In 1913, D. H. Lawrence began to write a new novel entitled "the Sisters". By 1919, he had finished an ambitious project by having divided his saga of the Brangwen family in two different novels - The Rainbow, published in 1915 and Women in Love in 1920. Both novels contain homoerotic scenes that were of course very controversial in the beginning of the twentieth century. Indeed, copies of the Rainbow were seized and destroyed shortly after having been published. This censorship was so strong because of the lesbian relationship between the heroine, Ursula Brangwen, and her schoolmistress, Winifred Inger (Meyers, 1992).
D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love was written at a time when contemporary society was subject to certain developments. Although it has been considered as Lawrence's best novel, it was also highly criticized. A successful call for censorship followed its publication. The reason of this ban was its "study of sexual depravity, misleading youth to unspeakable disaster". One review entitled "A BOOK THE POLICE SHOULD BAN" claimed that Women in Love was "a epic of vice", "ugly, repellent, vile". In this critic, one could also read "as a study of certain loathsome forms of mental disease it is thorough and painstaking and I am sure Mr Lawrence does not deserve some form of special recognition from the Royal College of Physicians. Most of his characters are obviously mad. They do and say the sort of things for which living people are shut up in lunatic asylums." (Pilley, 1921 : p.1)
The sexual content included -both heterosexual and homosexual- as well as the exposure of what Lawrence considered as a corrupt society triggered the public outrage against him. Lawrence, who died in 1930, did not even see his novel published in an uncensored edition, which finally came out in 1982 (!). Women in Love is a very difficult book to read. It is quite tedious and it lacks of structure and form. The plot in itself is not so interesting. In the first chapters, it seems that Lawrence uses his characters only as a means to convey his own philosophical thoughts. Nevertheless, as the novel goes on, the characters fortunately become more appealing and start to take shape. Lawrence's obvious disappointment of the society is portrayed through the characters, and Rupert Birkin has been described as a disguised projection of the author himself. From the beginning of the novel, a sense of alienation is conveyed by the sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, from the society they are living in. Gudrun especially hates the countryside she is now living in, as she comes from London. She criticizes the narrow-mindedness and poverty in the countryside. She describes the ugliness of the place as well as its crudeness with a particularly strong loathing. She seems very afraid of a static family life. In the first chapter, her and Ursula shares their views on marriage, and both evoke their unwillingness to get married. All four main characters of the novel reject static, conventional married life. At the Crich wedding, Birkin is described as "clever and separate" (p. 20) and not fitting in with the conventional occasion at all.
None of the main characters are conventional in the sense of the norm, but their feelings and actions are what Lawrence is trying to project as the intimate feelings of the self. Gerald represents the ultimate masculine power and the industrialisation of Britain. His physical strength is constantly evoked and his handling of his father's mines after his death represents a kind of terrible human power and domination. After his father died, Gerald takes control of the mines resulting in a new completely efficient money making business. But this successful handling is at the cost of the miners. He cuts all benefits and the miners' work is hardened, more terrible than ever, described as "terrible and heartbreaking in its mechanicalness" (Lawrence, 2000: p. 230). He clearly does not care about the miners because they are from the unimportant working class. His absolute domination and the satisfaction he has from his business is blatant, and his desire for possession is projected through Lawrence's word choice at every opportunity : "From his separate element he saw them and he excluded to himself because of his own advantage, his possession of a world to himself" (Lawrence, 2000: p. 47). Everything about Gerald is a reflection of this virility and control. At all times he is aware of the physical strength that he possesses and much of the narrative is dominated by power struggles between him and Gudrun. It is what actually attracts them to each other. Gudrun is fascinated as she watches Gerald cruelly dominates a frightened horse at the railway, continually forcing it to confront its fear while Ursula is disgusted by his actions. The same thing happens with Gerald: after he has been slapped by Gudrun, he is even more attracted to her. Later in this chapter when they are together in a rowing boat Lawrence transformed what could be seen as a basic activity into a scene filled with sexual chemistry: "... she was subtly gratified that she should have power over them both. He gave himself in, in a strange, electric submission" (Lawrence, 2000: p176)
This kind of language is repeated throughout the novel, as the power shifts between them. It is also the physical appearance that compels them to each other throughout the book. Gerald's eyes are described as glittering with a "faint rousedness" (p.161) when he looks at her, and his physical appearance is constantly commented.
Gerald and Birkin are often portrayed in opposition to each other in terms of ideology. While Birkin is depicted as more spiritual or more natural, Gerald reflects society and exterior force and physicality. When both men are in London and Gerald is introduced for the first time to the African art in the house, art that represents a primitive, natural form of humanity - a women in labour -, Gerald can only see it as obscene and consequently hates it. He cannot break from society and conventions and can not appreciate what Birkin, and then Lawrence, appreciate to be the truth, the most natural form of man, what should really matter. Conversely, Gerald denies this statement and this view is echoed by a critic of Women in Love who declared that "[Lawrence] would uncover our nakedness. It is of no avail for us to protest that the things he finds are not here, a fanatical shriek arises from his pages that they are there, but we deny them" (Beynon, 1997 : p. 30). Gerald is also made uncomfortable by the men's nudity in London as they all freely walk around the house naked. Birkin repeats this later in the novel, when he enjoys sitting alone and naked in the countryside.
