Dh Lawrence Tragedy Of Insane Jealousy

Jimenez 1 Margaret Jimenez Professor Laura DeSena Writing Workshop II – Y20.7503.002 December 17, 2007 The Tragedy of Insane Jealousy in D.H. Lawrence In D.H. Lawrence’s book of short stories titled “The Prussian Officer and Other Stories”, a common theme of jealousy is noted in three of his tales, “The Prussian Officer”, “The Shadow in the Rose Garden” and “The White Stocking”. Although the outcomes of these stories are quite different, the similarity in them is how the emotion of jealousy evolves and becomes an irrational sentiment that turns into malice in its most beastly form. What we ultimately see in all three stories is the tragedy of an insane kind of jealousy, a lethal one that in the end consumes its victims and leaves them quite literally as corpses or vestiges of their former selves in its wake. In his article, “Jealousy”, Michael J. Warren writes, “jealousy is fear of loss, specifically loss or affection of another, where the affection lost is, or at least is thought to be, gained by a third party” (635). Another definition of the word “jealous” is being “intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness”(Websters 647). In Lawrence’s stories, we see how these states – loss of affection, rivalry and unfaithfulness, quickly develop into a lethal obsession in the first instance, a chasm of grief and pain in the second and into an instance of rash violence in the third. Lawrence was known to weave these themes of tragedy and jealousy into many of his writings. His own often turbulent and failed romantic relationships were dark experiences that provided material for many of his stories. Author, Fiona Beckett expresses the author’s penchant for this when she writes, “…Lawrence had a series of relationships with women which had implications for his writing” (10).

Jimenez 2 In Lawrence’s story, “The Prussian Officer”, the tale involves two men, one an officer, a Captain of the Prussian Army and his orderly, his servant, who is also described as a lowly soldier. The story has homoerotic undertones to it as Lawrence describes how each man views the other. The irrational jealousy that is seen in this story can be described as one that is sparked by a suppressed desire on the part of the Captain for his young servant resulting in an obsession that develops into unchecked rage, hostility and eventually death for both men. The story unfolds with the author describing the Captain as “a tall man of about forty, grey at the temples. He had a handsome, finely knit figure, and was one of the best horsemen in the West. His orderly, having to rub him down, admired the amazing riding-muscles of his loins” (Lawrence 201). At this point we get the first glimpse of one man’s admiration for the other, although as the story continues the author also writes, “for the rest, the orderly scarcely noticed the officer any more than he noticed himself” (201). The Captain is also described as “a Prussian aristocrat, haughty and overbearing” (201). A man who has never married but occasionally takes himself a mistress, described matter of factly as if it were common practice in that period. The orderly at first sees the Captain as cold and just and indifferent, knowing very little about this man he serves. His task is to obey orders and that is what he does. The servant, as described by the author is “a youth of about twenty-two, of medium height and well built. He had strong, heavy limbs, was swarthy, with a soft black, young moustache. There was something altogether warm and young about him” (Lawrence 202). Gradually the officer becomes acutely aware of his servant’s presence and describes it as “young, vigorous , unconscious…” (Lawrence 202). It is as though the servant’s presence becomes intoxicating to the Captain, “like a warm flame upon the older man’s tense rigid body” (202). At this point jealousy begins to rear its ugly head. The Captain sees in his servant

Jimenez 3 “something so free and self-contained about him, and something in the young fellow’s movement, that made the officer aware of him. And this irritated the Prussian” (202). His servant’s presence begins to bother the Prussian. He now rarely looked at him directly and yet he always knew when he was there. He would notice things about his servant such as “the movement of his strong young shoulders under the blue cloth, the bend of his neck. And it irritated him” (Lawrence 202). Something about the self-assuredness of his servant was irritating to the Captain, to a degree that it would soon turn the emotion of jealousy into intemperate fury. The youth began to notice the changes in his Captain and he could not understand the reasoning behind it. After an incident where a bottle of wine had gone over, the Captain’s reaction was an extreme one. He “started up with an oath, and his eyes, bluey like fire, had held those of the confused youth for a moment. It was a shock for the young soldier” (Lawrence 202). Slowly, the youth’s confidence is beginning to erode. “And from that time an undiscovered feeling had held between the two men” (203). Jealousy is a powerful emotion, so potent that when suppressed it can act like a keg of dynamite with the fuse lit, ultimately exploding in utter fury and destroying everything in its path. Those deeply affected by it become like ticking time bombs. The servant knows his time with the Captain is almost over. He has served him close to a year and has three months left before his time is up. So he resolves to do what he has to do to endure what is left of his service. The Captain however has other plans for his servant. The author describes what the Captain is feeling at this point in the story in the following manner, “But the influence of the young soldier’s being had penetrated through the officer’s stiffened discipline, and perturbed the man in him. He, however, was a gentleman, with

Jimenez 4 long, fine hands and cultivated movements, and was not going to allow such a thing as the stirring of his innate self. He was a man of passionate temper, who had always kept himself suppressed.” (Lawrence 203) Is it jealousy or a concealed desire that drives the Captain to the violent actions he later takes against his servant? It is clear that such a thing, as attraction and desire for someone of the same sex would have been most taboo in that era and certainly more so for someone in the Military, therefore in lieu of acting upon these base desires, often other harsher emotions take its place. Lawrence describes the Captain’s growing obsession in this manner, “In spite of himself, the Captain could not regain his neutrality of feeling towards his orderly. Nor could he leave the man alone. In spite of himself, he watched him, gave him sharp orders, tried to take up as much of his time as possible. Sometimes he flew into a rage with the young soldier, and bullied him” (Lawrence 203) Professor Roger Austen writes about this issue in his paper titled, “The Homosexual Imagination: But for Fate and Ban: Homosexual Villains and Victims in the Military”. He states, “First, within the military setting, it is both psychologically sound and realistically possible that an officer might turn into some sort of villain to exorcise the baleful influence of a young man that he can neither get in bed with nor get out of his system. His superior position in the chain of command may enable him to assume power over this young man: when he gives an order, the subordinate is supposed to obey. An officer thus has some compensation for not being able to become the lover or even buddy of the tantalizing enlisted man – he can become the master. He is in a position to lash back and make the beloved suffer…” (354-355).

Jimenez 5 The Captain grows madly irritable with his servant. He can’t rest when the soldier is away, and when he’s present, he glares at him “with tormented eyes” (Lawrence 204). It’s obvious the Captain is agonizing and doesn’t know how to channel this fixation he has developed for his servant so he becomes even harsher, crueler, bullying his servant with contempt and satire. He is quickly eroding his servant’s self-esteem in a furious fashion and seemingly taking delight in doing so. The soldier forges on, clinging to hope that his time with this demon of a man is almost up and thinking of the sweetheart he’s been courting. Upon discovering this, the Captain becomes further enraged and his sadistic tendencies become even more cruel and violent. “The officer tried hard not to admit the passion that had got hold of him. He would not know that his feeling for the orderly was anything but that of a man incensed by his stupid, perverse servant. So keeping quite justified and conventional in his consciousness, he let the other thing run on” (Lawrence 205). He begins to beat his servant, feeling at once “a thrill of deep pleasure and of shame” (Lawrence 205) even as he sees the blood on his mouth and tears of pain on his servant’s face. The Captain finding the situation extremely exasperating and seeking to vent his frustration goes away some days with a woman but it becomes “a mockery of pleasure” (206). It’s not the woman he wants. It’s his servant and if he cannot have him, no one can, so upon his return, in one last violent act against his servant, he finds the occasion to kick and beat him so severely giving his “heart a pang, as of pleasure, seeing the young man bewildered and uncertain on his feet, with pain” (207). This incident becomes a turning point for the servant, who until now has shown restraint and resolve in the midst of these horrible circumstances he has been forced to endure.

Jimenez 6 The servant feels trapped. Emotionally, he is destroyed, “wasted and vacant” (Lawrence 209). Physically he is in pain, suffering the scars of abuse inflicted by his master. His movements are mechanical now. He is a disintegrated individual - incapable of love, but now he has become a man filled with hatred. I do not believe it was the servant’s intention to harm his master but the consequences of his master’s actions, which seem compelled by his jealousy for this youth, result in the actions he took that fateful day. They have gone out on a march, the servant denied even water to drink, which makes him “mad with fever and thirst” (Lawrence 211). He’s made to march beside his cruel master, who sits on horseback. The servant feels “disemboweled, made empty, like an empty shell… as nothing, a shadow creeping under the sunshine” (211). All he longs for is an end to his misery, which is something his Captain is unwilling to give him. As the servant’s despair increases, so does his rage. Tension grows in the orderly’s soul. His heart is like fire in his chest and he is breathing with difficulty. Only the outside of his body is obeying so humbly, so mechanically. “Inside has gradually accumulated a core into which all the energy of that young life was compact and concentrated”(214). In a moment where it is just the two of them, the Captain senses a confrontation is at hand. “The Captain watched the rather heavy figure of the young soldier stumble forward, and his veins, too, ran hot. This was to be man to man between them” (Lawrence 215). The rage is palpable in the servant, it nearly suffocates him. He knows the Captain is watching him and he senses nervousness and fear and in an opportune moment, he exacts revenge and kills the Captain in a brutal and vicious manner - the tension he felt until that moment releasing into a vapor. Still it shocks and distresses him once he realizes what he has done, although he chooses

Jimenez 7 that moment to de-humanize the Captain, much as he had tried to do to the solider. The author writes, “It was a pity it was broken” (216). He is satisfied in his heart because “he had hated the face of the Captain. It was extinguished now” (216). He feels relief and that is how it should be but he also realizes that “here his own life also ended”(217). Things would never be the same. He could never go back to the ways things were. He has gotten rid of his abuser but he has lost all in return. And the sad ending to this story is that the soldier, in ill condition and in his feeble attempts to run from what he has done, realizes that he is dying. Another person’s jealousy has robbed him of all he had, even his very life and his end is described as follows, “He stared till his eyes went black, and the mountains, as they stood in their beauty, so clean and cool, seemed to have it, that which was lost in him” (222). The story concludes with a description of how contrasting these two individuals were, even in death because while their bodies lay together in the mortuary, “the one white and slender, but laid rigidly at rest, the other looking as if every moment it must rouse into life again, so young and unused, from a slumber” (Lawrence 222). The cords of jealousy and its horrible consequence bind the Captain even in death while the servant dies a free man, released from the chains that once enslaved him. The second of Lawrence’s story, “The Shadow in the Rose Garden” also tackles the theme of jealousy, albeit in a more subdued manner than the first but the outcome is solemn nonetheless resulting in two tortured and deeply discontented souls. The story evokes a sense of overwhelming sadness for the reader who can grasp the agony and despair the young woman protagonist experiences in this story. She is newly married yet continues to pine over her former and lost love. On her honeymoon she visits the place of their intimate encounters, the Rose Garden behind the Rectory. By chance, she encounters her former lover, a man she thought dead

