The Feminist Ideology in Selected Fiction of D.

H
Lawrence and Ahdaf Souief.

By
Zakaria Mustafa Salameh Al-Mahasees
Supervisor:
Prof.Dr. Ahmad Abdu Taha

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Language and
Literature

Department of English language and literature

Faculty of Arts and Languages

Jadara University
December, 2011

1
2
3
 Dedication

To My Father and Mother

4
 Acknowledgements

I would love to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr

Ahmad Taha for all his support, guidance, and mostly his belief in me
throughout my MA study. His insightful remarks and sage criticism aided to
shape my vision and to widen my horizon in innumerable ways. I wish also to
thank the distinguished members of my committee Dr. Abdullah K. Shehabat,
and Dr. Sabah Shakury for their efforts and their valuable comments. Their
critical reading and generous advices have greatly enriched this research.

My ultimate gratitude goes to my parents for their love, guidance, and

endless care. Special thanks to my brothers, sisters, and my fianc for their
love, support, and care.

Finally, great appreciation is extended to all those who supported me.

5
 Tables of content

Committee
members.........I

Authorization .......II

Dedication ....III

Acknowledgements..IV

Tables of Contents....V

Abstract....VI

Introduction...1

Chapter One

The Search for Identity in Ahdaf Souief's The Map of Love.....16

Chapter Two

Man- Woman Love Relationship in Lawrence's Women in Love30

Chapter Three

Depicting Modernity in Lawrence's Women in Love ..........................45

Conclusions and Recommendations ..60

Bibliography66

End Notes 71

Abstract in Arabic ................72

6
 Abstract
Throughout the history of humanity women were silenced by
patriarchal society. As a result they tried to speak out and claim their rights.
Most scholars assert that all movements that work to obtain women's rights
should be considered feminist movement. The feminist movements have
been divided into three waves. Each deals with feminist issues. The first
wave refers to the feminist movement of the 18th through early 20th
centuries, which dealt mainly with the women's suffrage. Virginia Woolf is
a good example for the first wave. The second wave (1960-1980) was
concerned with gender inequality. The third wave had greater focus on
developing the different achievements of women in America. To
incorporate a greater number of women who may not have previously been
identified with the dynamics and goals of feminism, the movement
associated them to the third wave.

This project examines the feminist ideology in two major literary works,
namely, D.H Lawrence's Women in Love and Ahdaf Souief's The Map of
Love. The two authors highlighted the role of women in a patriarchal
society, being suppressed, marginalized and male -dominated. This study
will further shed light on patriarchal societies, which, feminist schools as
monolithic, primitive, and phallogocentric. Thus, the study will be a kind
of an adventure into a world conflicting ideas about the role and the future
of society. Hence, it is hoped that the study will be a valuable contribution
to the efforts attempting to mark a border line between women's rights and
their identities in a volatile culture subject to an indefinite external and
internal influences.

That said, the present study focuses on the image of women

perspectives of Ahdaf Souief and D.H Lawrence to reflect upon the

7
iniquities to which women had been exposed. Additionally, the depiction
of modern society in the light of the present patriarchal society will be
discussed to refer to the difficulties and pitfalls to which the society of
women may be exposed.

The thesis consists of an introduction and three chapters on Ahdaf

Souief and D.H Lawrence. The introduction will give full views related to
feminism. This chapter will take the title: Introduction. Chapter one
discusses Ahdaf Souief's The Map of Love that introduces the three female
characters and their quests in search for identity. This chapter will take the
title: The Search for Identity in The Maps of Love. Chapter two will focus
on D.H Lawrence's Women in Love, which revolves about two female
characters that have different effects on the life of men. It will examine the
love relationships between males and females. This chapter will take the
title: Man Women Love Relationships in Lawrence's Women in Love.
Chapter three will provide a reading of Women in Love in regard to modern
society as destructive and is analyzed in terms of sexual relationships of the
novel. This chapter will take the title: Depicting Modernity in Lawrence's
Women in Love. The last chapter will be: Conclusion. It will be a detailed
analysis and dissection of the view points of those critics who had written
about feminism. In the conclusion, the major characteristics of the research
will be summarized.

The thesis comes to the following findings: Lawrence and Ahdaf have
succeeded in delivering a clear massage relating to the women's identity,
and social relations. They supported feminism and the feminine point of
view and encouraged them to face the men to fight for their freedom. They
also encourage young women to be strong to face the men world and
achieve equality with men. Thus, women are now capable to live a better
life.

8
 Introduction

Throughout the history, women have been silenced by patriarchal

societies. They were less valued than men. They never took fair share in
the law rules and were always considered inferior to men. They were
deprived of basic rights, such as their rights to vote, their right of
freedom, and the right of production. They were subordinate in politics,
education and in economic system to men. They are less nourished than
men. They are less likely to be literate, and still less likely to have
professional or technical education.

Correa Walsh writes about women's suffering in Roman Empire.

Women rejected the Vocanian law, a "law that reduced women to a
subordinate position and deprived them of basic rights." (Walsh 6) She
also notes that woman gained their first role in politics through history in
Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (Walsh 6)

During the English civil war, British men disputed the decision of
parliament which gave women the right to disobey their husbands. In
France, Marquis de Condorcet advocated the right of women to be equal
to men, work, and vote in 1879. He argues that women have the same
qualities and rights of men by saying that: "the rights of men result solely
from the fact that they are sensible beings, suspectical to acquiring moral
ideas of reasoning on these ideas. Women having the same qualities,
necessarily have the equal rights." (qtd. In Walsh 7)

Women in general fought for their rights to be equal with men.

However, this demand is theoretical. Mary Hiatt in The Way Women
Write argues that women are not like men; they are like children so they
will not succeed in fighting with men. She states that "women . [have]
9
always [been] compared most often to children" ( Hiatt 89). Accordingly,
they will always fail in speaking out with men.

However, Mary Wollstonecraft, an eighteenth British feminist and

writer argues in her A Vindication of the Rights of Women that women are
not inferior to men, but rather the same. They should gain their money
and be treated like rational and sensible beings. "Women should be
treated as rational beings because they are not inferior to men" (172).
They should earn their own money and education to be "independent of
men" (172). When women depend financially on men, they will not be
able to speak out with men; otherwise, they can not disagree with them.
Education opens the doors for women to broaden their knowledge, and to
understand the world around them and education gives women the right
to work and get equal pay to men.

Feminism is a movement that discussed issues related to women.

Women share the same culture and suffering in the world. Feminism
works hard to free women from restrictions that were imposed upon them
by their societies. Women want to emancipate from the old verities that
restricted their role in their societies. They want to change their social
place in societies, because they were less treated than men. The
fundamental goal of feminism is to understand women's oppression. The
roots of feminism can be traced the book in Simon de Beauvoir's The
Second sex. De Beauvoir is a French philosopher who writes about the
status of women, being not similar to men in politics and law because the
dominant culture is masculine, where as women's culture is inferior.
Feminism in general seeks equal rights and opportunities with men.

Feminism seeks justice and end of sexism in all forms. It is the

fundamental issue for all women to obtain their basic rights, such as

10
equality of opportunity, the right of production, and the right to vote. bell
hooks in Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black states that

Feminism, liberation struggle, must exist a part of the larger struggle to

eradicate domination in all its forms. We must understand that
patriarchal domination shares an ideological foundation with racism and
the other forms of group oppression and that there is no hope that it can
be eradicated while these systems remain intact. This knowledge should
consistently inform the direction of feminist theory and practice (Hook
22)

Women were not allowed to express themselves freely in their

writings, which mean that they automatically adopted the masculine
perspectives of writing being the available style then. They tried, in vain,
to gain their rights through writing with the use of masculine style.
Besides, the masculine style helped them conceal their identity and
gender, so it is not easy to define the feminine style in their writings.

