, not just for the lesbian or

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In Chapter 1, the author starts off by speaking about her origins. She tries to break racial stereotypes by portraying her neighborhood and family as middle class -- comparing…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many times in the book, Piper Kerman shares her frustration about the dehumanization that occurs in her prison and how the justice system is organized. Kerman was indicted on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering. A conspiracy charge accuses a group of people plotting to commit a crime. The accused are usually brought to court by someone who has exposed their criminal acts in exchange for immunity. Under a conspiracy charge, the defendant is sentenced for the total amount of drugs and crime involved in an operation, not for their own role in it, whether small or big.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A lot of people are scared of the dark. People are scared of the dark because they can not see therefore they do know what surrounds them. Which does not make them scared of the dark but rather fear of the unknown. Humans want the security that they are safe. During WWII it was difficult for people to feel the security they desire.…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the themes in the novel Lord Of The Flies is that not having civilization around and keeping the structure of society, people will turn into savages. Becoming a savage happens when reasoning is slowly fades away, it is a slow process when humanity loses the structure and control it has instilled on everyone. Golding uses repetition of blood and fascination of killing to build towards the symbol and character having the theme show through the symbol and character. Golding uses the character Jack with his fascination to kill and see blood to build towards the theme, Golding makes Jack’s goal to kill the piglet, then Jack able to kill the pig, and finally turning Jack’s character into a savage. These moments all have one thing in common which is Jack being away from civilization cause the characters to gradually lose the control that humanity has enforced upon him with time passing and…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Specifically, everything a black person says or does in this setting is automatically correlated with race, and the historical role of African Americans in society. The author uses Hennessy Youngman’s quote “…a nigger paints a flower it becomes a slavery flower” to explicitly state that black people cannot act or express themselves without having a…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotyping is something that was well alive back then and still alive and well today. Although stereotyping does not have an exact date on which it started, it all comes from people not being willing or taking the time to actually complete the “total picture.” So, we take what we see and hear, such as language, gestures, and appearance to fill in the missing parts. There are two main instances which occur in the Maltese Falcon which are, sexism, and homosexuality, two of the many stereotypes that will never really leave this earth.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In a world where men often have power over women, it is essential that women heed Ephron’s advice: “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” According to Spivak, the person with the most power in the relationship is the “Self”, and the “Other” has little power in comparison (Spivak in Rodenburg 7th lecture). In this essay I will discuss the ways in which the roles of Other are negotiated by Jane Eyre and Jane in Jane Eyre, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” respectively. I will argue that Jane Eyre resists otherness more effectively than Jane by asserting her independence through challenging and then leaving Rochester, in comparison Jane resists otherness, but fails to separate herself from the Self, which leads to further disempowerment.…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Women's Rights Movements

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For hundreds of years, women have struggled to gain essential rights equal with men. Held back and stripped of opportunities because of their gender, women have soldiered on for equality, fighting to be able to work, vote and other countless things. Feminism is the belief in political, social and economic equality of the sexes, no matter their race, religion or cultural background. Feminism and Women's movements allowed women to fight for rights and gain high positions in jobs that they were never able to before. Women now have power in government and they hold high and powerful jobs.…

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding illustrates the theme of dehumanization in society. The boys in the novel are stuck on a deserted island when the plane that they were on crashed. As a result of this crash, the only adult was killed and the sense of authority was then lost. It took two boys, Ralph and Jack, to step up and help restore that power. These boys used harsh tactics in order to keep the boys in line and for the boys to be as civil as possible, even though this would be lost towards the end of the novel.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many ways the human body can be described. It can be literal, anatomical, or poetic. All of these wrapped up will sum up the essay “The Female Body” written by Margaret Atwood, who put words to the wonders and complications of a woman’s body. With an almost rhythmic writing style, Atwood addressed sexist views and rebutted with an intimate and intrusive account of the role women have within a male consumed society. Atwood successfully uses pathos and ethos argumentative points to bring attention to the hardships women face.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary Of Anthony Browne

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Anthony Browne has represented the traditional gender roles and the struggle of showing one’s independence within a suburban household. These exaggerated gender roles inform the audience about the impact of accepting traditional gender roles as well as persuading them to alter their own perspective of these roles in a contemporary society. The opening scene highlights a patriarchal society as the female has been omitted from the science suggesting that she has no value, the males strong posture conveys dominance and power in this household. The use of sepia with the images of the mother near the beginning of the book represents that she has no speaking voice, no value in this family and she only knows about her house duties. Closer to the end…

    • 214 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Dehumanization In Beloved

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages

    How does the past events in one’s life affect him/herself and his/her actions? In the novel, Beloved by Toni Morrison, the protagonist, Sethe, is forced to undergo a scarring experience from the events that occurred while being enslaved. After being sent to Sweet Home, the feeling of oppression and abuse from the violent and destructive acts affects Sethe to the point where she ends up making an irreversible decision. Morrison uses Sethe’s act in murdering her child and the effects of that event to reveal how one must confront and come to terms with the past in order to be free from its trauma. Having experienced the violence of slavery, Sethe makes a grave choice which resulted in the death of her own child.…

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gaining Freedom Through Acceptance in “The Strangers that Came to Town” Charlotte Bronte once wrote in her novel Jane Eyre: “ I am no bird, and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being, with an independent will.” The feeling of a bird no net ensnares or a human being with a respected independent will is freedom. Freedom is never given; it is won with the great sacrifices of many in pursue for it. Literature has always been used as a powerful weapon to fight against bigotry and prejudice in society and promote freedom to drive social change.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The novel speaks volumes about what was happening in that era; however, it has matriculated into the 21st century. In the racist community of Bottom there were three ladies in the town that lacked…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Power In Women

    • 2242 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Analyse Lawrence’s vision of female or matriarchal power in Women in Love. Where does Lawrence locate matriarchal power in the novel? Why does the novel portray that power as dangerous and destructive? What does the novel suggest is the appropriate channel for the feminine?…

    • 2242 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays