Themes

As Lawrence's characters, like their author, are consciously or unconsciously on a quest to connect the various dimensions of their lives in a period of great social upheaval, themes are strongly related to social concerns. The struggle of the major characters to achieve fulfilling personal relationships, satisfying work, and a sense of connection to life which is often seen as religious whether or not connected to a formal religion, are dominant themes. In fact, those characters, like Anna at times, and Ursula's lover, Skrebensky, are seen as failing in life because they deny their spiritual dimension. Anna attacks Will's exaggerated religious sensibility; Ursula soon sees that Skrebensky's narrow-mindedness leads him to be a puppet of colonialism, though she does not pinpoint it as a religious lack. Indeed, this is a novel in which most characters have had lives shaped in some sense by the Christian liturgical year; in...