20th Century Literature Term Paper

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Lady Chatterley's Lover - DH Lawrence

According to Lawrence, World War I was a tragic disgrace and resulted in a chaotic society in England. He felt that the English morals and guidelines changed drastically after the war. In the first chapter of "Lady Chatterley's Lover," Lawrence wrote: "Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes (Lawrence, 1995, p. 2)."

Lady Chatterley's Lover is full of social, political, and cultural implications. By focusing on the forbidden relationship between Lady Connie Chatterley and Oliver Mellors, Lawrence reveals a great deal about the structure and politics of post-war society.

While the main theme of this book is love, the unproductiveness, inhumanity and ugliness of life in a local mining community play a large role in this book. The political elements of this book are clearly demonstrated by Lady Chatterley's life in a society devoted to making money. The book was extremely controversial when published because it is erotic.

However, Lawrence was not aiming to create a pornographic work. Instead, through his descriptions of physical love, he aimed to show that a relationship cannot exist without love and caring. In a society in which harshness and brutality run rampant, Lawrence aimed to show couples must overcome their surroundings to develop a loving, harmonious relationship together.

Mellors, a local gamekeeper, shows the harshness of the political society through his dedication to being a warm and kind man. In this respect, he gains the affection of Lady Chatterley.

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The compassion of Mellors for the wicked ways of Lady Chatterley is what attracts the couple to one another.

Their relationship involves many political elements, as it is considered an immoral relationship by the powers of England. Many of the defense witnesses were vulnerable - particularly the four Church of England clergy. However, it is apparent to most that the couple is guilty of immorality, which was greatly frowned upon by a society that desperately wanted to create an image of perfection.

The Chatterleys' marriage was main theme in the story, as society unfairly viewed its failure as the fault of Lady Chatterley, who had a difficult time maintaining a relationship with a husband who was half paralyzed and half crazy. She looks to Mellors to make her feel alive again. However, the prosecution fails to realize that the couple is building a strong relationship that has a good chance of leading to a successful marriage. They can only point finders and accuse the couple of immorality.

One of the main points of Lawrence's book is to show that love and lust are driven by the same impulses and problems as economics and politics. There is an obvious connection between society's sexual malaise, and the political and economic malaise of England during the time the novel was written, which is clearly demonstrated by the issues….....

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