Connie’s Quest For Identity In Lady Chatterley’s Lover

This thesis analyzes and studies the most controversial novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover of David Herbert Lawrence from the identity perspective, and thus focuses on Constance Reid’s identity anxiety and transforming process on the way of freedom-pursuit. The present study investigates the heroine Connie’s (Connie for Constance Reid) transformation from confusion and loss to self-knowledge, self-expression and self-fulfillment on the journey of fighting against external forces and regulations, especially against the double oppressions of class prejudice and gender discrimination.This thesis consists of introduction, the body and conclusion. The introductory part focuses on the literature review of Lady Chatterley s Lover, research objective, research methods and the frame of this thesis.The body includes three chapters. Chapter One discusses Connie’s quest for freedom from class hierarchy and antagonism. This novel is set in a money-centered and status-adorned society, in which the heroine firstly chooses to achieve both the value of her life and her self by climbing up the class ladder successfully. But then she realizes emptiness and insignificance of the mental life in aristocratic world. In contrast, Connie finds warmth and love in the uneducated people from shabby houses. In the end, Connie feels peaceful and free in the embrace of the forest and the keeper. In brief, this thesis presents a gradually transforming process of Connie from striving for "success" to despising the emptiness of aristocrats’life to finally transcending the limits of class antagonism. Heroine’s detachment from material enjoyment reflects Lawrence’s transcendence of class identity and social status.Chapter Two analyzes development of Connie’s awakening female consciousness. Under the traditional education, Connie tries her best to be "a house-angel" with patience and caring. But her female consciousness is awakened by Mellors’warmth and passion little by little, and she starts to pay attention to her own needs and wants rather than to devote all time and energy to her husband’s life and career. Answering the calling of her inner self, she finally achieves her freedom and equality as a woman by fighting against the patriarchal forces. As a freedom-lover, Lawrence shows his sympathy for and concern about women’s situations and his wish for a harmonious relationship between men and women.Chapter Three illustrates Connie’s retrieval of her subjectivity as an authentic individual. It is easy to find that the former Connie suppresses her inner thoughts and caters to tastes and demands of the majority. However the heroine increasingly senses her state of being restricted and oppressed by harassing conventions. She starts to show her disagreement to her authoritative husband, the representative of man power and upper society. During process of realization and fighting, Connie gradually becomes a self-certain, self-autonomous and self-fulfilled subject despite regulations and limitations of social forces. Instead of being slaved by rules and reason, Lawrence maintains, everyone can be his/her own master.Conclusion points out that the heroine’s transformation can be interpreted as a hint from Lawrence not only to his contemporaries towards the chaos of his society, but also to the modern times as to the widespread overwhelming identity crises. Connie’s successful breaking away from constraining social forces not only shows silenced situations of the slaved women from the lower class, but also blows against people’s self-losing and vanity-adoring at that time. What is more, this thesis approaches Lawrence’s philosophical ideas on harmonious relationships between industry and nature, between men and women, and between self and outside forces. In short, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a vivid presentation and embodiment of Lawrence’s philosophical thoughts about life and the world with its focus on harmony and freedom, and these can still be solutions to our modern men’s identity crises.