Jimenez 8 discovering that he is now insane. Because he does not recognize her, she realizes he is lost to her. Their once passionate bond of love is lost forever. As she leaves the garden that fateful afternoon, she deeply grieves over the loss of her true love and as intensely as she aches for this one, she spurns the other - her new husband. She feels a great disdain for her husband. When he approaches her after she returns from the garden, his questions are like “torture to her” (Lawrence 134). He becomes angry at her responses and when he finally leaves her, the writer describes her feelings in this manner, “she disliked him because he tormented her” (134). The emotion of jealousy rears its head throughout the story in even more subtle ways as the woman tells her husband about her chance encounter with her former lover. She is a woman experiencing great loss but in its midst she lashes out at her spouse with hateful, cutting words and actions. “She felt hatred towards him, because he did not leave her free” (135). “She hated him, but she could not withstand him” (136). Nevertheless, she wants to be free of it. “It was not him so much, but it, something she had put on herself that bound her so horribly. And having put the bond on herself, it was hardest to take it off. But now she hated everything and felt destructive” (136). As passionate as her experience of love once was, so now is her hatred. This whole circumstance causes a breach between her and her new husband that is irreparable. She distances herself from him until he rages, “All his suppressed anger against her who held herself superior to him filled and blackened his heart. Though he had not known it, yet he had never really won her, she had never loved him. She had taken him on sufferance” (Lawrence 135).

Jimenez 9 She feels helpless to take away the bitterness and madness. Madness, as in what inhabits the mind of her former lover, and madness, as in the rage that wells up within her husband. The author, Delavenay writes, “At the thought that she married him as second best on learning of the other man’s supposed death, his fury reaches a climax and he is “mad with anguish”. The story ends as he comes to realize what an abyss of pain and incomprehension separates them, and both remain shocked, impersonal, “locked in silent thought” (192). The consequence of “mad” jealousy in this story is the heartbreaking fact that this marriage is already doomed even as it has scarcely begun. The wife’s actions provoke a lack of trust in her husband and in his confidence to win her heart. Once destroyed such a thing is almost impossible to repair. The harm is done and what are left are remnants of broken hearts and shattered lives. In the last story, “The White Stocking”, the emotion of jealousy is exhibited early in the story by the husband, Ted Whitson. The Whitsons are still newlyweds, married about two years and Mrs. Whitson is described as “a pretty little thing” whose “careless abandon made his spirit glow” (Lawrence 156). He’s very much in love with his young, beautiful and vivacious wife of his. He loves everything she does and she obviously makes him happy. Mrs. Whitson, on the other hand is harboring a secret. A secret, that when discovered will unleash a regretful action and a painful consequence. As the story begins, she awakens early much to Mr. Whitson’s surprise. She is awaiting packages from the postman and those packages contain valentines – not from her husband, but gifts from another man.

Jimenez 10 In one of the packages, she receives a long white stocking and in the toe of the stocking is a small box containing a pair of pearl earrings. She puts the earrings on and admires herself in the mirror. “She turned to look at the box. There was a scrap of paper with this posy: “Pearls may be fair, but thou art fairer. Wear these for me and I’ll love the wearer” (Lawrence 158). As she goes to find her husband, she does so guiltily. When he asks what she received she tells him, “Valentines,” (Lawrence 158), news that displeases him. He has obviously dealt with this before because he responds, “They’ve no right to send you valentines, now,” (158) to which she replies, “Ted! – Why not? You’re not jealous, are you?” (159) and then she proceeds to lie to her husband. On the face of it, these are the actions of a deceptive woman, yet when they come together for breakfast, she breaks and confesses her lie by telling him the truth behind these gifts received. She is the object of another man’s affections. Sam Adams, a man who was her former employer and who she once had a fondness for is the giver of these gifts. The year before he had sent her the first white stocking with an expensive brooch, a gift which she kept and never revealed to her husband. Understandably, Mr. Whitson is upset at this bit of news and reacts by throwing the slip of paper with the posy into the fire. Mrs. Whitson’s actions are indicative of an individual who derives pleasure from provoking deep emotions and reactions in others. This is notably so throughout the story as she drops distressing bits of news and information to her forlorn and exasperated husband. In one instance, directly after the slip-burning incident, he roughly asks her, referring to Sam Adams, “You haven’t been seeing anything of him, have you?” (Lawrence 161). To which she replies,

