“They had got outside the castle of so-called human life. Outside the horrible, stinking castle of human life. A bit of true, limpid freedom.” ~ Florence, Aaron's Rod)
'Aaron’s Rod' concludes the central theme that D. H. Lawrence took up in 'The White Peacock', 'The Trespasser', 'The Lost Girl', and 'Mr. Noon': the idea of true human freedom. What makes Aaron’s Rod exceptional is the way it transforms the notion of love, regarded as the savior of human soul from the tyranny of social obligations. In his previous novels, Lawrence depicted characters that are fed up with their forced ways of social life. They are helplessly seeking a relationship that offers spontaneity, in harmony with their inner self, the depth of their soul. There is always only one answer to the question ‘How?’ and that is love. They break the existing social bonds and make new love relationships with varying results from a satisfied marriage (The Lost Girl) to suicide (The Trespasser). Contrarily, Aaron’s Rod takes a line that is overtly slanted against love as the true path of human freedom. It challenges the very notion of love as something consistent with the needs of the human soul. It even poses the question ‘what is true love?’
The first three chapters clearly poise 'Aaron’s Rod' against the mechanical mode of life in an increasingly industrialized society. Aaron Sisson is the Secretary at a colliery. He has to work till late in the evening and has an unsatisfactory marriage. His reaction to his suffocating emotional life is seen on Christmas Eve when he goes to bring his daughters some candles. Instead of returning home, Aaron spends the night at the Bricknells. He tells Josephine, “My wife has made up her mind she loves me, and she’s not going ...
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...he way one of them becomes an eagle and the other its prey. Secondly, does the inner, deeper self of the man, one that enables him to become himself, survive the chains of social bondage? Lawrence is optimistic here just as he has been in The Lost Girl and The Rainbow. The reader sees Aaron shocked at the splitting of his flute in a bomb blast made by the anarchists. On Lilly’s asking, he throws the broken rod into a stream. Lawrence speaks through Lilly the most precious words: “It’ll grow again. It’s a reed, a water-plant. You can’t kill it.” Man’s soul is always living, breathing, and waiting for the vital ecdysis that gives it the power to come out and rule itself. In Lilly’s words, “We must either love or rule. And once the love-mode changes, as change it must, for we are worn out and becoming evil in its persistence, then the other mode will take place in us.”
...ll he can do is suppress his urge to cry. The protagonist?s realization of his own maturity is ironic. Once so eager to appear ?bad,? but lacking the true essence of this word, the narrator has achieved this status at the price of his naivete, and wishes that he could return.
“But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”
...ected by the differences (and perhaps similarities) of their lives and those less fortunate. They stand at the crossroad that would define their character and their future course of action. Some choose ambivalence, some choose to see and turn away, others may even convince themselves that they are actually better than they used to be. But without acting on any internal change these people have failed to convince the reader that they have been redeemed. Their inability or unwillingness to extend themselves to the cause of brotherhood and human kindness is their testament. The reader has no pity for these men, but unlike them the reader can internalize the lessons of their experiences and effect change in their own lives. Their failure to act is their greatest folly, but the reader can rise above these characters, recognizing their failure and take a different path.
These two novels spoke about real powerful momentous events that occur in the authors’ lives. The authors emerged from the shadows and transformed their mishaps into motivation of overcoming life’s hardships. These two stories exemplify ways of overcoming Life’s hardships and finding sense of oneself. These authors break their vows of silence to prove the beauty of a broken person. They both converse on racial discrimination, relationships with God, & coming into themselves.
...d himself and will find himself surrounded by a fortress. It’s a fortress of character, personality, power and greatness. There, a man will have peace, love and liberty.” Standing for what’s right and what type of man one can become is phenomenal. Not becoming conformed to the immoral behaviors in life can take someone the distance. One must be full of rebellion and take a stand for what’s right and not be tossed to and fro like a jellyfish in the sea with no backbone.
