It seems that Lawrence is really struggling with defining the place of religion in this novel. Critic Keith Cushman sees the novel as Lawrence's story of three generations of the Brangwen famiy that "traces the gradual evolution of English society from traditional culture to modernity" (xiii). Do you think that his treatment of religion--and its place in society--is linked to the change in the social construction of society? In other words, is the description of how the characters see religion, or their understanding of religion, simply a Lawrence idiosyncracy or an exploration of how the place of religion was changing in early modern England?
My apologies for the late post. I was away from a computer both literally for some of the time since Thursday and figuratively for the entire time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
I believe that Lawrence used religion as a idiosyncracy since his writing, most always, was based on human sexuality and human nature combined. His writings dealt with relationships and how they corresponded together. However, religion was an important part of society back then and it could possibly be coinsidental that he used both religion and sexuality together linking the change in the social construction of society.
I do believe that Lawrence's treatment of religion throughout his novel reflects the change in the construction of England's society. I don't really know if Lawrence did this on purpose as a study of the change in religion or if he is simply writing about the lives of people he has experienced during his own lifetime. Either it truly is an exploration of how the place of religion in society was changing or Lawrence just wrote about what interested him and as the years have passed, critics have discovered this issue in the book and have since compared them to the social changes taking place in early modern England.
I think Lawrence's struggle with religion in this novel is evident and due to the changing beliefs from traditional to modern society. In Will, Lawrence exemplified the idea of the Christian man that seeks shape, direction, and spiritual dimension. Anna, on the other hand, is unable to make such a connection and is shown to be taking the wrong path in life.
Lawrence introduces the idea of religion as an escape to the outside world. That's what was happening in society, and that's how Lawrence saw it. Religion seemed to be a dangerous escape, as depicted by his characters. Yet at the end of the novel, he brings the symbolic promise between man and God, the rainbow, to life. With this, Lawrence shows that people were beginning to replace Christianity with symbols and ideas--almost as idols. It is religious, yet it is very unconventional.
I think that Lawrence is trying to make his readers see the true connection between religion or the spiritual aspects of it and the natural world in which we live. I could be wrong but this would in some ways support why he connects religions elements to sexual elements at various points in this novel. These connections do ultimately show how the spiritual world is intertwined with the natural world and that all things work together in unison whether humans understand them or not. Religion and sex kind of goes hand in hand to some degree because some people allow their religious convictions to dictate what they engage in sexually. Some people think for example that oral sex is wrong even though they are married. However, since we are talking about religion, the bible does not explicitly say that it is. It does say that the husband's body belongs to his wife and her body belongs to him. Does this mean that they are limited from performing certain sexual acts as husband and wife? Maybe, maybe not. That would be left to individual interpretation. I only brought that up as an example because we see Lawrence using sexual excitement to describe how some of his characters felt about religious things. How can one have sexual feelings about going to a cathedral? Perhaps these things are not so much sexual in nature as they are natural feelings and the author used to sexual arousal to describe them for the benefit of his readers being able to truly understand and feel the characters.
I am not quite sure if Lawrence was just a pervert, horny as heck, a darn good writer with extradinary insight, or if he was just a man ahead of his times. But I do believe he used a mixture of both religion and sexuality to show the era of the time, and to get his point across.
Or, maybe, he just wanted to shake things up and get peoples blood boiling and circulating. Lawewnce knew what the people were missing and needed--so he provided--awakening! Ha!
In response to Erin...
Yes, I agree with your analysis. We don't really know what Lawrence was stewing up in his mind, but we do know that he made people think and react.
Honestly I don't know much about how the place of religion was changing, if at all, in early modern England. I think that Lawrence may have been pushing the limits in "The Rainbow" because he would have liked to see a change. Or maybe he was asking society to show where exactly religion fit in, and where its boundaries lie. I also think that Lawrence rather liked playing with the religion idea in the way that he did, because he knew it was scandalous and maybe he thought that his readers needed a wakeup call. Or maybe modern society didn't have the excitement he expected out of it so he made a world of his own where there were no distinctions between the holy and bodily passions...or something like that.
In response to sailorgirl,
I swear I did not read yours ahead of time. I could not help but notice we had the same sort of view on the reasons why Lawrence wrote how he did. And I commend you on your boldness...
In response to Claudia,
I really liked your idea that Lawrence was pushing the limits in this novel trying to see a change in society as well as asking society where exactly religion fits in. Perhaps he did want a change and did not think that society needed to be so straight laced as it had previously been. Myabe he was also showing the world that sexuality and religion are not really opposite, but can be viewed together and even complement each other.
Cicely, I like the connection you make between religion and sex. Evidently, the characters in the rainbow were only connected—both figuratively and literally—by one thing: sex! Lawrence uses religion as a tool to assist in this human connection. The people in Lawrence’s society began isolating themselves from the idea of spirituality with a deity and were longing for a way to connect. Maybe Lawrence thought he could best fix his reader’s interest to the contents with sexual references. The idolatry of the time sure becomes more evident with the sexual depictions of religion in The Rainbow.
Perhaps Lawrence is struggling with religion’s place in his novel. Of course, the interchanging of sex and religion in a single sentence (lets not forget throughout the entire book) seems quite ominous to the relationship between mankind and religion, but it’s quite possible that the idea of religion was changing simultaneously with the social constructions. Blame the industrial revolution for this newly developed outlook on society. Industrialism definitely impeded the way people lived and how they made their livings. I am a bit familiar with some of the changes made during the modernization of England and impiety certainly occurred with great magnitude, especially in women; it forced women to become prostitutes.
Or maybe the way Lawrence’s characters see religion in the world around them can be attributed to his own idiosyncrasy. Go figure!
I believe it is safe to say that Lawrence's writings reflect to some extent the social evolvement of religion in his time. I also feel that the aspect of religion that he is showing is definitely coming from his perspective as he experienced it first hand. I'm not sure that he is using religion in this novel to intentionally document religions role in the English society of this time period but I think that he reveals a lot of this just by simply telling this story by way of personal experiences and idiosyncracies.
I agree with erin. It is hard to tell what Lawrence's motive is behind his uses of religion in the novel. Looking at the status of religion in the english society during this time period it is clear that this has impacted Lawrence's perspective. The novel does reflect the social context i which it is set, but it also is greatly influenced by the writers personal views.
Erin,
I think you may be pointing something out here. "...Lawrence just wrote about what interested him and as the years have passed, critics have discovered this issue in the book and have since compared them to the social changes..." This is a good explanation as to why now. Lawrence questioned his society, but at the time they did not want to be questioned, which could explain his rejection for all of those years.
In response to Martin...
It made me think about even now how some people think of religion as a tangible thing like everything else in life but Lawrence really points our the difference between what is tangible and intangible as religion is more of a faith-based issue unlike land, houses, and other physical attachments these characters have. In some ways its almost as if he is taking humanity from a primitive society of tangible objects only to an advance society where ideas and passions don't necessarily take a tangible form. After all, isn't this the way humans really started?
Martin,
I have to agree with your belief about Lawrence using religion as am escape. Dangerous yes and by bringing the symbolic promise of the rainbow to life to the end of the book, he gives the characters another reason to hope.
Post a Comment