Jimenez 11 “Yes, he got into the tram with me and he asked me to drink a coffee and a Benedectine in the Royal” (161). When she responds positively to his next question, “And did you?” (161) the author writes, “the blood came up into his neck and face, he stood motionless, dangerous” (161). And as if rubbing salt into old wounds, she continues by saying, “It was cold, and it was such fun to go into the Royal” (161). A reply to which he retorts “in anger and contempt, and some bitterness” (162). Mrs. Whitson is playing a dangerous game by saying things or acting in a manner that serves to incite her husband. Jealousy as mentioned previously in this paper is a powerful, sometimes uncontrollable emotion that pushed to an extreme can reap horrible and even deadly consequences. Mrs. Whitson doesn’t seem perturbed by at all by these possibilities as she continues throughout the story to rouse this sentiment in her husband. Mrs. Whitson’s actions make her husband anxious. All he yearns for from her is “surety”, (Lawrence162) - a certainty that she loves him unconditionally. He seeks an assurance that her heart is undivided and that she doesn’t long for another. But he’s “kept tense by not getting it” (162). In Part II of this story we learn more about Sam Adams and where their mutual admiration comes from. He is different from her husband. He is described as “a bachelor of forty, growing stout, a man well dressed and florid with a large brown moustache and thin air” (Lawrence 162-163). It does not seem quite like the description of what would be considered irresistible qualities in any man yet “she had a great attraction for him” (163). The white stocking takes it place in this story during a Christmas party she attended at Sam Adam’s house just before she married. She attended the party with Ted and as she entered the party with him, “in an instant Sam Adams was coming forward, lifting both his arms in a

Jimenez 12 boisterous welcome” (Lawrence 164). Seizing her hands, he leads her forward and she feels as if she’s floating into the throng on his arm. She describes Sam Adams as “very gallant” (164). He proceeds to fill her dance card, as Ted does not dance and when the moment is ready, he comes to her. “Now then Elsie, he said, with a curious caress in his voice that seemed to lap the outside of her body in a warm glow, delicious. She gave herself to it. She liked it” (Lawrence 164). She describes her time with Mr. Adams as thrilling, gratifying and “she felt a little grudge against Whitson, soon forgotten when her host was holding her near to him, in a delicious embrace” (Lawrence 165). Her dances with him are intoxicating and it is exquisite, leaving her dazed and scarcely breathing. Mr. Adams was irresistible to her and yet she asks herself, “why was she aware of some part shut off in her?” (167). It is a paradox. She seems to have distinct affections for both men but she obviously cannot have them both. As the evening winds down, she is engaged in one last dance with Mr. Adams and as she stoops for her pocket-handkerchief, she realizes she has brought a white stocking instead. In an instant, Adams picks it up, saving her from certain humiliation and placing it in his pocket. It becomes a souvenir of their evening together, an observation not lost on her then beau, Ted Whitson. When he confronts her later about the lost stocking, at first she seems detached and apathetic in her response as if she does not care that Mr. Adams has her stocking or that the whole situation is irritating to Ted. Her response “made him black with rage” (Lawrence 171). She remains silent and when at last she speaks, it is with cries of distress. This weakens his resolve and he feels compassion and deep, deep love for her, so much so that she perceives and with anguished sobs says to him, “Oh, be good to me” (172).

Jimenez 13 “And he held her very safe, and his heart was white-hot with love for her. His mind was amazed. He could only hold her chest that was white-hot with love and belief in her. So she was restored at last” (Lawrence 172). A few weeks after this incident she marries Whitson. She loves Ted with “passion and worship, a fierce little abandon of love that moved him to the depths of his being, and gave him a permanent surety and sense of realness in himself” (Lawrence 172). At this point, whatever doubts he has of his beloved are dissipated – he is in love. “She was quite happy at first, carried away by her adoration of her husband. Then gradually she got used to him” (173). In her marriage, she finds a freedom she never before possessed. “She was rid of the responsibility of herself. Her husband must look after that” (173). After some months she runs into Sam Adams again and realizes that he is in love with her, “and, sportive, she could not help playing a little with this, though she cared not one jot for the man himself”(Lawrence 173). This is the folly of using jealousy as sport. It becomes a precarious diversion, something she would soon suffer the consequences of. When her husband comes home that evening, he is tired and depressed. “She knew he was in a state of suppressed irritation…Yet she could not help goading him”(Lawrence 174). He has asked her to get rid of the white stocking. She refuses. Instead she goes up to her room and puts them on and then proceeds to show them off in a defiant and provocative manner. She annoys him with her dance of insolence until infuriated, he responds with hurtful words. “Yer nasty trolley,” he cried. “Put yer petticoats down, and stop being so foul-minded.” “She was rousing all his uncontrollable anger” (175). He begins to alarm her with his cruel words and frightening manner but she continues to argue with him until he strikes her and “she was flung back blinded against the wall” (Lawrence