Women used writing as a means of exercising personal and social

freedom. They wrote to prove that they are equal to men. They realized
that they will not be equal to men if their achievements are trivial.
Women's writings became the medium to express their ideology freely
and to depict themselves in a better way. In on Power and Literary Texts,
Barbra Watson argues that women used masculine style of writing, not
only to conceal their identity, but also to protect them. She mentions:

What has been the experience of women in regard to power? Literature

has more to say about this subject than might at first to appear. Women,
like other groups with minority status, adopt various forms of
accommodation for the weak is to conceal what power they do have, and
to avoid anything that looks like threat or competition. Therefore, we
[must] not expect either literature written by women or that written by
men based on their observations to tell us much about so sensitive a

11
 topic in the form of declaration, manifestos, plot summaries, or even the
broad outline of characterization. We begin instead to look at such
techniques as ambiguity, equivocation and expressive symbolic structure
(Watson 113).

Ruth Yeazell explains that women have no choices to adapt the

dominant culture of male in order to fit in. He mentions:

The struggle of the feminine writers shows a marked difference from

that of their male counterparts. Deprived of education because of their
sex, and financial dependent upon the male, these women were made
painfully aware of their inferior status. The constant pressure to prove
them in the arena of intellection drained their creative energies, and they
also struggled against evangelical disapproval of imaginative literature.
While woman could assume the role of wife, mother, nurse, or teacher,
she could not be a writer without being accused of selfish defiance. In
creating heroes that women idealized, novelists oscillated between
figures of compliance. (Yeazell 129-130)

Virginia Woolf exposes the status of women through history. She

emphasizes that they were not allowed to go to school, or to show their
talents to others. She also argues that women had either to accept being
silenced and inferior or get punished by a patriarchal society:

Any woman born with great gift in the sixteenth century would
certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some
lonely cottage outside village, half witch, half wizard, and mocked at.
For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl
who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted
and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled a sunder by her
own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to
certainty. (Woolf 5)

Helen Cixous, a French feminist, a writer, and a critic; she was

influenced by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derria. "In The Laugh of

12
Medusa," She argues that women's writings are essential to understand
women desires and their demands. The reader cannot understand these
demands without the use of feminine style of writing. She urges them to
use their bodies, which defined them better than their phallogocentric
writings that a rise from masculine perspectives. She also urges women to
call for their identities, because women were misrepresented in several
works of male's writings. Hence, [we] need a real representation of
women by women. She also adds that we need female critics to analyze
women writings without the use of masculine approach to literature.

Women somehow share similar difficulties a round the world in

their demand for rights. In other words, women's culture share common
feature around the world. They have similar sufferings and experiences.
Fore example, Women in the Arab World have been struggling to make
their voices heard in different means of writings. The first Arab female
(1)
writer was Zainab Fawwaz. She was born in Lebanon, but she left
Lebanon and went to Egypt to pursue her education. She wrote many
novels and her first novel is Hosn al Waqeb (1895), Man's Heart (1904)
and Shreen (1907). In her novels, she wrote about women's rights. She
also argues that men and women are the same and they are one. They
cannot live without each other.

Qasim Amin is an Egyptian leader of the women movement. He

wrote The Egyptians, Tahreer al Marah (Women Liberation) (1899) and
The New woman (1901) in which he called for women's rights and
freedom. The new woman is considered the result of the new civilization;
the recognition of the women's right and value and the equality between
men and woman (Amin 5-6).

13
 Maggie Humm in her book The Dictionary of Feminist Theory sheds
light on the goals of feminism in the following words:

A fundamental goal of feminist theory is to understand women's in terms

of race, gender, class, and sexual preference and how to change it.
Feminist theory reveals the importance of women's individuals and
shared experience and our struggles. It analyses how sexual difference is
constructed within any intellectual and social world and builds accounts
of experiences from these differences. (Humm Preface x)

Shulamith Firestone, on the other hand, suggests that women's

culture is essential. She mentions:

We are proud of the female culture of emotion, intuition, love, personal

relationships, as the most essential human characteristics. It is our male
colonizersit is the male cultures who have defined essential humanity
out of their identity and who are culturally deprived (Firestone 178).

Most scholars assert that all movements that tackled women's

issues should be considered as feminist movements, which found its way
through three waves. Each deals with feminist issues. Maggie Humm and
Rebecca Walker divided the history of feminism into three main waves:
the first was in the nineteenth and eighteenth century. The second wave
was in 1960 to 1970 and the third extends from 1990 to the present. Each
wave deals with separate feminist issues.

The First Wave (1880-1950) sometimes is called the 'old wave'.

Maggie Humm in The Dictionary of Feminist Theory shed lights on the
vision of the first wave. She says: "The term of first wave was coined in
1970. It dates back to the first women suffrage movement in the US and
the United Kingdom. It focused on women equality to men in property
rights, women's right to vote and the right of production. (Humm 78). The
leaders of the movements in the United State were Lucretia Mott, Lucy

14
 (2)
Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony The Feminist
writers used this wave to fight social, cultural, and political inequalities
which they suffered from their homes of origin. At the end of the
nineteenth century, women gained their rights to vote with the act of 1918
which gave women whom were above the age of 21 the right to vote.
Later in 1928, all women above 30 enjoyed the right to vote.

Maggie Humm in her Feminism A Reader states that "the first

wave of feminism represents organized feminism with an emphasis on
reforms in family law, economic opportunities, and international
associations symbolized in the US, by the 1848 Geneva Falls convention
of women (Humm 78). Feminism sought an equality in property rights,
changes in the marriage relationship, and, eventually, in women's voting.

Many prominent writers advocated the social rights of women to

be equal to men. Mary Wollstonecraft published her pamphlet A
Vindication of the Rights of Women which she discussed the women
sexual desire. She considered the grandmother of British feminists. Marie
Stopes (1935) published a book, Married Love that talks about topics
related to women's sexual desire. Margret Fuller has been considered the
most permanent writer in United States in comparison with Marry
Wollstonecraft. She published Women in the Nineteenth century. Maggie
Humm in her Feminism A Reader comments on the vision of first wave
of feminism. She mentions:

First wave feminism, at least in Britain and America, had a progressive

social vision which encompassed suffragism old and new feminism and
welfare feminism. It was represented in Britain by WSPU, WFL and
NUWSS, WILPF. These groups believed that women would become full
citizens in a transformational order when the franchise of 1928, equal
entry into the professions and into higher education, the gradual

15
 elimination of marriage bars in the 1950s, and full access to public,
material space as well as the dismantling of international aggression and
knock down the hurdles to peaceful and equal existence created by male
dominated institutions and practice. (Humm 21)

The second wave referred to the period from 1960 until 1980. It
focused on issues of gender equality, and it included issues like
production. The most prominent figures of this wave were Betty
Friedan. Imelda Whelehan argues that the second wave was a
continuation of the earlier phase of feminism involving the suffragettes
in the UK and USA. Estelle Freedman compares first and second-wave
feminism by saying that the first wave focused on rights such as
suffrage whereas the second wave was largely concerned with other
issues of equality, such as ending discrimination. Martha Rampton in
her article "The Three Waves of Feminism" states:

The second wave was increasingly theoretical based on a fusion of Neo-

Marxism and psycho analytical theory, and began to associate the
subjugation of women with broader critiques of patriarchy, capitalism,
normative heterosexuality, and the women's role as wife and mother.
(Rampton 1)

Finally, the third wave starts in the mid - nineties and continues
until present time. It has come about mostly because young women who
flourished with the second wave wanted a voice of their own. The goals
of this wave are similar to second wave and are really meant not only to
push the second wave along toward its main goal, which is having full
equality but also strives to get rid of the failure feeling which is left
throughout the previous waves.

