D.H.Lawrence's Response To The Industrial Revolution

Among the studies of D. H. Lawrence's imagery, there exists a tendency that overemphasizes the psychological implications of the imagery but ignores social criticism it may suggest. Not enough researches have been done on the imagery which Lawrence uses as an antithesis to the powerful industrial thesis. The present paper attempts to fill in this gap by exploring certain suggestive implications of one recurrent image in Lawrence's novels-the "train"-in the hope that it would justify a more thoroughgoing study.The thesis firstly interprets the "train" image in The Rainbow and Women in Love, pointing out that Lawrence uses the image to deconstruct the whole concept of technological progress and to condemn the blind, relentless marching of modern industrialization. Then, the paper discovers that the constant process of the Industrial Revolution is signified by the "train" image as different roles: from the "invader' to the "guide", from the "destroyer" to the "link"; thus the "train" image also constitutes the "rhythm" which stitches The Rainbow and Women in Love together from the inside and shows Lawrence's distinctive art of writing.Moreover, a close-up look at its socio-cultural contexts reveals that the underlying subject of the train image is a larger historical reality, the remarkable impact that the Industrial Revolution causes on the lives and psyche of individual characters. The motives and behavior of these characters can be interpreted as a response to the radical change of social values arising in the course of the Industrial Revolution. The paper finally concludes that Lawrence, like his characters, perceives and experiences the social and moral changes; his ideas and his art represent a coherent response to a concrete historical situation. Therefore, there is at least correspondence between his fiction and his society.