Another Kind Of Self In The Wasteland

D. H. Laurence (1885-1930) is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. His writing aims to reveal the distortion and the oppression of the human instincts and the alienation of the natural human relationship caused by the industrial civilization. In modern society, man tends to concentrate on reason, will and intelligence to achieve success in society so that another side of his emotional and instinctive life is ignored consciously or unconsciously. But human life cannot be fulfilled without satisfaction of the latter deep embedded consciousness.The thesis is intended to elaborate on D. H. Laurence's unique insight of the multiplied selves of the protagonists in The Rainbow and its sequel Women in Love. Both novels forms an organic whole that is initially intended by D. H. Lawrence to be a proto-novel The Sisters, a Brangwen saga spanning more than half a century from about 1860 to about 1905. Its plot evolves around the love experiences and marital affairs of the three consecutive generations of the Brangwens. Through depicting the gradual degradation of the relationship between the sexes, D. H. Lawrence vents his harsh criticism against the dehumanizing alienation of modern industrial civilization. From his perspective, D. H. Lawrence believes the inhuman mechanism should hold the responsibility for the destruction and repression of human nature. Therefore, he endeavors to save the degenerate human society by revitalizing the natural self of human nature through reestablishing the harmonious bisexual relationship. Though his salvation strategy is far from being perfect and fall short of feasibility, his undaunted courage against tradition and his spirit of persevering pursuit for salvation as well as his consummate literary craftsmanship are still worthy of the reverence and commemoration of later generations.The thesis plans to consist of three parts. The first part centers on the destruction of nature and alienation of human relationship imposed by modern industrial civilization. Through the perspective of D. H. Lawrence, we can get a glimpse of the dehumanizing aspect of modern industrialism. Part two explores the gradual degradation of the bisexual relationship in the novel. We may appreciate the superb...