Julia Kristeva in her article "Women's Time" divided the history of

feminism into three stages: the first stage was a critique of women's
portrait in the works of men's writing which portrayed them negatively.

16
The second stage focused on the establishment of women's writing
opposing men's writings. The third stage came to focus on the gender
differences. (Kristeva 12-13). In A Literature of Their Own, Elaine
Showalter divided the history of feminism into three phases: The
Feminine phase, The Feminist phase, and The Female phase. The
feminine phase mainly focused on the subjection of women to male
dominant traditions "firstly, there is prolonged phase of imitation of the
prevailing modes of dominant tradition, and internalization of its
standards of art and its views on social roles" (Showalter 13).

Ruth Yeazell argues in her review of The Female Tradition, of

showalter's book that women in this phase adopted the dominant male
tradition of writing, because they have no option to express themselves
freely. She explains:

this phase as "imitation" and "internalization" in which the subculture

largely adopts the values and literary forms of the dominant traditiona
phase which extends from the widespread appearance of the male
pseudonym in the 1840s to the death of George Eliot in 1880 ( Yeazell
282).

The second phase is the feminist phase that extended from (1880-
1920). This phase challenged the dominant culture and values to declare
their own ideas and values; Secondly, "there is a phase of protest against
these standards and values and advocacy of minority rights and values,
including a demand for autonomy" (13). Yeazell describes this phase as
an "Advocacy and protest, in which the subculture reject prevailing
values and begins to declare its autonomya stage which showalter
associates with the years between 1880 and the winning of the vote in
1920" (282). They declare their own values and protest against the
dominant patriarchal culture. Daniel Cahill comments:

17
 The advent of the feminist phase produced a wealth sensation fiction
written by women, which many Victorian readers saw as sexually
provocative. But the sensationalists were less preoccupied with sexuality
than with self-assertion and escape from the constrictions of marriage
and family. No longer content to suppress or conceal their protest
against the out own ideals of genteel womanhood, they denigrated the
sentimental codes feminine weakness and affection and satirized the
romantic belief in tragic passion. With the death of George Eliot, the
feminine aesthetic had exhausted itself; and women novelists organized
a need for self assertion rather self-sacrifice or revenge. (Cahill 130)

The third phase (1920- to present) of identity; in this phase, women

expressed their views freely; they rejected the two previous ways of
dependency imitation and protest. They turned to female experience as
the source of their entity. Finally, "there is a phase of self- discovery, a
turning inward from some of the dependency of opposition, a search for
identity"(Showalter 13). Mary Eagleton in her Finding A Female
Tradition makes her point clearly in the following words:

I am looking.at the ways in which the self-awareness of the women

writer has translated into a literary form in specific place and time span,
how this self -awareness has changed and developed and where it may
lead. (Eagleton 15)

Elaine Showalter in "Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness" argues

that feminist criticism could be divided into two categories: Feminist
Critique' and 'gynocriticism'. The former focuses on the misrepresentation
of women's image in the writings of males, to analyze literary works from
Feminist perspectives. The latter focuses on the writings of women; it
aims to establish a feminine way of writing that differs from the male
style.

18
 The world was marked the period between 1917 and the early 1960
as women joined work force; they became aware of their unequal
economic and social status. Feminist groups were affected by other
movements in adopting the techniques of consciousness, protest,
demonstrations, and political lobbying in order to set agenda.

Feminism, as an ideology, has developed over time. It has taken

several brands including, liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist
feminism, social feminism, black feminism, cultural feminism, and many
others.

Rosemarie Tong in Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive

Introduction distinguishes among these theories based on the locus of
woman's oppression in each. "For example, liberal, radical, marxist,
socialist and global feminist (as well as ecofeminist to some women's
subordination Marco-level institutions, such as patriarchy, capitalism, or
maternal feminist, focus on the microcosm of the individual, claiming the
roots of woman's psyche. Liberal feminists seek to end all forms of
discrimination against women by men through political and legal reform
to guarantee that women have the same opportunities with men in
employment, equal pay for equal wok, regardless of sex." (Tong 22)

Liberal feminists states that "the political and legal system can be
used to promote a liberal agenda for all people. Applied to feminism,
early liberal feminist, like Marry Wollstonecraft, J.S Mill, and Harriet
Taylor Mill stressed the importance of educating women, and providing
women equal access to both opportunities and resources in society.
(Lynne. E. FORD 21)

Lynne. E. Ford in Women and Politics states that "the US suffrage

movement and suffrage organizations such as the National Women

19
Suffrage association (NAWSA) extended women's liberation feminist
claims that suffrage was an integral step in achieving political and social
equality across three generation." (Ford 21)

As for radical feminism, it focuses on the power of patriarchy that

oppressed women. They seek to abolish this system which categorized
women as the "other sex." Radical feminists believed that the essence of
women's oppression throughout history is male-controlled capitalism.
They argued that the best way to end women oppression is to end the
Sexism which categorized women as inferior to men. It also includes
many subgroups within its approach, such as, Radical Cultural Feminism,
and Radical Liberation Feminism. (Ford 23)

Radical cultural feminists believe that women should return to their

basic nature that they are superior to men. Lynn. E. Ford in Women in
Politics states "Radical feminist, on the other hand, believes that the
female-feminine qualities are vastly superior to male-
masculinethey try to be like women." Radical feminism argues
that there exists an oppressive patriarchy that is the root cause of the most
serious social problems. Radical feminists are interested in women
liberation from the discrimination in terms of gender that is the essence of
women oppression. (Ford 23)

Marxistsocietal feminism believed that capitalism is the source of

women oppression. Women's dependence on men in her economic side
gave her little position in her society. It focused on the exploitation of
women, either in their homes or job places. Marxist feminism states that
"private property, which gives rise to economic inequality, dependence
political confusion, and ultimately unhealthy social relations between

20
men and women, is the root of women's oppression in the current social
context." (Ford 23)

Friedrich Engels in his The Origins of the Family, Private Property

and the State, claims that "a woman's subordination is not a result of her
biologic disposition, but of social relations, and that the institution of
family, as it exists, is a complex system in which men command women's
services" (Engles15). Black feminists believed that "they had the same
suffering of white women during the history, but black women found out
that there is a discrimination against them in terms of race, rather than in
terms of biological essentialism. Barbara Christian and Barbara Smith,
black feminist critics, have mapped out the radical differences that exist
for a feminist practice which concentrates on the factor of race in
readings and text production; and in this way, they have challenged the
notion of gender as a unitary term." (Ford 26)

Ahdaf Souief in her The Map of Love combines different

relationship between characters from different countries. The novel
consists of two stories that took place one at the beginning of the
twentieth century, and the other at the end of the twenty first century. In
both stories, there is a Western woman and an Eastern man. In both
stories, the characters fall in love and get married. This novel is an
attempt to break the cultural gaps between the West and the East to bring
them together without looking at the negative sides of the two cultures.

