A Study Of Lawrence's Philosophical Thought In His Poems

For two thousand five hundred years Western thought has been intensely dualistic, seeing everything as composed of warring opposites, head and heart, body and spirit, male and female, human and non-human, life and death, innocence and experience, good and evil, heaven and hell, as though the split between the hemispheres of the human brain were projecting itself on everything perceived by that brain.D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence (1885-1930) was one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. His polarity thought is a very important part in his literary creation. His view of male-female relationship based on his polarity thought reflects his great concern about the social problems which exist in the nineteenth century England.The first part of this paper analyses the influence on Lawrence of the social, historical and family backgrounds because these backgrounds have great and profound influence on D. H. Lawrence's polarity thought. The second part of this paper is about the relationship between man and woman, which is considered as the greatest relation by Lawrence. Lawrence's view on man and woman relationship is a reflection of his polarity thought in his literary creation. The ideal balance they wanted to accomplish through struggle was just the polar balance-- the two opposite parts are not only contradictory to each other, but exist in a static state. After the introduction of D. H. Lawrence's polarity thought on man and woman relationship, the third part of this paper focuses on the relationship between man and nature. Lawrence always stresses the harmony between man and nature. Man is the product of nature but at the same time man is always trying to change it. Man is deprived of energy and vitality when he loses the close connection with nature. So Lawrence disgusts the damage to nature, and calls for man to return to nature only through which man and nature can get a polar balance. The fourth part elaborates the poet's meditation on death and rebirth of the soul. There are opposites in this part, body and soul, death and birth. The opposites are contradictory. This paper is intended to study Lawrence's poems in different periods, and his themes of the relationships between man and woman, man and nature, body and soul. The study reveals that Lawrence's poetic creation is guided by his theory of polarity, which is closely related with the philosophical doctrine of dualism.