D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

1. D.H. Lawrence(1885-1930) GROUP MENBERS Vann Roxanne Jasmine Vanessa

2. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. "Snake" and "How Beastly the Bourgeoisie is" are probably his most anthologized poems.

3. David Herbert Lawrence • Born on September 11, 1885, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, central England. • The fourth child of a struggling coal miner, a heavy drinker. Mother: a former schoolteacher, greatly superior in education to her husband. Lawrence's childhood was dominated by poverty and friction between his parents. • Educated at Nottingham High School, to which he had won a scholarship. • Worked as a clerk in a surgical appliance factory and then for four years as a pupil-teacher. • After studies at Nottingham University, Lawrence matriculated at 22 and briefly pursued a teaching career. • Lawrence's mother died in 1910; he helped her die by giving her an overdose of sleeping medicine.

4. Childhood Please note that Eastwood was widely open to the neighbouring countryside as shown by this photograph. As a child, he hated physical games like football or cricket and preferred the quiet company of little girls. Indeed, he suffered bad moments at Beauvale School...

5. ...where he was found girlish by his schoolmates.

6. Achievement Romance: Jessie Chambers Lawrence also received a good religious education which gave him a thorough knowledge of the Bible. Congregationalism was the religion of his family, or rather of his mother.At the age of 12 he won a scholarship to Nottingham High School ; and this meant :- long days from 7am to 7pm,- financial difficulties for Mrs Lawrence (but her ambition for her son was such that she was prepared to make great sacrifices)- rather good results at school, but nothing exceptional. In the summer 1901, Bert met Jessie Chambers, the daughter of a nearby farmer...

7. Mrs Frieda Weekley In Sept. 1906 D.H. Lawrence was 21:

11. “Odour of Chrysanthemums” One of D. H. Lawrence’s most accomplished stories, written in 1909. -- A dramatic moment in the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Bates and the death of her husband, Walter Bates. -- Lawrence presents his parents’ marriage in the story

12. Elizabeth Bates - a Housewife - a tall woman of imperious mien - a handsome woman with definite black eyebrows - a pregnant woman. John -Elizabeth Bates' son -a small, sturdy boy of five - “nasty,” like destroying flowers -indifferent to all but himself Annie - Elizabeth Bates' daughter - a naïve girl -a schoolgirl with curly hair that is different from her father’s blonde color Characters (1)

13. Characters (2) Elizabeth Bates' mother-in-law -an elderly woman about sixty years old -Walter’s social superior, a teacher who was keen to develop the talents of her children. Walter -Elizabeth Bates’ husband - a miner who is a drunker - blond, full-fleshed, with fine limbs -died for suffocation

14. Summary • Part 1- In a winter day, Elizabeth Bates, a coal miner's wife, waited anxiously for her husband to return for dinner. Her husband didn’t come home. • Part 2- Elizabeth looked for her husband, and her mother-in-law came. Her husband was killed accidentally that he died of suffocation.

15. 4:30- Elizabeth and her son, John, waited the father’s coming to begin tea. 4:45- Elizabeth’s daughter, Annie, came home late, and they sat down to tea. 5:40- Elizabeth complained her husband’s drunk behavior. 6:40- Children went to bed. Elizabeth concerned for the father’s safety but still felt angry. 8:00-Elizabeth went out and looked for her husband. John Rigley helped her look for her husband. 9:00~ 9:30-She sat and waited in the house. She felt uneasy. 9:45- Her mother-in-law came. 10:30- Matthews and Jim carried Walter's corpse into the parlor. Elizabeth washed the body with her mother-in-law. They put clothes on him and locked the parlor's door.

16. Symbols A. Chrysanthemum B. Darkness C. Suffocation D. Broken vase

17. A. Chrysanthemums-The chrysanthemums which opened Elizabeth’s married life have now closed it. a. Pink-beautiful smell The beginning of Elizabeth’s marriage. “Beside the path hung disheveled pink chrysanthemums” (p2317 par.2). “It was chrysanthemums when I married him. .................”(p2321 par.4).

18. b. Pale and brown -Elizabeth’s husband got drunk and came home late. “…,and the first time they ever brought him home drunk,..” (p2321 par.4). “And he may sleep on the floor till he wakes himself…”(p2321 par.17). c. Cold and deathly smell -The death of Elizabeth’s husband “There was a cold, deathly smell…” (p2326 par. 8).

19. B. Darkness a.Disappointment “She opened the door once more…” (p2319 par.3). “She went out. As she dropped piece after piece of…” (p2320 par.10).b. Loneness “John, at the end of the table…” (p2319 last par.).

20. c. An unhappy life “…, they had met in the dark and had fought in the dark,…” (p2329 par.3). d. Death “ The man turned away, looking at the darkness” (p2325 par.9).