D.H. Lawrence in his Women in Love contrasts two love relations

between Ursula and Birkin. Birkin has offered Ursula a new relation
based on equality and mutual respect and flitted abroad with him as his
wife. The love relation of Gudrun and Gerald was empathetic, because
they separated at the end of the novel. Lawrence in Women in Love

21
represents women's ideas and perceptions of their own world that at the
same time represents his own vision; Lawrence focuses all his efforts in
this novel on one of most important characters, Ursula, who expresses
Lawrence's own ideas and his vision of women. Ursula is the woman who
talks about women needs. Lawrence creates Ursula's character that really
aware of her life that makes Birkin falls in love with her. He mentions:
"she was rich, full of dangerous power. She was like a strange
unconscious bud of powerful womanhood. He was unconsciously drawn
to her. She was his future." (Lawrence 121)

Women started writing as men, but it was not right practice to

adopt the dominant culture of writing any longer. They developed their
style of writing that could represent their culture and identity to move
from the adopting dominated culture, protesting against the male culture
to the new culture of self-awareness and self discovery. Women used
literature to expose their own pain and experiences throughout history.
Women widen the cultural gap between women and men by asserting that
the males are bound with responsibility, hardworking, success, and
women were borne to serve men. J.K.K Ruthven states that Culture and
Nature are two forces that dominated women lives and it determines their
identities: "The rival forces which compete discursively for the passion of
'women' used to be called nature and custom. Nature is the way things
are." (Ruthven 45)

The study is an attempt to throw light on the attitude taken by

Ahdaf souief and Lawrence. It is a journey of discovery into the mind of
the two novelists to highlight their attempts to establish equal footing for
women writers in a male-dominated patriarchal society, in addition to
their pioneering efforts to expose the absurdity of conventional feminine
models in resisting the oppression practiced by a male-dominated society
22
on women, by analyzing the two selected novels from a feminist point of
view. The history of the ongoing women's movements was limited to the
nineteenth and twentieth century to show how women's situation during
this time affected their novels. The two novels might belong to different
eras that presented the role of women in patriarchal society, where their
roles are suppressed and presented inadequately.

Hence, the work will focus upon the image of women in these two
novels from the point of view of Ahdaf souief and Lawrence to point to
the iniquities to which women had been exposed. Additionally, the future
of women in the light of the present patriarchal society will be discussed
to refer to the difficulties and pitfalls to which the society of women may
be exposed.

23
 Chapter one

The Search for Identity in Ahdaf Souief's

The Map of Love

The Novelist and the essayist, Ahdaf Souief is commonly known

as the Egyptian author who writes in English. She writes several works
Aisha (1983), The Sandpiper (1996), In The Eye of The Sun (1992), The
Map of Love (1999), and Mezzatera (2004). The Map of Love bridges the
gap between warring cultures to bring them together and it opens a
window for cultural coalition. It is a window of closeness and openness
between the Western and Eastern cultures.

The term 'culture' was coined from the word 'cult', and it was
associated with the intrinsic need of people to deal with other people in
groups and adopting their living and cultures. The term 'culture' was first
used by Matthew Arnold in mid- Victorian period. Arnold in Culture
and Anarchy, that culture is " a pursuit of our total perfection by means of
getting to know, on all matters which concern us, the best which has been
thought and said in the world" (qtd. In Johnson) Arnold also adds that
culture "conceives of human perfection, developing all sides of our
humanity; and as general perfection, developing all parts of our society."
(Arnold 8). Raymond William in his Culture and Society also defines
culture as "a general state or habit of the mind." (Williams 16)

Souief's novels are about the English woman and Egyptian man., In
the Eye of The Sun, talks about the lives of Egyptian women who lived in
Egypt and England. She goes to England to pursue her postgraduate
studies. Her second novel is The Map of Love which tells us about two

24
love stories: one happening at the beginning of the century, while the
other contemporary to the time of writing the novel around 1997.

Anna's awareness of The Eastern grows in her English house,

where she listens to Sir Charles's many times about the orients " savage
nations ha[s] a right to exist" (Souief 13). This urges Anna's ever
questioning mind to seek personal journey to Egypt to visit and explore
the orient land. He careful listening to Charles means that Anna has an
attribute of open- mindness to a variety of thoughts. This reflects that her
identity shaped through her understanding and interrogations of Egypt.

The first story revolves about love story between an Egyptian

nationalist, Sharif Basha Al Baroudi, and an English woman, Anna
Winterbourne who leaves England in 1901 to Egypt. They fell in love and
challenged their societies for the sake of their love. One hundred years
later, the second story takes place at the end of the century. It revolves
about love affair between an Egyptian man, Omar Al Gamrawi, and an
American woman, Isabel Parkman. Omar met Isabel in New York and
they fell in love.

The examination of female experience in this novel shows that

women at the end gained their identity. The novel shows that it belongs to
the third phase of Elaine showalter's three phases of feminism where
women reject both imitation and protest and turn into an autonomous art
which resulted in the self - discovery of women as stated in the history of
feminist writings by Showalter. We see in this novel a different way of
writing from that of men. Elaine Showalter in her New Feminist Criticism
says:

Women reject both the imitation and protest- - two forms of dependency
and turn instead to a female experience as the source of an autonomous

25
 art, extending the feminist analysis of culture to the forms and
techniques of literature. (Showalter 139)

In The Map of Love, there are three women writing, narrating, and
reading stories through different centuries. The story of Anna Winter
Bourne, the narrator is Layla Al Baroudi, the sister of Sharif Al Baroudi,
and the reader is Amal Al Gamrawi, sister of Omar Al Gamrawi. The
novel itself narrates the stories of Anna and Sharif, Isabel and Omar, and
Amal.

In her novel, Souief states that religion, culture, and politics play
the main role in the life of men and women. This novel builds abridge
that helps to bring the Western and Eastern cultures together without
looking at the negative side of the two cultures. Anna in this novel exerts
her efforts to bring the two cultures together through her writings to Lord
Cromer, Sir Charles and others.

Anna had a negative image of the East in general and Egyptian in

particular. She heard, for along time, about Arab women at the agency
when she was in England that their gatherings are bored and they spend
their times in vain. Thus, she changes her view, because she makes
several visits with Sharif's sister, Layla. She found Egypt different from
England. However, she does not find it negatively different as mostly
described at the agency. So Anna wrote to correct the false view of
Westerns about Egypt to Sir Charles: "I do confess I found the company
and conversation mostly pleasing and quite contrary to the prevailing
view of life of the harem being one of indolence and torpor" (Souief 237).
So, she tries to help women in Egypt to fight and struggle for their rights
as she says: "In England society displays itself in public, so the stranger,
even with no entrance to it knows it is there. Here, I have come to see,

26
society exists behind closed doorsbut it is no less society for that"
(Souief 160).

Anna's love affair with Sharif Basha brings her to know Egypt
well. This broadens Anna's understanding of Egyptian culture. Anna and
Sharif fell in love. They have to work together to overcome all hindrances
for the sake of love. Anna achieves what she wants because of
challenging to make her love successful. Anna and Sharif's willingness
understand themselves lead them to look for the similar points that meet
together. Sharif Basha says: "How can he permit to think that an
understanding might be possible between them?" (Souief 262)

Ahdaf souief accentuates the question of language at the heart of

the dialogue of cultures in The Map of Love. Her interest in blending
Arabic Words and registers with English is conspicuous in the way she
transliterates many words like baksheesh, Khalas yakhti, and alf mubarek.
She explains her linguistic fusion in Arabic.

