Discourse About Existence Ideal

As one of the founders of mystification in modern novels, D. H. Lawrence usually employs myth as means to narrate new stories by rewriting ancient myths. In creating the Modern Myth, he wishes to express his survival idea of returning to harmony and living poetically. The author of the thesis takes the perspective of myth archetype to study the British writer D. H. Lawrence and it consists of four parts.The first part is the analysis of myth writing in his works from general perspectives which mainly falls into three aspects:(1) the investigation of the coming into being of myth writing in his works from such aspects as contemporary schools of thought and literary traditions;(2) the discussion of Lawrence’s selection of different myth materials in different cultural systems as ancient Greek and Roman mythologies and ancient Aztec mythologies by investigating his life experience. At the same time, it is also the author’s wish to describe and outline a series of mythic pictures such as from Adam to Christ, from Persephone to Pan, from plumed serpent to phoenix in his works;(3) discussion of Lawrence’s different treatments with these myth materials in practical writing and analysis of ritual narration and fable-featured writing which are his two favorite topics.The second part is about the investigation of how Lawrence uses myth to express human relation and relation between human being and society by discussion his writing about personal history and social history with his saying "the key clue to life is relation itself. Meanwhile the author also wishes to reveal the binary opposition in his myth writing. Mainly there are two aspects:(1) human relation. Lawrence uses myth as implicit index to investigate Ishtar\Tammuz female reign, Hades\Persephone male leading, Perseus\Andromeda mutual saving, and Jesus\Isis perfect balanced gentle relation between two sexes which is his original creation.(2) relation between human beings and society, Lawrence uses the theme of female penetration in ancient Greek tragedies to show the opposition between natural gender and social gender in modern society by demonstrating wine god rituals; he uses male alliance formed by blood brothers to defy female’s aggression into male’s social life realm from family life realm; he also uses regional elf and ethic soul to represent the opposition between England and Italy, between Europe and America, and with it the opposition between civilization and primitive; he also imagines Rananim’s Utopia and Joachim’s Holy Spirit Time to describe his own living ideas.The third part is about discussion of Kabbalah occultism’s influence on Lawrence. The influence is not only the reason for the feature of binary opposition in his myth writing, but also the factor to explain Lawrence’s ideal relation between human and gods which is the harmony of human nature and celestial nature. This part mainly consists of four aspects. Firstly, based on related biographical facts the author wishes to discuss Lawrence’s acceptance of Kabbalah occultism and the factual relation in his works. Secondly, the author concludes the dynamic balanced binary opposition constructed by Lawrence under the influence of Kabbalah occultism which is again used to seek for the construction of a metaphysical system with the ultimate aim of balance and harmony. Thirdly, with The Rainbow as the study subject, the author discusses how Lawrence combines Bible stories with Kabbalah occultism organically by ways of multiple coloring; how Lawrence presents the perfect situation of human and celestial natures with the mysterious conception of Prima Adam; and how he shows the gradual loss of celestial feature in narrating the legend history of The Brangwens. Fourthly, with The Plumed Serpent as the study subject, the author discusses how Lawrence uses Kabbalah occultism to rewrite Aztec mythologies and how does he build a new relation between humans and gods to recover the harmonious communication between human nature and celestial nature by describing the conception of excursion goddess Shekhinah and by ways of holy marriage.The fourth part is mainly the discussion of ideal relation between humans and nature, between humans and universe in Lawrence’s ideal survival idea. This part consists of two specific aspects. Firstly, with the image change of Pan, who is the god with the highest rank in Lawrence’s myth world, from wild to celestial to pan-god as the main development line and Lawrence’s criticism of modern western industrial civilization as the secondary line, the author discusses the Holy Unity between humans and nature which is Lawrence’s ideal relation between humans and nature with the characteristic of pantheism. Secondly, by discussing the universe model of life tree selected by Lawrence, the author investigates how Lawrence wants to express the loss of human subjective position, the equal communication between humans and other creatures, the free flow of life on life tree, etc. The author also wishes to analyze how Lawrence attempts to replace Christian salvation by the way of self-fulfillment, how he tries to seek an existence unity by returning to ancient rituals to keep the same pace with universal rhythms.It is the thesis’s aim to demonstrate how Lawrence uses the myth writing, which is a rhetoric of reenchantment, to show the ideal relations among human beings, between humans and nature, between humans and gods, between humans and nature, between humans and universe in order to express his ideal existence idea of returning to self and of living poetically on the earth.