Abigail Morris

The Rainbow reflection

20th Century British Lit.
September 09, 2013
ENGL 6185-01
The Rainbow, by D. H. Lawrence, is a novel defined by the modernist notion of the
age; the rejection of an absolute truth. This is readily apparent in not only the major themes
imparted, but most noticeably in the consistently reinforced ambivalence of his work. Page
after page of the novel relies on a degree of obfuscation seemingly intended to force the
reader to discover his or her own truth through that individuals interpretation of the carefully
infused symbolism. For instance, the disparity of gender is frequently represented by ideas of
light, darkness, and creation, and understanding the nature of masculine and feminine
disparity as supplied by Lawrence requires that the reader challenge his or her own
preconceptions of what light and dark really mean. Likewise, gendering in the novel is also
heavily dependent on the upheaval of conventional concepts, even as they are established by
the author in the readers mind.
These ideas are first presented in Chapter one, the men sat by the fire and their brains
were inert, as their blood flowed heavy with the accumulation from the living day. The
women were different (10). It then continues on to challenge the readers idea of creation,
It was enough for the men. . . that they lived full and surcharged . . . their faces always
turned to the heat of the blood, staring into the sun, dazed with looking toward the source of
generation, unable to turn round (10-11). This is a passage that defines the male and notions
of masculinity, and, for this reason, it is important to note that the Brangwens, themselves,
are not just characters in the story, they are the story. Therefore, the men and women of the

family can easily be deemed representative of all mankind, since nothing occurs and no one
exists in the novels universe that does not serve as a source of Brangwen self-reflection.
Lawrences portrait of woman is first offered in this chapter as well, with the woman
want(ing) another form of life than this (11). The narrator supplies that, she faced outwards
to where men moved dominant and creative, having turned their back on the pulsing heat of
creation (11). This seemingly ambiguous statement may be viewed as the first of many to
force readers to find their own truths in the defining of the source of generation, and the
seeming conflict between the creative and the creation. Perhaps, in this case, the source of
generation is literally the sun, but the interpretation of this passage may rely more on
symbolic associations than literal ones. For example, the sun is linked traditionally to God,
life, creation, light, generation, warmth, and clarity. Meanwhile, the terms creative and
creation tend to be associated with God, life, light, generation, and woman. However, if one
supposes generation in itself to mean continuity of a series, as in family, then it must be
woman who is the source of generations, the being in which new life is created, the light in an
otherwise dark world. Therefore, it could be reasoned that man is facing inward, looking to
the light of the woman in his world, and in his home. The woman, conversely then, is looking
out toward the new generation, those who have turned their backs to their own creation in
order to become the new creators.
Initially, such an interpretation may seem to require quite a leap for the reader, but it
is women who Lawrence initially connects to symbols of light and creation. When Tom
Brangwen first sees Lydia the reader is told that she is dressed all in black with a black cloak
and bonnet, but when she looks up at hearing Toms cart on the road, he saw her face
clearly, as if by a light in the air (29). Then, when Tom sees her next, she is tied to his sense
of creation and life because, a swift change had taken place on the earth for him, as if a new
creation were fulfilled, in which he had a real existence (32). When she later comes to

Toms house to get butter, Tom is dimmed by her departure from his home because in her
presence he feels as though a strong light was burning there and he is blinded by this sense
of light with every new visit. Even on the night he asks her to marry him the reader is told he
goes to her house and stands in the light, with the darkness beyond (38-43). After she
accepts, Tom falls into a stupor and returns to his senses gradually, but newly created (45).
The connection of woman to light becomes all the more intriguing when one
considers what that means for the man. If women are light and creation, what are men? D. H.
Lawrence seems to have supplied the answer by way of oppositional forces, but are the men,
then, creators and darkness? Returning to the example of Tom and Lydias relationship to one
another, when Tom proposes to Lydia she moves toward him and, offering herself with a
kiss, is taken into the mans arms. It is this kiss that made something break in his brain, and
it was darkness over him (44). Indeed, it is from this womb of darkness that he emerges
newly created (45). The ultimate truth in this first scenario of light, darkness, creator, and
creation as gendercentric actually rests in a passage at the very end of the first chapter:
And all the sky was teeming and tearing along, a vast disorder of flying shapes
and darkness and ragged fumes of light and a great brown circling halo, then
the terror of a moon running liquid-brilliant into the open for a moment,
hurting the eyes before she plunged under cover of cloud again. (48)
The moon, in this instance, is a metaphor. Lydia is the moon, and the darkness is not a
direct attribute of Tom Brangwen, but rather a symptom of her union with Tom. It is as if
Tom were the shadow on Lydias otherwise incandescent soul. The first two years of their
marriage and the authors revelation of her past lays in darkness:
. . . her eyes expressionless and full of darkness. (47)
A darkness had come over Lydias mind. (49)
A darkness was on her . . . (50)

. . . her long blanks and darkness of abstraction . . . (50)

She shrank away again, back into her darkness . . . (52)
. . . then a relapse into the darkness . . . (52)
. . . was outside the enclosure of darkness. (52)
. . .from fear of darkness turned to fear of light. (53)
. . . the cold darkness she strove to retain. (55)
. . . his arms round all this darkness . . . and give himself to it? (56)
So, we learn from these references that it is not simply Tom who has rested as a shadow
obscuring her light, but men in general, and it is not until the light has given way to the
darkness, and as the moon in blackest night can spring blindingly forth from shadow, so too
does the feminine from the shadow of masculine oppression.
Yet, this novel and the story of life it contains does not appear to be a feminist
rendering of life by D. H. Lawrence, but a tale of natures balance. After the two years of
shadowed existence, Lydia emerges as a passionate contributor to her marriage with Tom.
The key to gendered balance, in their case, seems to be as natural as the balance between
light and darkness in the case of the moon. The light in the darkness is most pleasant when
filtered to a soft glow by the shadow of cloud, as the thing which serves to shield the
darkness from the terrifying brilliance of the light. Terrifying for what it has the power to
reveal, the blazing light of Lydia threatens to destroy, obliterate, the shadow of the man,
but once in balance, the view is deemed beautiful, the halo of the moon, the mystery of the
night, the promise of the day.
Lawrence, himself, once said, where the light falls upon our darkness, there we are:
that I am but the point where light and darkness meet (Black, 202). Perhaps there is no more
ideal statement than this for why the author chooses to present the ideas of light and darkness
in The Rainbow as aspects integral to gendered Truth. While it would prove most beneficial

to delve further into these notions by examining the other relationships of the Brangwens, it
cannot be denied that the ideas the author wishes to convey and then challenge are offered
within the first few chapters as a portrait of reality which is in effect even in this age. If
nothing else, the fact that it challenges readers of any age to find the truth of what light and
darkness engender in the sexes makes it a novel well worth the time and effort spent in its
reading.