Language forms a huge part of culture of people. We can express

our feelings, folk talks, myths, proverbs, and history. Katherine Slattery
in her article 'China Achebe and Language of the Colonizers' argues that
the issue of language is also raised throughout Achebe's point out the way
which language act as barrier between two cultures. In The Trilogy, he
has turned this idea around. By combing poetic English prose with Igbo
words, phrases, and images, he has attempted to make English also
embracing. Rather rejecting the colonizer's language, he has used it as a
medium through which the experienced of the colonized can be
communicated (Slattery 19 May 1998). Ngugi Wa Thoingo argues that
writings in African Languages step toward cultural identity and
independence from centuries of European exploitations. (Thoingo 1986)

27
Susan VanZanten Gallagher in "Linguistic Power: Encounter with Chinua
Achebe." The Christian Century states:

When someone asked if Things Fall Apart had ever been translated into
Igbo, Achebe's mother tongue, he shook his head and explained that
Igbo exists in numerous dialects, differing from village to village.
Formal, standardized, written Igbo -- like many other African languages
each speaking a different dialect." The resulting 'Union Igbo' bore
little relationship to any of the six dialects--"a strange hodge-podge with
no linguistic elegance, natural rhythm or oral authenticity"--yet the
missionaries authorized it as the official written form of the Igbo
languages. Achebe would not consent to have his novel translated into
this "linguistic travesty" Union Igbo. "Consequently, one of the world's
great novels, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, is
unable to appear in the language of the very culture that it celebrates and
mourns. This irony seems an apt symbol for the complex ways Western
Christianity has both blessed and marred the cultures of Africa.
(Gallagher 260)

Anna and Sharif communicate in French because both of them

could speak French well. They discover that French is a common ground
of the harmonization, so their conversations are conducted in French.
Souief uses French as a third language between Arabic and English to be
strategic tool of communication. Souief uses French to mean that the two
are equal away from the colonial concepts.

Sharif and Anna have a mutual feeling of ''otherness" with the use
of French in their conversation. Sharif says: "it [French] makes foreigners
of us both; it is good that I should have to come someway to meet you"
(Souief 157). Anna comments "there is a problem of language. I have
conducted my friendship in French, but I am now resolved to really learn
Arabic" (Souief 160). Besides, Anna finds something special in speaking
French, when he asks her "does it trouble you that you can't speak to me
28
in Arabic, "Anna replies" French makes us foreigners of us both" (Souief
152). Anna describes him in terms of foreignness because they do not use
their mother tongue: Arabic and English. Layla narrates that "But she can
not see her own people.and they cannot or will not see her." (Souief
465)

In addition to the use of French language as a logistic tool of

communication, souief tends to use Arabic in her novel to refer to the
dynamic of Arabic and how it works in English to let the reader know
how Arabic works in English. Anna joins Layla, Zainab Hanim, and their
Egyptian servants they discussed the new women matters:

-Al mar' ah al- Jadidah, "The New Women"

'Well done!' cries Layla, clapping her hands. 'See how well she is

Learning Mama?'

'She is quick, the name of prophet guard her' (Souief 374).

Souief said in her interview with Joseph Massed that "in The Map
of Love, there is a constant attempt to render Arabic into English, not to
translate phrases, but to render the dynamic of Arabic, how it works, into
English, So there is this question of how to open a window into another
culture"(qtd. In Luo 78)

Anna faced many challenges to make her love successful. She left
her home land to live in another country; she lived with people other than
her; she had to learn the language cannot or will not see her" (Souief
465) she had to adapt totally new Islamic culture, while she is Christian,
and she had to go against her country's policy in getting married to an
Egyptian nationalist. Basically, she had to defy every thing to be with her
love, Sharif Basha. Sharif told her "our ways are so different. Let's be

29
patient with each other" (Souief 353). They have to face serious
challenges that were imposed upon them by their societies and they have
to emancipate from social restrictions.

Sharif had to challenge the accusation of betraying of his

government once he get married to a Western lady. Anna, in turn, should
encounter the decision of her country representation for the denial of her
marriage to an Arab nationalist. So each of them have to challenge the
political views of his/ hers country not only to be with her but also to help
achieve a cultural understanding between the two countries through their
individual experience.

Their experience would be a bridge for cultural understanding

between their countries. When Sharif and Anna went to register their
marriage, they received a severe objection from the representation of her
country. The denial for the marriage approval was apparent in Lord
Comer interview with them. He expressed his belief that Anna is making
a big mistake and she is unaware of her decision to marry Sharif. He says
to Lady Anna,

Do you realize what you are doing?'' Also has to converse with her
alone saying "my dear, you are making a mistake, and his voice was
sorrowful now, and anxious.'my staff will tell you of the young women,
we find wandering about, having contracted, such marriages." (Souief
321)

He insisted that if she gets married to Sharif she will lose her rank
and position. Sharif replies vehemently, " she is aware of great honor the
lady does him, If she loses her position in your society because of this
marriage will be your society fault- and its loss" (Souief 322). He also
adds that "the circles she will be moving in will give her all the

30
consideration due to both to her rank and to her position as his wife"
(Souief 322).

In addition to Lord Comer's refusal for their marriage, she also

confronts opposition from her close maid and her friends at the agency,
but this objection did not hinder Anna to be commitment in her marriage
with Sharif. Similar to Anna, Sharif was accused of betraying of his
country, due to his marriage with Anna. This falls within the phase of
identity or self - awareness (self discovery) for her self. Anna becomes
like men; she shares the same challenge, suffering, struggle and she
should defy her society like Sharif, who would be accused of betrayal of
his government, due to his marriage. As showalter said "women reject
both the imitation- and protesttwo forms of dependencyand turn
instead to female experience as the source of an autonomous art,
extending the feminist analysis of culture to the forms and techniques of
literature" ( Showalter 139). Women like Anna, in the third phase, seem
to have no time for theses worries; they now face the exact same
challenges as men.

Anna's affair with Sharif helped him in translating the news of

England to him and she invested her relation with Sharif to correct the
false portrait of the Arabs in the Western world through her writings to
her country men like Sir Charles and others to help her husband, because
he loved his country too much. Anna says: "for his purpose, his vacation
is Egypt" (Souief 382), which means that Sharif loved Egypt and it
occupied the biggest part of his life, while Layla comments that '' with
Anna at his side he met foreign visitors and hoped to influence them"
(Souief 473). Through Anna's experience in Egypt she forms her own
ideas about the Egyptian society. She comments:

31
 I fancy it is somewhat coming to England and meeting the servants and
the shopkeeper and forming your ideas of English society upon that. No,
it is worse for in England's society displays it in public, so the stranger,
even with no entrance to it, knows it is there. Here, I have come to see
society exists behind doorsbut it is not less society for that. (Souief
160)

Anna's affair with Sharif leads her to open the door for a better
understanding between the two cultures. She encourages the Westerners
not to trust of what is said about the Arabs through her personal
experience in Egypt. Ahdaf souief makes Anna go through so many
challenges to test the strength of her love. She found them vastly different
from what she heard about them at the agency. Anna's resistance to
overcome the challenges makes her husband happy and his family too.
Layla described Sharif's relation with Anna and how they were too happy
with her:

I can say in all truth that my brother and Anna found happiness and joy
in their marriage. And Anna lived among us in genteelness and mercy.
She brought companionship to my mother and love to my son and even
some joy to the heart of my poor father. And for me, she became my
close friend for she had none of the arrogance or the coldness we were
used to imagining in her country-men. (Souief 372)

Sharif's love for Amal is the reason that makes her stay in Egypt in
the first place. It makes her sacrifice the prestigious life in England to be
with Sharif and change her daily habits. The effort Anna exerts to save
her love and make her husband happy is not described in details to point
out the female experience and sacrifices in love and life.

