Interpretation of the Motif of Love in D. H. Lawrence’s Short Story “The Shades of Spring”

Abstract

Abstract. The paper looks at love in D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The Shades of Spring” (1914) from the author’s early period. His protagonists are men and women, in search of a contented life. Although living together in families as wives, husbands and lovers, Lawrence’s protagonists are lonely and unhappy. They endure misunderstanding and consequent suffering, causing emotional pain to each other. The characters could have a good relationship with each other because they read and discuss everything together but on the physical level they are far away from each other. There is an imbalance in their relationship: they can be either interesting interlocutors or passionate lovers but cannot balance the spiritual and physical spheres. Lawrence retains the genre of the short story tradition but his characters appear in a different light than in classical English literature: the light of a transitional society undergoing the radical changes that occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Purpose. The purpose is to analyse D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The Shades of Spring” to trace how the author interprets the motif of love in his short fiction.

Results. This early short story reflects an ignoring of irrelevant earlier cultural norms and roles determining the relationship between man and woman, and a destruction of the sacred inviolability of the stable family hearth. It is a lyrical story about first feelings and first love, and the concomitant feelings of disappointment, despair and frustration. Lawrence’s insight, sensuality and subtle psychologism focus not on the external manifestations of protagonists’ changes but on the internal, subconscious spheres of their psyche. “The Shades of Spring”, like most of his short stories, has an open ending, leaving the reader to consider its completion and answer to the remaining questions in their own way. As in his other short stories, he advocates primary and true feelings and relationships.

Originality. Lawrence is one of the few authors whose works continue to arouse interest and provoke debate. Today it remains important to consider those authors whose works do not fit any classical definition of modernism. His contradictory reputation and the widely varying attitudes of his contemporaries and critics in their assessments of his work provoke critical debate.

Conclusion. D. H. Lawrence continued the nineteenth century tradition of depicting ordinary working people and their hard lives. However, he added a personal and individualized view of the protagonists. He was one of the first in England to speak about love and relationships in a new way. The problem for his characters was that they couldn’t find a common language and appeared afraid of their own bodies. “The Shades of Spring” is one of the brightest examples of his early works and combines traditional and modernist techniques of storytelling. The characters are lonely and unhappy, existing in a state of alienation. The writer describes loneliness, alienation, insincerity in feelings and relationships, and people’s inability to live happily unless they discard convention and become true to themselves. This intermediate worldview in the early short stories is a key characteristic of Lawrence.