An Analysis Of Spiritual Wasteland In Lady Chatterley's Lover Based On Sex Orientation

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He thinks that capitalist industrial civilization has alienated people into slaves of machinery and led to a severe imbalance between two sexes. So Lawrence wants to give a literary account of his resolution to this issue that human beings cannot get out of their indifferent spiritual wasteland without having re-awakened their self-consciousness and re-adjusted their harmonious inter-relations. And Lady Chatterley's Lover is in the right case.This thesis mainly focuses on the figures' outlet from or entry into their spiritual wasteland with or without sex orientation. Through the waving development of Connie's sex orientation with various men, it shows the rebirth of Connie' s body and soul, and leads to the physical and spiritual destruction of Clifford. Sex orientation in this thesis means Connie' s "selecting the most natural sex" that is a dynamic process, in which she makes close contact with men of different sex potency to finally select the natural man Mellors, realizing her natural return of body and soul through sex orientation. It is the major clue of the novel that responds to human, nature and society simultaneously in Lady Chatterley's Lover.This thesis falls into five chapters. The first chapter is introduction. It's about literature review, assumption, methodology and contribution. Lawrence's novels including Lady Chatterley's Lover take on some color of eco-criticism and Freud's psychoanalysis. While eco-criticism mainly pays attention to three aspects: natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. This is shown from a conflict of balance and imbalance among human, nature and society in this thesis.The second chapter begins with four backgrounds that influenced his writings: life experience, social background, cultural background and literary influence upon him. They play a great role in Lawrence' s creation.The third chapter is about the ideal balance among men & women, Human & Nature. Dualism like body and soul, life and death, balance and imbalance, destruction and reconstruction can be found in Lawrence's novels, including Lady Chatterley's Lover. Ideal balance is opposite to realistic imbalance. Connie is reborn in an ideal balance among man and woman, human and nature; on the contrary, her final departure from Clifford gives a perfect account of the theme that only a harmonious and natural connection between sexes can make man get rid of his spiritual wasteland. While Connie's short and pleasant connection with her German lover is just the beginning of the exploration of her sex orientation, which serves a foundation for her natural connection with Mellors later in the woods. So the ideal balanced love between Connie and Mellors is the ultimate balance and harmony that Lawrence wants to communicate.The fourth chapter, from an opposite perspective of the above-mentioned ideal balance, expresses the realistic imbalance among man & woman. In this chapter, two typical pairs of characters are selected to account for this. They are Connie and Michaelis who is semi-castrated by industrial civilization, and Connie with Clifford who is completely castrated so that his sex connection with Connie is doomed to fail. Both Michaelis and Clifford live in the city of industrial civilization, away from nature. City is opposite to nature; industrial civilization destroys natural environment. This is the realistic imbalance between man and nature. In the city, alienated people like Michaelis and Clifford are semi- or completely castrated by industrial civilization, which results in their failure of natural sex orientation with Connie, making them impossible to gain a natural return of humanity and getting out of their spiritual wasteland.The fifth chapter is conclusion. To simply put, Lawrence's ideal and Utopia-like salvation of oppressed humanity from industrial civilization through means of sex union takes both praise and criticism, praising for his pioneering role against capitalist oppression of humanity and criticizing for his too ideal salvation.