Lawrence's Spiritual Exploration In The Rainbow

In his masterpiece The Rainbow (1915), D. H. Lawrence depicts the history of the Brangwens, and gives a cross-section of the English society ranging from an agrarian age in the middle nineteenth century to the modern industrial times before the First World War, with a long stretch of more than half a century. The thesis, by analyzing how Lawrence describes the relationship in each generation in his innovative way, attempts to prove that D. H. Lawrence incorporates his own exploration into the quest of his characters and makes condemnation at the industrial civilization distorting the humanities. The thesis holds that through his extraordinary language, especially the psychological depictions and the descriptions of the nature, Lawrence unveils an imposing picture of the English society at the beginning of the twentieth century.The thesis makes specific analysis of the three Brangwen generations so as to explore how Lawrence combines his biblical language and spiritual exploration together in an organic form. In the thesis, the author makes use of various critical approaches, including the Marxist criticism, the psychoanalysis, the mythological and archetypal criticism, and primarily, the New Criticism based on the text research with the close reading as the main method.In chapter one of the thesis, the author analyzes the relationship between Tom and Lydia as an example to illustrate Lawrence's ideal for the harmonious life in an agrarian society. In chapter two, the author picks out several significant scenes in Will and Anna Brangwen's relationship to prove Lawrence's disapproval of their purely sensual marriage. In chapter three, the author focuses on the probation into how Lawrence incorporates himself into the heroine Ursula Brangwen with his extraordinary application of the symbolic rainbow. Besides, the chapter also points out how Lawrence condemns the industrial civilization and its destructive impact on the modern human beings.The thesis is, on the whole, also concerned about how Lawrence makes use of the modernistic elements in his creation to serve for his theme. The author concludes that the novel is not merely a chronicle saga, but Lawrence's own spiritual reflection of an industrialized world of complicated modernity and his exploration of human selfhood. Lawrence combines the traditional and modernistic elements so well that the novel proves to be one of his masterpieces.