Jimenez 14 177). The jealousy has driven him mad with anger and he has reacted viciously and violently, hurting the woman he loves. Her sobs move him to look at her “in contempt and compassion and in rising anger” (178). He goes upstairs to their room and retrieves the gifts she received from Mr. Adams intending to return them to him. These trinkets have come between them. They have provoked jealousy and callous and violent actions. They are a burden within their marriage. When he returns from posting the package, he finds her still crying and, “A great flash of anguish went over his body. He went over, slowly, and very gently took her in his hands. She let herself be taken. Then as she layed against his shoulder, she sobbed aloud: ‘I never meant---’ ‘My love – my little love---’ he cried, in anguish of spirit, holding her in his arms” (Lawrence 179). Mrs. Whitson’s ego, displayed in her desire to be the object of affection for both her husband and Sam Adams could have resulted in a much worse consequence if not for her husband’s restraint. It is indeed folly to think that provoking jealous sentiments in others will not have an adverse effect. They were lucky indeed that their love survived in spite of all this. D.H. Lawrence wrote a poem called “Jealousy”, where he describes the jealousy of an ego-bound woman as “hideous and fearful… so much stronger than her love could ever be… a fearful thing to behold, the ego revealed in all its monstrous inhumanity” (Lawrence 475). His description of jealousy in this poem as a “monstrous inhumanity” (475) is what is reflected in the actions of the protagonists. The Prussian officer allows this horrible emotion to change him into a grotesque and inhuman sociopath, incapable of compassion, mercy or love provoking intense reaction in another and ultimately resulting in both their deaths. The woman of the Rose garden taunts her husband, deepening his insecurities and arousing his fury resulting in a loss of a

Jimenez 15 marital relationship scarcely begun. The Whitson’s experience was marked by a moment of violent action brought on by the folly of a woman’s unchecked ego. In conclusion, what we learn from this theme of insane jealousy as seen within these stories is the danger of inciting such a powerful emotion. When jealousy is provoked in others, whether deliberately or not, it can only reap heartbreak, tragedy or even the awful consequence of death.

Jimenez 16 Works Cited Austen, Roger “The Homosexual Imagination: But for Fate and Ban: Homosexual Villains and Victims in the Military” College English 36.3 (1974): 352-359 Becket, Fiona “Part I Life and Contexts” The Complete Critical Guide to D.H. Lawrence. London: Routledge, 2002: 10 Delavenay, Emile “ II. Evolution of Lawrentian Themes” D.H. Lawrence The Man and His Work. Carbondale, United States: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972: 192 “Jealous.” Def. 1a Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. 10th ed. 1986 Lawrence, DH. “Jealousy” The Complete Poems of DH Lawrence Ed. Vivian De Sola Pinto and F. Warren Roberts New York: Penguin Classics, 1993: 475 Lawrence, DH. “The Prussian Officer.” The Prussian Officer and Other Stories Ed. Antony Atkins Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. 200-222 ---. “The Shadow in the Rose Garden.” Atkins 126-139 ---. “The White Stocking.” Atkins 156-179 Wreen, Michael J. ”Jealousy” Noûs 23.5 (1989): 635-652