Archetypal Mothering: DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover

DH Lawrence was hailed as a progressive writer after the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover as the theme of the narrative suggests a shift in emphasis through (a) giving expression to women’s sexuality, speaking for their freedom of choice in sexual fulfillment if their marriage fails, and (b) depicting a working class man having sexual relations with an aristocratic woman, when the ruling class man fails to have sexually fulfilling relations with his wife. But, in the 1970s prominent feminist critics launched a tirade against DH Lawrence and Lady Chatterley’s Lover saying that (a) the novel undermines women’s sexuality, endorsing male-centered view of sexuality, hailing heterosexual relationship as the only emotionally satisfying relationship, and (b) it advocates women seeking fulfillment through motherhood. From Jungian perspective on the effects of archetypes upon human personality the principal male character in the novel, Mellors, is hermaphrodite, therefore, neither superior, nor inferior to the principal female character. However, the writer imposes upon the reader the belief that (a) the male protagonist possesses traits that make him a demigod to be looked at with awe by the female protagonist, and (b) conjugal happiness in married life solely depends upon the adjustments a woman needs to make owing to the aweinspiring prowess of her man.