Lawrence, A Prophet: On Lawrence's Ecological Consciousness

This thesis is a study of the poems and narratives of D.H. Lawrence in order to show that Lawrence's philosophical vision and insights on the relationship between man and nature are of profound significance. With a bio-centric and ecological perspective of balance and wholeness, Lawrence launched his fierce attack on the anthropocentrism at the heart of humanism. Influenced by Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche and Romanticists, Lawrence imbued a legacy of biocentrism, unconsciousness, and anti-rationalism from his predecessors: animals are represented as an equal with, or even superior to humankind and as a source of instinctiveness which should be internalized by humankind; the unconscious, as an opposition to reason, is imagined as a link to the nature around us.The thesis consists of five parts. Starting with an introduction to Lawrence and eco-criticism, the study goes on to discuss the animal imagery as a symbol of human instinctiveness, the opposition to rationalism. Then it engages, in Chapter Three, the inter-human relation, as man and women are still part of this bio-centric wholeness. Chapter Four explores the underlying philosophy behind his constant advocating of the instinctive, the unconscious, the intuitive, and the animal: vitalism. Vitalism is a natural flow of life, or of vital spark, between humankind and the natural world. This thesis concludes that Lawrence is a prophetic and pioneering figure to ecology and eco-criticism.