Eng426 20th century english literature

Modernist Features in Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Stream of consciousness: Lawrence employs this technique in this novel to focus on his character’s consciousness and even the subconscious. He creates an impression that the reader is eavesdropping on the flow of conscious experience in the character’s mind. Attempt is made to go into the mind of Constance, letting it come into existence. For instance on page 46, the reader is taken into her mind as she is with Tommy Duke discussing about men and women in love. This is a discussion which probably occurred previously but is brought to the present through stream of consciousness, subsequently the reader sees her as she walks in the wood, stumbles on the gamekeeper with his daughter who is frightened at the sight of the pussy that he is hunting. The bitch goddess as an example of the experience of the nothingness or vanity of life is related to the reader from the mind of Lady Chatterley (52).


Autobiographical Mode: Lady Chatterley’s Lover tends towards autobiography in the sense that, the story is said to have originated from events in the life of Lawrence. Lawrence took inspiration for the setting of the novel from where he was brought up. Lawrence's own father was a miner, and the author was intimately familiar with the region of the Derby/Nottinghamshire coalfield, having been born at Eastwood, Nottingham. Eastwood, Nottingham also is one of the few places where the distinctive dialect of East Midlands English is extensively spoken. This is reflected in the setting of the novel, Tevershall, a coal mining village where vernacular is spoken.
The relationship between Lady Chatterley and Mellors, the gamekeeper can be linked to that of the fling between Lady Ottoline Morrel with Tiger, a young stone mason who came to carve plinths for her. Lady Ottoline was a prominent writer during Lawrence’s time. It could also be connected to that of Lawrence’s and his wife Frieda. Many critics have seen the character of Oliver Mellors as an extension of Lawrence himself. Mellors, like Lawrence, was born into the industrial proletariat, his father was a collier. He is partially educated and like Lawrence can operate successfully in the middle or upper class of the society.
Open-endedness: Just like most modernist novels, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a novel that is left with a rather open and vaguely unsatisfying ending. This implies that people could come to their conclusions. It possibly might portray a failing society because nothing is resolved and conclusions are hard to reach on the strands of relationships that we see in the novel. For example, what becomes of the relationship between Connie and Mellors? Is there any hope for them? It might also imply that the future of Connie and Mellors is a symbol of the unclear and undetermined future of the society.