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TWO D.H. LAWRENCE SHORT STORIES.

Use of 3d person point of view & symbolism in "The Woman Who Rode Away" & "The Blind Man."

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D.H. Lawrence was long a controversial literary figure largely because of his attention to sexual issues in his works. One of his more neglected works is a short story entitled "The Woman Who Rode Away," a story in which the author contrasts a view of the primitive with the modern world and evokes a sense of deeper meaning through ancient sexual rituals. The story has power because of the mysterious nature of both the main character and her motivations and the ancient world to which she aspires, the world of an Indian tribe hidden behind the mountains. In this story, Lawrence deliberately leaves his characters somewhat sketchy and vague in order to emphasize their larger role as types, as representatives of different cultures and different times. In his "The Blind Man," the third-person omniscient point of view is used, with the narrator

That is, we experience her doubts withoutanalyzing them any more than she can do herself, while the sense of whatshe feels and why emerges from the situation is conveyed without directcomment. Widmer says that this story presents "a total opposition of theprimitive and civilized" which results in the destruction of the civilized(Widmer 348). He has eyes, as the husband does not, but in some ways, he can seeno more than can the blind man. Curiously she was not afraid, although it was a frightening country, the silent, fatal-seeming mountain-slopes, the occasional distant, suspicious, elusive natives among the trees, the great carrion birds occasionally hovering, like great flies, in the distance, over some carrion or some ranch house or some group of huts (Lawrence 213).Lawrence builds a sense of doom as the story progresses so that the workingout of the ancient god's requirements are more readily accepted and do notappear as something tacked onto a structure that cannot support it.Lawrence accomplishes a difficult thing by creating this story of a womanwho fulfills an ancient ritual in the service of a more primitive and yetpresumably more natural time, and he does this by keeping a certaindistance from her and her husband. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. The fact that the man and woman are not named makes them more typesthan real people, representatives of the white race brought into contactwith the ancient world. Works CitedBalbert, Peter. D.H. Lawrence was long a controversial literary figure largelybecause of his attention to sexual issues in his works. The narrator shiftsfrom wife to friend and then briefly to husband in the course of the story,allowing the reader to see how each of them thinks and what they believeabout their relationships. In some ways,the woman finds that she belongs in this wild country, which sometimesfrightens her and sometimes attracts her: She saw natives coming through the trees, away up the slope. Theomniscient point of view also tells the reader how each of the charactersis wrong. "Snake's Eye and Obsidian Knife: Art, Ideology, and 'The Woman Who Rode Away.''" D.H. One of his moreneglected works is a short story entitled "The Woman Who Rode Away," astory in which the author contrasts a view of the primitive with the modernworld and evokes a sense of deeper meaning through ancient sexual rituals.The story has power because of the mysterious nature of both the maincharacter and her motivations and the ancient world to which she aspires,the world of an Indian tribe hidden behind the mountains. . "The Primitivistic Aesthetic: D.H. They reveal themselvesthrough behavior, which is observed by an objective eye that manages toimply more about the meaning of their actions than they could understandthemselves. This story is also character driven and involves a series ofrelationships among the three principal characters, relationships that havea history but that are changing in the immediate time of the story becauseof the blindness of the husband who has returned from the war, theexperience of the wife in coping with this change, and the suddenacceptance of an old friend of the wife who had previously been dislikedand even banned by the husband. The woman becomes more alienated as the story progresses--she isin a hostile and different environment; the Indians do not see her as awoman and remain inaccessible to her; and she and her husband are not closeeven before they arrive, as he stands back and views her from a distance(Balbert 255). He worries about the relationship betweenhusband and wife without actually understanding it. Contrarily, thedark brings the light of revelation at this moment. Kingsley Widmer identifies the aesthetic of Lawrence asprimitivistic, which he differentiates from primitivism (Widmer 342).Widmer defines primitivism as having certain elements: 1) a preference for the natural, seen in a positive light; 2) a preference for the life and products of a primitive people, with primitive here being either cultural or chronological; 3) an exaltation of an earlier and more primitive stage of history; and 4) a preference for nostalgia in terms of accepting natural simplicity over artificial complication (Widmer 342). When the husband forces the friend to touch him in a strange andfrightening manner, a connection is made that terrifies the friend andfrees the husband. The only real connection made between twopeople in this story is that between the husband and the friend, and thisconnection is bizarre and troubling to the friend, changing his outlookforever. Lawrence is successful in using thisapproach to draw the reader into the world of these three people and toparticipate in their explorations and revelations about themselves and theother two. What the event in the barn really bringsout is that the wife does not know this man as well as she believes or herveneer of devotion and trust would not be so easily broken. In his "The Blind Man," the third-person omniscient point of view is used, with the narrator maintaining atall times an objective distance that is in keeping with the story'sanalysis of the frailty and sadness of human relationships which in theirown way are carried on in a darkness as deep as that encountered by theblind man. . Balbert points out that the landscape for this story is a landscapeof death. In this story,Lawrence deliberately leaves his characters somewhat sketchy and vague inorder to emphasize their larger role as types, as representatives ofdifferent cultures and different times. The omniscientnarrator reports on her actions and her feelings, but only to the degreethat she knows them herself. We know this because we have been with each of thecharacters and learned how they think and feel. Lawrence Review (1986), 255-273.Lawrence, D.H. In both these stories, he delves deeply into characters withoutentering their skins as some authors would do. "The Woman Who Rode Away." In Some Modern Writers, Robert Scholes (ed.). When their friend comes to visit, he thinks he sees more than hedoes. The two liveby certain illusions, a sort of created blindness to reality, but a momentof real blindness then becomes a moment of revelation. This latter issue is important in the structure of thestory: He was a man of principles, and a good husband. 2 8-242.Widmer, Kingsley. Here, again, Lawrence is dealing with the primitive, strippingaway the veneer of the civilized by which these characters mask their truefeelings even to themselves. It is the character who yearns forthe nostalgia of an earlier age and who has elevated her sense of thisprimitive people in her mind to a high state so that they are held out asan ideal. Lawrence." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (March 1959), 344-353. The point of view remains objective throughout, allowing thecharacters to reveal themselves. The darkness becomes a recurringsymbol of blindness of all types. In "The Blind Man," the actual blindness of the husband and thesymbolic blindness of the wife and husband in their relationship is broughthome when the wife goes to the barn and experiences a fear of her husbandbecause she cannot see him in the dark. Widmer finds that one of the most emphatic uses of the primitive inLawrence's work is to be found in "The Woman Who Rode Away" in which themain character longs for a different environment, one that is mysteriousand that she believes lies behind the mountains, and above all one thatwill take her from her present life. In a way, he doted on her. In truth, the husband is an enigma to thefriend, who has no idea why this man is suddenly allowing him to visit.Yet, he believes that he does understand, just as he believes heunderstands how the wife feels about both her husband and himself. But essentially, he was still a bachelor (Lawrence 2 9). He never quite got over his dazzled admiration of her. The Indians do not care about the woman's identitybeyond the fact that she represents the world of the whites.

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