Lawrence’s short story, “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the reader is presented with the idea that when an individual is faced with competing demands and that person chooses to abandon its self-preservation to prioritize other people’s demands, it can result in an individual living in a sorrowful life. Paul was raised in a world without any parental figures to help him and was also raised by a mother with a cold heart. Paul was so blinded by his goal to earn his mother’s love that he forgot about his own well-being. However, this did not benefit him at all because he never received the love that he needed. Though Paul is a selfless individual with a kind heart, his inability to balance his own well being with others is what made him weak. There is a subconscious need for humans to feel love, however, one must consider all the factors including oneself in order to make effective life
This abstraction had the electrical current of a “galvanic battery” to “shock” the non-physical soul of the protagonist. The complexity of this excerpt is seen through the multiple dependent clauses, lists of adjectives, and conjunctions; this complex and “serious” style is what Allen Tate, in his essay found in “Modern Criticism”, believes “makes the reading of more than one story an almost insuperable task” (Foster 389). However, this failed criticism does not truly comment on the Poe’s style, but rather, comments on the reader’s interpretation. This style doesn’t create an insuperable task of reading, but rather creates a gradually intensifying sense of Poe’s methodical complexity that incentivizes the reader to keep reading, while providing specific ambiguities through indirect concretizations like the aforementioned “shock” to bolster the direct concretizations of the interactions between the Wilsons, especially in the final revealing scene. The final scene is the most physically disturbing and perceptible of all scenes, I thrust him furiously from me.
As a result, the protagonists learn one thing in common, and that is that one must accept one’s self in order to be happy.
...effectively mystifies the reader, imparting some sense of meaning and order behind the otherwise inexplicable events. Yet ultimately, even the order that is restored leaves the reader with probing questions about motivation, the circumstances surrounding the murder and to what degree non-human powers guided the events. Robinson’s poem strives to project meaning and order onto these happenings that are otherwise unknowable to the human eye. Her inability to ultimately assign reason to all happenings manifests in the contrasting imagery of order and disorder, natural and supernatural forces, passive humans and active nature. Just as Robinson reverses the transmission of her story, so she reverses the forces in the poem-world; the human beings attempt to control all facets of their lives and others, but cannot break out of the “strong and mystic chain” that binds them.
We are all influenced by external forces such as the people around us and the society we live in. They can make us change how we feel about a particular subject or even alter our view on the outside world. However, it is ultimately up to the individual on how they react to these forces. Human literature reflects this very idea, and three prime examples are Alfred Tennyson, D.H. Lawrence, and Dylan Thomas. In his poem “The Lady of Shalott”, Lord Tennyson writes about a woman who aspires to leave her isolated island due to how she views life outside her prison. In D.H. Lawrence’s short story “The Rocking Horse Winner”, the audience is introduced to a young, dedicated boy who wants his mother's love and attention. Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, he explores death and the value of life. These
In his acceptance speech for the Noble Prize for Literature, William Faulkner identified “the human heart in conflict with itself” as the only subject truly worth writing about. This means that every piece of literature should have characters that struggle with themselves revealing their deeper personal feelings. Conflict is evident in literature to make the story interesting; however, a story detailing internal conflict within a single character creates greater depth to the story. Faulkner speaks of the human spirit and internal conflict as something in which every individual can identify with. As readers become engaged in the story, he or she may begin to ponder their own internal conflict, or the internal conflict of someone close to them, and gain insight, understanding or wisdom. Internal conflict is a universal feeling whether it has a strong presence in one’s life or a weak one. The inner workings of one’s mind and the journey of overcoming or not overcoming self conflict in the effort to know oneself will surely reveal a fascinating tale. We become witness to this in the following two literary works, “The Swimmer” by John Cheever and “Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck. Neddy Merrill and Elisa Allen struggle with themselves which result in completely different outcomes. While Neddy Merril discovers the façade which was life and the painful realization that he wasn’t who he thought he was, Elisa’s self-conflict comes full-circle when she accepts her situation and her own shortcomings.
Despite both authors utilization of central characters to display that the hopelessness of reality impacts an individual’s actions, the novel leaves the reader desolate, whereas the poem inspires hope and change. These perceptions are
"My conscience is the genuine pulpit article, it annoys me to see people comfortable when they ought to be uncomfortable; and I insist on making them think in order to bring them to a conviction of sin." -----Shaw.
When you read something by D. H. Lawrence, you often end up wondering the same thing: does he hate people? Lawrence has a profound interest in us human beings, but it's the fascination of a child picking at a scab that drives him, rather than a kind of scientific or spiritual quest for some mythical "social truth." Some of Lawrence's works--"Insouciance," for example--question mankind's tendencies outright: what good is served by a world of "white-haired ladies" wasting time "caring" and sounding intelligent and cultured and talking about pretentious, bourgeois issues?(2)
Works Cited Bergman, David, and Mark Epstein. The Heath Guide to Poetry. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1983. Print. The. Lancashire, Ian.