Souief makes her characters look for something real and fight for
it. Anna discovers many things through her tour in Egypt. The most
important thing she discovered is herself identity. Women should write

32
from their experience and they form their through their bodies. They have
to be aware of their identities. Anna gets her experience through her
body, she described her first night with Sharif that her body was absent,
but this is the first time that thought her body is present. Souief uses the
female body as a powerful means for women. She says:

I have had as the late queen said so famously half a century ago a most
bewildering and glorifying night. And now, today, I feel as I hardly
know how to describe it as if my body had been absent and now it is
present. As though I am for the first time present in my body. (Souief
335)

Anna reaches understanding of the self and the other during her
stay in Egypt. This makes her feel content of her stay in Egypt. She says:

I am content. If I look at myself with my old eyes, I see an indolent

woman. A woman content to lie on a cushion in the garden, in this
miraculous October sunshine.. Each thing that happensand there are
things that happens; small thingsadds to my contemnent, until I would
say as they do her, May God bring this to a good end.. My baby stirs
on the cushion beside me. Nur al- Hayah, light of our lives. I think of
her father and feel that melting of my limbs as I sense again the warmth
of his hand gentle on, "me I murmur,' please.' Please what?' he
whispers kiss me. (Souief 401)

The issues of veil and education were questioned in this novel.

Qasim Amin talked about women's education and how it is important for
them because it is crucial for their life. He says that "to take, the simplest
matter, how can children be brought up with the right out look by
ignorant mothers? How can a man find support and companionship with
an ignorant wife?" (Souief 381)

Sharif supports women's education and gives them the right to

wear the veil or not "women' will decide for themselves about the veil.
33
But if we can agree that girls should be educated." (Souief 381) Sharif's
friend, Ahmad, supports women education and he demands that education
be compulsory for girls. He says: "if we are to have a law that makes
education up to a certain age compulsory, then that should apply to girls
as well as to boys. We must start in the right way.'' (Souief 381)

Sharif encouraged Anna to support women's education too. She

knows that her husband wants to educate women in Egypt and he can
make a change in women's life. Anna says: "Later that night my husband
said to me, ' yes, the laws should be changed.' And if I had my way they
would be changed tomorrow." (Souief 381)

Sharif and Anna played an essential role in supporting women's

education. Sharif wants to know what women want to decide for
themselves "women will decide for themselves" (Souief 381). Anna
wants to know what women want through visits with Layla to women's
gatherings. She says: "let us go and listen" (Souief 377). She wrote about
what women want and her husband's effort in working for women's rights
in Egypt.

In addition Anna and Sharif call for women's rights in the novel;
we have also Zainab Fawwaz, the first Arab female novelist. Anna met
Fawwaz in one of Harem gatherings. She called for women's rights
through her articles on women's issues. Ann says that "she is originally
Syrian and is very well thought of and has published several articles on
the women questions." (Souief 233) Also Anna said that "Madam
Fawwaz has published a collection of short biographies of ladies" (Souief
237). Anna wrote to Sir Charles about women that she met in women
gatherings:

34
 Dear Charles that you would find these ladies congenial. They uphold
the idea that a woman's first duty is to her family, merely arguing that
she can perform this duty better, if she is better educated. They also
write articles arguing against the enforced seclusion of women and point
out that women of the fellah class have always worked side by side with
their men folk and no harm has come to society as a result. (Souief 237)

Thus, the female characters in Souief's novel call and work for
women rights. Each female character serves the woman question in her
way which makes the novel especially focused on women's issues. Souief
uses her female characters to focus on women issues.

One hundred years later, the second story in the novel takes place
between the descendant of Anna and Sharif, Isabel, and Omar Al
Gamrawi whom they met in New York. Isabel is an American journalist,
who comes to Egypt to study and explore the idea of millennium. She
chose Egypt, because it is older and it has a big record of history. Isabel
says: "I think may be the millennium only matters to us..yes, but Egypt
is older. It is like going to the beginning. Six thousand years of recorded
history" (Souief 19). She met Omar in New York, and she told him that
when she emptied her parent's house, she found a trunk full of dairies in
Arabic and English. She showed the trunk to Omar and he advised her to
take the trunk with her since she goes to Egypt and they will interpret the
dairies to her. He said to her, since you go, there go to my sister, Amal,
she will interpret them to you, because she is interested in such a
translation.

Isabel falls in love with Omar in New York, and comes to see his
sister to know the story of letters in the trunk. Isabel and Omar never get
married because he was not committed himself to her. He told her "I am
old enough to be your father" (Souief 180). Amal notices that when Omar

35
speaks to Isabel, she can hear his voice. She says: "I know she was
waiting for him to go back. When he speaks to her his voice shifts into a
deeper and more resonant pitch: the pitch of sexual tenderness. But he is
unwilling to commit himself." (Souief 391)

Through the examination of female experience, the female love

experience of Isabel can not be compared to that of Anna. Omar wants to
be away from the issue of marriage with Isabel because he is old enough
to be with her and due to his sexual relation with her mother, so he may
be her father. Isabel does not mind if he had such relation, she just cares
about her love with him. She is willing to forgo everything for him. Isabel
said "It doesnt matter" (Souief 180) she is happy to have a child from
Omar, but he fails to afford due to a flaw in his characters. Isabel is not
sure if Omar loves or even shares her feelings. She says:

I dont even know if he shares my feeling. I think he likes being with

me. We've been out together and the chemistry is there and it could not
be there if he didnt feel it too. May be he thinks the age difference is
problem. He is fifty-five. It's hard to believe. It sounds so old, but if you
didnt know, you'd think he was forty, forty-five, wouldnt you? I mean,
he is so young. (Souief 183)

Isabel says " But I just wish, he would- God, I just want him so
much... if he was in love with me as I am with him." (Souief 183). Amal
responds that" Ya ha bibti. He is old enough to be your father." (Souief
184)

Isabel is like Anna, leaves to be close to her man, but this doesnt
make her close to him since no one knows where he is or when he comes
back. Anna found Sharif, Isabel found Omar and Amal could not find the
right man. She knew that she liked Tariq but she disliked his political
views and married as well. She decided to live alone in her home and

36
sometimes go to her village. Omar tries to escape from the commitment
in many different ways and he can through Isabel is willing to forgo
every thing for him. Omar had a sexual affair with Isabel's mother along
time ago when he was very young and he thought he might be Isabel
father. She does not mind his affair with her mother and she refuses to
believe that he might be her father. Isabel as the other female character
sacrifice every thing for the sake of genuine female experience through
which she seems to achieve her dream of being close to Omar, but she
can not achieve her dreams. This makes the female characters live up to
their dreams and respect each other's decisions

The story of Sharif and Anna ends dramatically. Sharif Al Baroudi

was murdered. Souief's ending of the novel is symbolic. She wants to tell
us that the novel ends with incidents and she does not give us a clear
answer for that. His murder is symbolic because its reasons are feminine.
Through Anna's writing to sir Charles, she wants to correct the false
portrait of the Arab in the whole world.

Souief in this novel does not view men as the female counterpart.
In the other hand, women work side by side to prove they are equal. They
work hand in hand through their life for the sake of love and life. Souief
celebrates the female body and costumes as praising the veil, Harem
gatherings, and Henna bridal rituals. Moreover, souief views women as
trusted partner that we can depend on in our life.

37
 Chapter Two

Man Woman Love Relationship in D.H in Lawrence's

Women in Love

David Herbert Lawrence is an English novelists, poet, playwright,

essayist, and literary critic. "He was born in 1885 in a small mining
village at Eastwood in the Nottingham countryside. (Lawrence 1920).
His works concentrate on women and about their quests. He was one of
the influential figures in the 20th century literature. He wrote several
literary works which focused mainly on women issues; such as The White
Peacock in 1911, which discussed the result of choosing unsuitable man,
The Trespasser in (1912) The Lost Girl (1914), and The Rainbow (1915)
which talked about the two sisters of Brangwen family. He talks about
free and open sex for women. Women in Love in 1920 is the sequel of The
Rainbow. Then, he wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1928, which tells the
story of married woman to a wealthy man, and how she falls in love with
one of her husband employees. Also, he wrote The Plumed Serpent when
he was in Mexico. Ultimately, he wrote The Man Who Died and it was
the last work of Lawrence in 1929. He died on the second of March 1930
at the age of 44.

