As the famous lawrence critic sheila macleod in one of her essays would love to call him..androgynous..??!!..well my attempt is to delve into the depth of such a claim. In her essay sheila speaks about a true artist and goes on to use the term for MR.D.H.LAWRENCE. According to her the truth of lawrence's art lies in his identity in works like RAINBOW and WOMEN IN LOVE..and here characters like Ursula(rainbow) and Birkin(women in love) are lawrentian mouth peices.Its quite interesting to note that in ursula lawrence speaks through a feminine voice while in women in love when he has birkin to express himself he no longer needs ursula as his voice.Strikingly his comfort level is stupendous in both da cases which provoked miss mcleod to comment thus.Infact the debate over his sexuality rather his sexual disposition has been on since decades,and whether he is homosexual or bisexual hardly establishes anything.
As Jessy Chambers' diary reveals lawrence had brutally ended their relationship and did send her a writing of his and a note asking her to be busy reading to occupy herself in times when she would otherwise feel tormented.But thats not the end of it.This alienation gave rise to the first succesful relation in mr.lawrence's life..dat with jessy chambers' brother Allan.Lawrence had himself called that his first succesful relation.Although its quite natural with lawrence as whenever he talks of succesful relation either in his real life or in his fictions its one of that lawrentian BLUTBRUDERSCHAFT which he clearly states in THE FANTASIA OF THE UNCONSCIOUS.This is what is known popularly as the blood brothers concept.Be it mr.lawrence and allan,george and cyril (THE WHITE PEACOCK) or even paul and baxter in SONS AND LOVERS(though not quite developed)all exhibit the kind of lawrentian blood brother relationship.critics like kate millet have constantly hammered on this issue to show how with lawrence the real love in a relation lies in that brave world,basking in the warmth of the city lights,ready to be embraced by the hero -the world of the masculine...infact with lawrence a relationship devoid of any threats(that was how he viewed it) was the way to escape from his failed relationships with women be it Lydia lawrence,Jessy chambers,Louisa borroughs Helen corke or Frieda,his german wife.Critics like kate millet and miss mcleod would thus try to show the ease with which he shifts his position between the two courts of relations.
But perhaps the best way to probe in the complex lawrentian mind is by scanning his paintings..Lawrence loved to paint and on occasions he even loved to show them to his early love jessy chambers and be appreciated. Though artistically not such great stuffs these works are the perfect key to the lawrentian minds.And a striking feature is that the number of male nude paintings outnumber the female ones.It would be completely wrong to put it this way that Lawrence had no interest in female sexuality as a matter of his canvas. infact in many of his paintings he strikes the brush with its warmth but then men posing nude with greedy female eyes ogling them or even group of nude men engaging in some queer act is a common subject of his paintings. The flaunting of male sexuality with the sexual yearn emanating from each stroke of the brush, is quite a difficult task for a male individual if otherwise he does not observe them in his mind with an orgasmic pleasure.And with lawrence's paintings often violence is too wedded with sexuality,as in the small painting displayed at the beginning, where a group of naked men probably engage in an act of sodomy.infact certain poems of lawrence depict this sexual violence and his last poems clearly speak of something a necrophilic thought.on close observation the painting would reveal that lawrence had drawn immensely huge buttocks of male figures that goes quite oddly with the figures..was then this drawn at his queer best??..is this what we can call the grotesque in lawrentian paintings??..or did mr. lawrence find some appeal of male sexuality in those fleshy almost hanging with weight bums??..the very first painting infact shows a nude man with his genitals exposed and some ladies deriving voyeuristic pleasure out of that.Mr. Lawrence whatever the painting quality maybe quite convincingly potrays the sexual yearning of both the sexes,and that's perhaps where he becomes the true artist..the perfect balance of both the male and the female.A famous painting is that which depicts a family potraying a paternal tyrant sexually approaching the rose,his wife with the child looking over leaving his food.with lawrence the eyes of the child is desirous and many critics call it one of his paul morel paintings.Here too lawrence is at his best depicting the sturdy brutal man with his raw sexuality violating the rose.Both the man and his wife are drawn with the same competence to make them alive in expression.Infact all of these paintings depict the ease with which mr. lawrence paints even the emotions of both man and woman in his works. Though painting was not his field yet here too whatever questions may raised about the quality no one can question the truthfulness with which lawrence paints even the sexual minds of both the sexes.
MR. LAWRENCE has been quite a matter of debate regarding this.His fictions mostly autobiographical often depict how a lawrence can talk through Ursula and Birkin.His poems talk of the yearning for warmth of the feminine touch at its raw best and the incestuous relationship with his mother,but they too speak of reppresed homosexual desire,perverse sexuality and sexual violence.But most effectively the least explored his paintings depict how in him he houses both the mr and miss lawrence who fabtasises about the fleshy male bums and raw male sexuality on one hand while on the other depicts the feminine pride of a heaving bossom(the family painting with the mother baring her voluptuous breasts) with its aestheticity and the sexual craving of a feminine heart for that male organ to burst through the "iron gates".. was then miss mcleod quite right???.....MIGHT BE SO...........