21. C. Sphyxiated ( Suffocation) D. Broken vase - Oppression “Sphyxiated, the doctor said” (p 2327 par.6). - Broken marriage “As soon as she could get... and the flower.” (p2327 par. 2).

22. Theme A. Industrial Revolution -Industrial blight against nature beauty B. Life and death -The chrysanthemums, which bloom a little while in the fall and then die, are symbolic of the fragility of the inner lives. C. Marriage. -Their marriage had been dead before her husband lost his life that night in the mine. -Elizabeth never appreciated what she could have had with Walter.

23. Study Questions: -What dose the title, "Odour of Chrysanthemums," mean? - What are the effects of environmentally, unfriendly industrial practices in the story? - Elizabeth Bates thinks her husband drinks too much. What kind of medical, social, psychological, or economic effects of alcohol abuse are related to her husband’s drunken behavior? -What dose Elizabeth feel when she sees Walter's body? -What new understanding does it give her about Walter in her life? -What is the contrast between Elizabeth and Walter's mother?

24. “Piano” -Present v.s. Past -Conflict between mother and lover -Rhyme : aabb

25. Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to meTaking me back down the vista of years, till I seeA child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling stringsAnd pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. -A singing to the speaker brings him back the memory of his mother

26. In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of songBetrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belongTo the old Sunday evenings at home, with the winter outsideAnd the hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide. -Ignoring the singer again and back to his childhood.

27. So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamourWith the great black piano appassionato. The glamourOf childish days is upon me, my manhood is castDown in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. -Appassionato: to perform passionately -The speaker is overwhelmed by his memory.

28. Study Questions: • What is the connection between music and memory? • Why does the speaker start “Piano” with the word “softly”?

29. ”Snake”

30. A snake came to my water-troughOn a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,To drink there. In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-treeI came down the steps with my pitcherAnd must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me. A snake: asp viper~ a poisonous snake carob-tree: Mediterranean region anthropomorphous: snake-human being

31. Asp Viper

32. Carob Tree • The raw materials for our products come from the Sicilian Carob Tree, majestic evergreens diffused in Sicily more than 1000 years ago. But the carob fruit has an even older story, as we find it in the Bible (St. John’s Bread), and its seed, called also ‘carat’, was used as a weight unit for gold measuring. • Italy is the second country, after Spain, for Carob production, and the Ragusa Area, where LBG Sicilia is located, contributes to 70% of the whole national production.

33. He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloomAnd trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone troughAnd rested his throat upon the stone bottom,And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,He sipped with his straight mouth,Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently. “reached”: snake-hand Alliteration: “s”-the hissing sound of the snake

34. Someone was before me at my water-trough,And I, like a second comer, waiting. He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,And stooped and drank a little more,Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earthOn the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking. Compare to domesticated farm animals (cattle) Authoritative look Mt Etna: an active volcano in Sicily

35. Mt. Etna

36. The voice of my education said to meHe must be killed,For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous. And voices in me said, If you were a manYou would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off. Black snake: western whip snake Education: to destroy the destroyer Social convention: “man”

37. But must I confess how I liked him,How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water- troughAnd depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,Into the burning bowels of this earth? Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?Was it humility, to feel so honoured?I felt so honoured. Pleased: guest Interaction with readers: considering the poet’s thoughts

38. And yet those voices:If you were not afraid, you would kill him! And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,But even so, honoured still moreThat he should seek my hospitalityFrom out the dark door of the secret earth. Fear: Christian education (Garden of Eden); too much reason, intellect but ignore instinct and passion

39. He drank enoughAnd lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,Seeming to lick his lips,And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,And slowly turned his head,And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,Proceeded to draw his slow length curving roundAnd climb again the broken bank of my wall-face. Compare to God

40. And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,Overcame me now his back was turned. Christian’s idea: devil in hell

41. I looked round, I put down my pitcher,I picked up a clumsy logAnd threw it at the water-trough with a clatter. I think it did not hit him,But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste,Writhed like lightning, and was goneInto the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall- front, At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination. The pressure of society wins

42. And immediately I regretted it.I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education. And I thought of the albatross,And I wished he would come back, my snake. regret : inner conflict: Albatross: an innocent bird in Coleridge's Ancient Mariner

43. Coleridge, Ancient Mariner • The albatross = the important object associated with the taboo introduced [good sign, messenger of God • Ending, abruptly, with the mariner killing the bird [hence “plague” coming]

44. For he seemed to me again like a king,Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,Now due to be crowned again. And so, I missed my chance with one of the lordsOf life.And I have something to expiate;A pettiness. Compare to a king Compare to a lord of life