In The Literary Supplement, where the first review for Women in

Love appeared: "Mr. Lawrence's conception of love in Women in Love is
the same as it has been little definition outside his own pages. There
unfortunately, it is defined with Jubilant brutality again and gain" (1921,
371). John Middleton Murry in his Nation and Athenaeum states:

We stand by the consciousness and the civilization of which the

literature we know is the first flower; Mr. Lawrence is in rebellion
against both. If we try him before our court, he contemptuously rejects

38
 the jurisdiction. The things we prize are the things he would destroy,
what is triumph to him is catastrophe to us; and he is the most interesting
figure in it. But he must be shown no mercy". (Murry 168)

Lawrence worked on feminist issues, and participated in a

campaign which worked for women suffrage. Hillary Simpson in
Lawrence and Feminist movement states that:

In his early life, Lawrence was therefore surrounded by women who

were involved in the suffrage campaignfrom the deep commitment
of Sallie Hopkins, and Alice Dax to the more marginal interest of Jessie
Champers and Louie Burrows. The general issue for women's rights was
much in the public eye, and the suffrage movement featured in much of
the fiction of the period. (Simpson 22)

Mark Schorer in D. H. Lawrence: A Collection of Critical Essay:

Women in Love and Death. He mentions:

Lawrence lets the characters to choose their fate and destiny through
their social relations. He gave the characters their freedom to choose
their suitable life. Schorer said that Lawrence characters 'have their
social existence and they have their psychic existence; the first is
inevitably an expression of the second, but in the second lies their whole
motivation. As two becomes more and more important.. And as the
two others take the way of life. (Schorer 51)

Women in Love expresses Lawrence's personal response to the First

World War and to modern European intellectual and artistic culture, and
finally to his relationship with Frieda, his wife. It can be understood as a
critique of modern society that seeks to present a fruitful life form by
constituting a new world based on human relationship and mutual
understanding.

Lawrence succeeded in creating suitable characters that suited his

critique to modern society and the new world of human relationship and
39
mutual understanding. Though the novel was considered an insult,
Lawrence agreed to allow Thomas Seltzer, an American publisher, to
distribute the novel to the private subscribers in 1920. Martin Secker
persuades Lawrence to alter several passages, and delete some passages
in order to avoid the charge and to improve the commercial viability of
the novel. This is why there has been a great debate among the critics as a
violation of conventions and values, rather than an art.

John Bull in D. H Lawrence: A Composite Biography writes about

the novel: "I dont claim to be a literary critic. But I know dirt when I
smell it and here it is a heap.Festering put rid heaps which smell to
high heaven" (Bull 90). Thus, one can say that Lawrence in Women in
Love seems to create a new world which is based on mutual relationship
between human beings. He said 'no' to the world of industrialism and
materialism. He describes the effect of industrialism on his village and
how people are distressed of mining. Sandor Radnti, Hungarian scholar,
in Mass culture makes it clear that "An artist is one who says 'no' to the
world for he does not recognize his home in it, an artist is one who can
say 'no' to the world for he creates a new one (Radnti 30).

The novel opens with the wedding of Gerald's younger sister and
with the boredom experienced by the Brangwen sisters, who are bound to
tiresome work in a small northern England town of their birth. Birkin is
attracted to the willful and domineering woman Ursula. In turn, Gerald
pursues Gudrun, and the four decide to vacation together in the Alps.
Gerald who is self-destructive is also disappointed by Gudrun's cruel
rejection of his affection, eventually he commits suicide.

Lawrence's writings, however, concentrate on the mutual

relationship between the sexes. He shows his great concern and respect

40
for women quests in gaining their rights. In contrast, his focus on feminist
issues does not negate his tendency to write against the domination of
women. This idea appears clearly in Women in Love, where a positive and
negative portrait of women was presented, and exposing two kinds of
relationship: fruitful and destructive. The fruitful relationship is the love
relationship between Ursula and Birkin, the school teachers, while the
destructive one has been between Gerald, the mine owner, and Gudrun,
the artist, who was affected by the materialist tendencies prevailing at that
time that led up finally to his suicide.

Lawrence in Women in Love aims to present a new woman who

had different views about her needs at her time. He shows Ursula as a
modern woman that she knows what she wants in her life and this is what
makes Birkin interested in her and finally falls in love with her. The novel
can take us into an adventure to discover or point out the characteristics
of women and how they are presented in this novel through their
discussions. We notice that Ursula and Gudrun are missing something
important in their life.

Both Ursula and Gudrun discuss their image of their future love
relations and marriage, as the novel opens, we note a first illustration of
bond between two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun. While Gudrun sketches
and Ursula sews, both feel a strong inclination not to marry. On the other
hand, both feel that they miss something important, if they do not.
Gudrun feels a strong sense of boredom claiming "don't you find, that
things fall to materialize? Nothing Materialize! Everything withers in the
bud" (Lawrence 7). and Ursula feels confused, unsure at this moment,
after the achievements she reaches, she still feel unsatisfied, she thinks
that the " active living has been suspended." (Lawrence 8)

41
 As the conversation on Love and Marriages continues, we notice a
mix of love and hate between the two sisters. Gudrun is hostile towards
her sensitive sister while Ursula admires Gudrun "with all her soul"
(Lawrence 9). She feels a sense of suppression from Gudrun. To get rid
of the tension, they decided to go to a wedding party of Crich's family,
where their future of relationships with Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich
starts clearly both Gudrun and Ursula fear the suffocating, miserable way
of life they currently lead in the town of Beldover. As Gudrun comes
closer to Ursula for support, Ursula can feel her suffering because she
feels a similar fear, although both of them share this sense of pain
because she can not stand the sight of these ugly, strange people. Ursula
suffers because she is unsure of her future in this place. "She was afraid
of the depth of her feeling against the home, the milieu, the whole
atmosphere and condition of this absolute life. Her feeing frightened her"
(Lawrence 10). Here, Gudrun reflects her point of view. It clearly
portrays her broad sense of knowledge and talent. Gudrun is able to know
people and recognize them well. "Gudrun watches them closely, with a
sense of curiosity. She saw each one as a complete figure, like a character
in a book, or a subject in a picture a finished creation." (Lawrence 14)

The first discussion of Ursula and Gudrun is about their life and
how marriage is the next step in their life. Through out their discussions,
we notice that there is tension between them, because sometimes Ursula
feels a sense of suppression from Gudrun. However, they decide to go to
the wedding party taking place near their home at Willey Green "shall we
go out and look at the wedding". At the wedding, each of them is
attracted by a young man. Gudrun is attracted by the bride's brother,
Gerald the son of colliery mines. He seems to be successful and
handsome man. Ursula is attracted by school inspector Rupert Birkin.

42
Gudrun sees people as completed figures and they are easy to control
"Gudrun watched them closely, with a sense of curiosity, like a character
in a book or a subject in a picture, or a marionette in a theater, a finished
creation" (Lawrence 11). She has a great desire to control, and this will be
clarified through her relationship with Gerald.

Gudrun is able to see people and categorize them at the same time.
Moreover, she has a great lust for power and control. We even learn and
sense this through heart, as we watch her carved tiny figure that fit in the
palm of her hand. Ursula also mentions that Gudrun enjoys looking at
things through the wrong end of the opera class, in order to make them
appear smaller than they really are. This act contributes to reveal
Gudrun's desire for power, as smaller things are much easier to control. In
addition, Gudrun also tries to dominate Ursula through her speech to
convince her of wrongs of Birkin. This means that Gerald Crich has
become victim to Gudrun's powerful domination as he is unknown to
Gudrun.