Unlike Gerald, he is a rootless person without family and seems to have been created by Lawrence as a means for his own philosophical belief to appear in the novel. His demands on Ursula seems absurd as he persists in his belief that love is not enough for them. He rejects the idea that states a couple must become one. Conversely, he tries continually to make Ursula understand that their union is to be separate and spiritual, therefore beyond love, something like an unconscious meeting of their souls. But each time they discuss this, Gerald is frustrated by the fact that Ursula ends the conversation by asking him if he loves her. She is a spiritual being but also a physical one. She is also emotional so she does need to be reassured of his love, probably because he does not display it often. They constantly argue over her jealousy towards Hermione, and his refusal to respect her needs. The last time they argue, they brutally show out each other's faults, which constitutes the actual form of an understanding and then they marry. Their marriage is successful because they are honest to each others and the attraction between them is a spiritual one. Birkin tells Ursula that it is not her physical appearance that interests him. While she is shocked by such a statement, it simply show that their union is much more than simply a physical attraction.
In comparison, the relationship between Gudrun and Gerald does not go that well. Their mutual attraction is precisely physical. They are attracted by each other's appearance and also by each other's power. They do not come to each other directly. Gudrun was about to leave Beldover when Gerald's father, concerned about his daughters welfare, uses her services as an art teacher. So she and Gerald were not brought together by their own means but through an exterior factor. It was then purely circumstantial and there was not any steps taken either by Gerald or Gudrun to stay near each other. Once Gerald has made his business successful, he finds himself alone which he can not bear. So, in a panic, he takes a walk and realises that a relationship would fill this void within him. Gudrun is the only person he thinks to go to. Then, it is not love that brought him to her, but this is a matter of necessity. The fact that he comes to her with his shoes muddy from his father's grave is symbolic of the future death of their relationship.
Gudrun dislikes his domineering approach, she is annoyed when he consults Birkin and Ursula when she is about to go on holiday, and this is carried on through the holiday itself. It seems that she only wants to be isolated from Gerald during the holiday. Gerald responds to her by trying to assert his power and dominance on her, which she refuses to accept. She then moves to Loerke who like Birkin with Ursula, is not preoccupied by her appearance. They have a different connection that Gerald is left out of. He is humiliated by her when he loudly implies that she is not his wife. She discards him so easily, as he has probably discarded so many lovers previously, and it can not bear that. He hates not be in control. As a response, he tries to kill her, before realising what he is doing.
Gerald and Gudrun represent a kind of 'mindless sensuality' in the novel, they have no spiritual connection and in the end, they almost destroy each other. Gudrun triumphs over him as in the end Gerald is destroyed. Birkin and Ursula represent the successful spiritual connection while Gudrun and Gerald represent a more human, physical and almost perverse relationship that in the end proves to be destructive. But the novel is not resolved there. Birkin's relationship with Ursula is not completely satisfactory. He claims it is not that she is lacking of anything, but rather that he needs a third person, a man, in their relationship. Homosexuality is a big issue in this book and it is something that is never really resolved. The Gerald-Birkin sub plot complicates things as Birkin always assert that he needs a man to man relationship as well as the one he has with Ursula in order to be complete. Moreover, Gerald's attractiveness is described through Birkin's perspective. Likewise, this is often returned by Gerald. In "Man to Man", the narrator states that : "Gerald looked down at him, attracted, so deeply bondaged in fascinated attraction, that he was mistrustful, resenting the bondage, hating the attraction" (Lawrence, 2000: p 207). Birkin appears to be deeply in love with Gerald, although it I mostly contained and often it seems like Gerald would like to respond to this love, but he keeps it repressed. Birkin pleads with him to become a sort of blood brother with him, but Gerald refuses.
In the Gladitorial chapter the two men's naked wrestling is described in much detail by Lawrence. With his word choice, the depiction of the physical wrestling can be seen as a vague description of the sexual act. A critic writing a review of the book in 1920 stated that: "the Chapter headed 'Gladitorial' is sheer filth from beginning to end, and I pay Mr Lawrence the compliment of saying that no other novelist than he could have written it. This is the sort of book which in the hands of a boy in his teens might pave the way to unspeakable moral disaster." (Ellis & Zordo, 1992: p. 213). Gerald often refuses to acknowledge openly any feeling for Birkin, who as Ursula say, tries to force Gerald to love him, but Gerald will not return it. When Birkin bitterly tells Gerald not to forget that he has loved him as well as Gudrun, Gerald questions it icily.
His death concludes the novel as it somewhat metaphorically suggests a triumph of nature and spiritualism over industrialism and society, but it also leaves Birkin free in his devotion to Ursula. In the last chapter Birkin utters several times his love for Gerald and his total grief in the loss Gerald's spirit. Ursula tells him again that he cannot have two kinds of love. But the last line of the novel is Lawrence's refutation of that "I don't believe that" (p. 481).
