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It
is enthralling to see how themes in different novels can often converge despite
staying concealed from the eye of a casual observer. At times, the true theme
of a tale is so deeply embedded that one has to dig out the superficial veneer
to get to it.
'Lady
Chatterley's Lover', a classic by DH Lawrence, perfectly exemplifies this view.
Prima facie, it is a story about adultery though close reading of the text can
throw up surprising epiphanies.
Penned
and published in 1928, the highly controversial novel has had to endure the
murderous gaze of prudish critics who lambasted the book severely at the time
of its release. It was strongly condemned for its unapologetic sexual tone and
graphic imagery which bordered on the taboo. But was there more to it than what
met the eye of the immediate society?
The
novel, sprawled over 300 pages, chronicles the story of Lady Constance
Chatterley who is matrimonially chained to a man half-paralyzed. The lady's
youthfulness is waning away behind the mundaneness of the usual chores of a
life that is prosaic at its best. She is deprived and her body discovers
redemption in the company of their keeper Oliver Mellors. What follows is
social blasphemy, a torrid affair of adultery between a woman of higher stature
and a man from the lower rung.
But
though the woman's need for physical pleasure at the prime of her youth cannot
be refuted, it is significant to discern the strong undertone of loneliness
which is constant throughout the story. Lady Chatterley is not merely
physically unsatisfied with her crippled husband but is also living in mental
isolation. The disparate mindsets of the two people, with the man as a snooty
high-nosed gentleman and the egalitarian woman bearing irrevocable sympathy
towards the menial class, further distance her from Mr. Chatterley and
intensify her loneliness. Her silent disapproval turns her away from him (even
without her realizing so), makes her apathetic to his industrial ambitions and
eventually makes her fully aloof, thus aggravating her solitariness.
So,
should 'adultery' be labelled as the theme of the story, as has been done by
generations of readers and critics? Or is 'loneliness' the underlying and the
truer theme of the book?
Despite
the above arguments which advocate for the permanence of loneliness, the
question is debatable and cannot be put to rest easily. Theme is supposedly
more concrete than motif and while the former is a constant, the latter is
recurrent. There is a very thin line there as far as this novel is concerned,
but probably it would be just to declare a woman's mental solitariness as the
veritable theme, with the her recurrent sexual affairs as the motif.
“Lawrence was preaching sex as a kind
of sacrament, and more than that, one that would save us all from the results
of war and the nastinesses of our civilisation. …. ‘it is the crime of our
times, because what we need is tenderness towards the body, towards sex, we
need tender-hearted fucking.’” [Doris
Lessing's introduction to the new Penguin Classic edition]
On
similar lines, one can put another classic on the table. Tagore's 'Chokher
Bali' is similar in its theme even though here it is the man who goes out of
his way to surrender to an extramarital fling. Mahendra, on finding no mental
connection with his beautiful wife Ashalata, gets drawn towards Binodini, a
widow who has come to stay at their home and with whom he is able to strike
fascinating intellectual conversations.
While Mahendra's attraction towards Binodini
may be attributed to his need for a woman of his type, the imposing question
that raises its fangs and demands to be answered is 'whether his felonious
actions are governed by carnal desire or by the need for quenching a personal
loneliness.' And once again, we find ourselves at a crossroad since the
puzzling question can have multiple answers just the way this literary work can
be interpreted in multiple ways.
It
would appear that perhaps both are alone in their own rights (physically,
mentally and figuratively) and they seek not merely sexual gratification but
intellectual accompaniment. So, it wouldn't be wrong to call it a book dealing
with loneliness rather than with adultery. Here too, we see aloneness as the
theme and sex as the motif. But opinions will always be divided and many will
see it the other way round (i.e. sex as the theme and aloneness as the motif).
Interestingly,
both the pieces have been penned around the same time (1928 an 1903) and both
project the woman in a negative light, without spraying much stain on the man's
character. If Lady Chatterley and Binodini were wrong to tread on this path,
then Oliver Mellors and Mahendra were equally wrong, if not more. But it is
unfortunate that these stories are set in a patriarchal society which also
hints at the underlying theme of male chauvinism; something which Lawrence and
Tagore have masterfully expounded.
(Ritesh
Agarwal,
CL- Jadavpur University
