What Feminism Really Means To D.H. Lawrence?

D. H. Lawrence is an influential but controversial writer who is believed to be a feminist to some researchers but a male chauvinist to others. Although he has an increasingly changing attitude towards women and women's liberation throughout his writing career, Lawrence has shown great sympathy and much concern for them. Based on this awareness, I present my thesis in the hope of getting a full and complete understanding of his "feminism". This thesis sets out to give a general retrospection of other scholars' study on D. H. Lawrence, and then the argument of the thesis follows: although he tends to be a feminist, Lawrence, in the development of human beings, is more a humanist with the emphasis on the liberation of human nature, the harmony of man and woman, and the balance and togetherness of man and nature. Concerning women's problems, Lawrence mainly concentrates on the following aspects. Firstly, Lawrence raises the theory of blood-consciousness to challenge the Victorian ethics and Puritanism, both of which, he believes, has deceived women and constrained women's development and liberation. Secondly, Lawrence stresses a lot on setting up a new form of marriage, in which man and woman can get along well with each other both in mind and in body. Thirdly, Lawrence looks into the term of feminism from the perspective of religion and philosophy, seeking a more harmonious relationship between man and woman from the illumination that everything is related to each other and should be coevolving in universe. In all, feminism, in Lawrence's eyes, does not mean absolutely equal rights between man and woman in every aspect, but means the pursuit of the harmonious relationship between man and woman, the liberation of human nature and the balance and togetherness of man and nature. In the last part of the thesis, I give a summary of the great values of Lawrence's "feminism" on the liberation of Chinese women and try to show a new attainable direction for women's final liberation and the complete liberation of human nature.