Struggling Against Alienation

D.H. Lawrence was one of the most well-known and controversial novelists of the early 20 th century. Lady Chatterley’s Lover is not only his last major, but probably the most controversial novel. Because of a large number of description of sexual mentality and actions, this book was not allowed to be published until thirty years after Lawrence died. Even so, the novel not only exerted great influence on the contemporary British literature, but also the entire world of literature. The novel mainly describes the process of the heroine Connie’s rebirth, telling her from a sick woman who is blighted ruthlessly by the industrial society and asexual marriage, through uncompromising struggle and arduous exploration to accomplish self-salvation. From analyzing Connie’s rebirth, mainly through the contrast between the Wragby and the wood, asexual marriage and harmonious sexuality respectively, this thesis aims to expose the disastrous influence the modern industrial civilization has on human nature, proposing the necessary connection between human beings. The modern civilization is established at the cost of human nature. Due to high industrialization of the society, people has become rely strongly on reason, will and efforts to acquire higher social status and success. Thus, the necessity of emotional life has been repressed or ignored consciously or unconsciously, as a result, people’s flesh and spirit tend to split successively. While modern industry civilization has created rich corporeal wealth, it also has deprived people of their happiness and has resulted in a widely spread sense of alienation among people, which found expression in the conflict between people and their difficulty in understanding each other, as well as the loss of one’s natural instinct.What this thesis focuses on is Lawrence’s accusation of modern industrial civilization and its presentation is alienation.This essay tries to analyze the alienated relations and situation in Lady Chatterley’s Lover and points out that how the heroine Connie, under the influence of various factors, gets on the journey of anti-alienation and fulfills her own self-salvation.This thesis is composed of an introduction,three main chapters and a conclusion.The introduction part consists of three sections.Section one is a brief overview of D.H Lawrence and his most controversial novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover,a brief summary of the plot. Section two is the situation of studying at home and abroad and the objectives and approaches of this thesis. Section three gives a detailed introduction to the start and development of the theory of alienation so as to fully understand it, which can provide a ground for further analysis of the novel.Chapter one introduces a panoramic alienating situation Connie lives in, that is the alienation of nature, society and humanity, which represents Connie as a typical modern English who is in a dilemma of harsh living circumstances and spiritual crisis.Chapter Two analyzes Connie’s desperate struggling against alienation.To get avoid of the alienating world she lives in, Connie escapes to the wood for refuge and turns to her husband’s guest--Michaelis for temporary solace. However, it turns out neither can really be the solution to her problem.Chapter Three probes into Connie’s final rebirth both physically and spiritually,through her persistent quest, and several sexual experience with Mellors, Connie regains her vitality and get rid of her spiritual wasteland with the discovery of her true love-Mellors.The last part concludes that the true love of mankind is the answer to the survival problems of human beings. Moreover, only a sane socio-cultural environment can provide a guarantee of a truly sound personality, and make the essence of human nature shine forever.