Outcast. Poet. Novelist. Thinker. Playwright. Misinterpreted. British. Critic. All These words describe David Herbert Lawrence, or D. H. for short, an English Poet from The nineteenth century who stepped outside the boundaries of writing during his time to create some dramatic and memorable literary works. His most famous works include, Sons and Lovers (1913) and Women in Love (1920).
Born on September 11, 1885 into a working class family in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, D. H. Lawrence took in the hardships of a dysfunctional family in the countryside. He often referred to his struggles in his literary works. His educational career began at Beauvale Board School , then onto Nottingham High School, and from there, to University at the University College Nottingham where he received a teaching certificate in 1908. It was during his years in schooling that Lawrence began his writing. His first novel, The White Peacock was published in 1911.
Lawrence’s most influential friend and guide was Jessie Chambers. Chambers was the man who showed Lawrence’s poems and short stories to the well known editor of the paper, English Review. The poems and stories were immediately published and Lawrence began to get a reputation for his poems and short stories. In 1912, Lawrence published his next two novels, The Trespasser and Sons and Lovers. During this time, Lawrence became ill with pneumonia for the second time. He chose to travel abroad and expand his writing. He fell in love with a married woman, Frieda Weekley. After her divorce with her former husband, Weekley and Lawrence married in 1914.
Lawrence’s childhood influenced his writing greatly. He often went back to Eastwood, his birthplace, to contemplate on his early life. Growing up in a mining town surrounded by country side, living with a drinking father and dysfunctional parents, and the hardships of a working class all shaped the literary works of Lawrence. He referenced these and other aspects of his life such as his lovers in many of his poems, stories, essays, and novels. Sons and Lovers can be directly paralleled to Lawrence’s early life. Some would say the novel is a quasi-autobiography of his childhood.
World War I broke out during some of the most influential years in Lawrence’s life. He was still living in England at this time. He and his wife, Weekley, were barely getting by. They were living in poverty in a cottage in Cornwall in the countryside. Because of Lawrence’s anti-war opinions and Frieda Weekely being of German decent, the couple was exiled out of their rural home to London and Derbyshire. Lawrence began to have problems with his wife as well. They fought more frequently and after participating in a secret society named The Apostles, Lawrence questioned his sexuality. This turmoil created some of Lawrence’s greatest pieces.
He left England never to return in 1919. He and his wife first moved to Italy and then eastward to Australia on a long journey to the United States. He wrote Kangaroo while in Australia and in this novel admits that because he was outcasts for his pacifist feelings during World War I, he did not wish to actively participate in society. After his American traveled in New Mexico and Mexico, Lawrence returned to Italy and wrote the controversial novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1926. The book describes the sexual love of two lovers in different classes and concludes that sexual intercourse goes hand in hand with love.
Throughout Lawrence’s life, he produced numerous poems. His early ones were written in conservative rhythmic patterns but eventually he turned to free verse. One of his most remarkable poems was Birds, Beast, and Flowers written in 1923 about his nature experiences in the Mediterranean and America.
D. H. Lawrence is remembered as liberal poet who expertly puts emotion, intuition, sensation, and sexuality into his literary works. He turned away from the traditional Victorian ways to a more modern way of thinking where he allows emotion to take over and delves deeply into the human mind.
Sources
"Lawrence, D.H." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 25 Apr. 2011.
“ Women in Love.” EBSCOhost. Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition; January 2009, p1-2
“Lady Chatterley’s Love.” EBSCOhost. Masterplots, Fourth Edition; November 2010, p1-3
No comments:
Post a Comment