Virginia's Discovery of her Own Self in D. H. Lawrence's "Mother and Daughter"

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  • ヴァージニアの自己の発見 : D.H.ロレンスの「母娘」物語から
  • ヴァージニア ノ ジコ ノ ハッケン D H ロレンス ノ オヤコ モノガタリ カラ

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"Mother and Daughter" is said to reflect Lawrence's thought in his late years after "the leadership novels" starting with Aaron's Rod (1922) through The Plumed Serpent (1926). In those novels, Lawrence developed his male chauvinistic ideas which led to male supremacy. Lawrence's later thought is also characterized by his conspicuous heterosexism as depicted in Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) in which Lawrence displays male chauvinistic attitudes through the treatment of his heroin. In "Mother and Daughter" Lawrence depicts a family in which the absent father is replaced by a strong willed mother who does her best vis- a-vis her daughter in order to compensate for the father's absence. However, despite her "strange muscular energy" she eventually destroys her own matriarchal family in which her daughter is her own alter ego. She is described as a witch because she tries to hypnotize her daughter. But the mother looses ground when her daughter brings her own fiance whose tribe is patriarchal. Lawrence's intention to make a case for male supremacy seems to be accomplished when the strong woman who squashed her husband to death is symbolically defeated. But the daughter's final revenge doesn't necessarily imply that she has reached total independence from her mother. So far the daughter Virginia is often considered to be one of Lawrence's failure. However, her attitude toward her mother reflects a mood that shows an independent personality. Here I would like to see Lawrence's anticipation toward Virginia despite his later chauvinistic viewpoints.

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