Thus, the relationship between Ursula and Birkin is quite different

from that of Gudrun's and Gerald's love. Their relationship seems to be
successful. Birkin also develops a great interest in Ursula. However,
Birkin does not fall victim to her, but evokes a very real and soulful
emotion in Ursula. Ursula is unlike Gudrun who sees the other people
around her as completed figures. Ursula appears unaware in recognizing
the nature of human beings rather just perceiving them. Ursula knows
people's emotions. She is nave and perhaps innocent in comparison with
Gudrun, but she holds a power in her inner thought that the other
character lack. Therefore, she does not experience any feeling or desires
for dominating the others. Gudrun tries more than once to convince
Ursula of Birkin's wrongs, and she is convinced, but she discovers later

43
that Gudrun's speech is false. She feels that Gudrun's vision toward
Birkin is false, and she is, in turn, fully devoted to Birkin.

Lawrence in Women in Love presents different women characters

to prove that not all women are the same; they are different even if they
are sisters living in the same house. He exposes positive like Ursula or
negative like Gudrun, who has a great lust for power in her psyche.

We notice through the relationship of Ursula and Birkin that Ursula

is dominant like her sister but in different way "was afraid that he would
stone the moon again" (Lawrence 327). Evidently, Birkin is trying to
destroy something in him, as well as in Ursula, so that they can achieve
freedom together and share equilibrium and balance through relationship.

Through out Birkin's marriage proposal to Ursula's father, when

Ursula is not present, we notice that when Ursula arrives. She is unable to
give them an answer. She was afraid of committing and refuses to reply.
Immediately, we notice a change in the character of Ursula. She seems
triumphant, maintaining a strong will of decision. In turn, Ursula
becomes independent, self completed, and self responsible.

There is another example that shows how the powerful women's

visions of men re, like the bond between Ursula and Hermione. In chapter
twelve, ''Carpeting'' (Lawrence 175) Here, Birkin and Ursula, have moved
to a very important stage of their relationship. Despite the fact that
women are different from each other, they seem to agree that Birkin is
analytical at times in order to have great understanding. Hermione argues
that Birkin's tearing

he (An only tear thing He really is like a boy who must pull every thing
to pieces to see how it is made...'Like tearing a bud to see what the
flower will be like. (Lawrence 186) Ursula replied "And that kills every

44
 thing..it does not allow any possibility of lowering. It is purely
destructive." (Lawrence 187)

Through the study of love affair between males and females in this
novel, we find out that Lawrence wants to draw the attention of his
readers to the importance of women in males' life. He reveals and exposes
women as a destructive factor in our life. He exposes the successful
relationship as a reflection of the positive woman in the case of Ursula
and Birkin, while he exposes the negative relationship as a reflection of
the destructive woman in the case of Gudrun and Gerald.

Lawrence in Women in Love wants women to be like Ursula

positive, aware of their decisions, fully liberated, intellectual,
independent, and respectful to others. In most of Lawrence's works, he
uses the character of Ursula to give a depiction of responsible and
independent woman. In The Rainbow which is a sequence of Women in
Love, Lawrence describes Ursula's liberty as:

She knows that soon she would not want to become as self- responsible
personan all containing will in her for complete independence,
complete social independence, complete independence from any
personal authority, kept her dollishly at her studies..she knew that she
had always her price of ransom her femaleness. Therefore, was the
mysterious man's world to be adventured upon, the world of daily work,
and duty, and existence as working member of the community..she
wanted to make her conquest also of this man's world. (Lawrence 343)

According to Lawrence's feminist viewpoint, it is obvious through

Ursula's character that he longs for creating a great change in the history
of women, especially in jobs and education, we see that short after
Lawrence's death the whole social norms become ready to accept women
independence and freedom, and offer them more opportunities to their
life and positions.
45
 Moreover, Lawrence emphasizes on the importance theme of
marriage in Women in Love, a kind of bond between the two sexes in a
great union, since through marriage Lawrence intends to show that it is
meaningful and it strengthens love relationship is a solution of the
problem of mechanical civilization. We see that Ursula's and Birkin's
relationships are very successful despite their permanent conflicts but
Lawrence suspects through Birkin's character to find a complete way of
life in marriage., Birkin seems to be doubtful if marriage is sufficient or
not, he seems to be unsure of the total value of the marriage, and
discusses how constant conflicts affect marriage, in addition he illustrates
the importance of the union between the two sexes. This is clear through
the conversation between Birkin and Gerald. "I do believe in a permanent
union between man and woman. Chopping about is merely an exhaustive
process. But a permanent relation between man and woman is not the last
word- it is certainly isnt'' (Lawrence 469).

However, Birkin seems confused in this novel, even his positive

beliefs are confused, and he does not consider the love between himself
and Ursula as sufficient and absolute. He states: "And if you do not
believe in she asked mocking. simply in the end of the world, and grass.
He was beginning to feel a fool. I believe in the unseen hosts; he said."
(Lawrence 168).

Birkin looks for establishing a new kind of relationship, namely

man- man relationships. Like Lawrence he believes in the importance of
man- man relationships, Lawrence through Birkin's character shows that
he is unsure of marriage and even sex. Therefore he decides to travel
away with Ursula. He said:

Wandering seemed to her like restlessness, dissatisfaction. Where will

you wander to? She asked. I dont know. I feel as if I would just meet

46
 you and we'd set off just towards the distance Thats the thing to do-
let's wander off.' 'Yes-, she said, thrilled at the thought of travel. But to
her it was only travel. To be free, he said. 'To be free, in a free place
with a few other people!' 'Yes she said wistfully. Those 'few other
people depressed her (Lawrence 419)

According to Lawrence's view the cause of their unhappiness is a

sensual failure, Lawrence through Birkin's character intends to put a new
set of value to recover the will and new meaning to the natural
fulfillment.

Birkin here longs for another bond outside marriage " an eternal
union with a man too: another kind of love." (Lawrence 644) he sees that
marriage offers the only opportunity for self- fulfillment, he looks at
manly love as supplementary support to marriage to make it more
sufficient. However, only later Birkin recognizes that the relationships
between men and women are more successful, at the end of the novel he
feels as he freezes to death in the mountains, he sees that if Gerald held
true to their friendship this would give Birkin more strength and peace, he
weeps because he looses friendship. He tells Ursula that if Gerald
accepted the offered love of Birkin, this would make a difference to them
all. He says:

Those who die, and dying still can, love, still believe, do not die. They
live still in the beloved. Gerald might still have been living with his
friend, even after his death. He might have lived with his friend, a
further life." (Lawrence 563)

Lawrence thinks that marriage can not prevent the self destruction
and the dissolution in man's life; Ursula does not agree with him, she
criticizes his interest in manly love as "obstinacy a theory, a perversity."
(Lawrence 644)

47
 Anyhow, the novel concludes that the love relationship between
Birkin and Ursula progresses successfully. Their love is considered as
triumph of sensual will and their ability to break all the connections with
society and wander away to find a better life in another place for away
from grief and inhuman society is the best way which Lawrence approves
of, he himself wanders with his wife Frieda to live a better satisfied life.

However, Lawrence, through the character of eternal love manly

love relationship, threatens the marriage relationships and undermines the
love relationship between men and women. Gerald's death proves that the
love relationship between men is impossible. Ursula said to Birkin " you
can not have it, because it is false, impossible'' (Lawrence 644) Birkin
like Lawrence seems to respond to the failure of manly love and to the
death of Gerald with more grief and sorrow than women's love.

Birkin, for instance, is afraid of being assaulted by the female

strength, and Lawrence thinks that women are destructive force that
threatens the manliness; his charge against devouring female is laid
against Gudrun, he considers her as responsible for destroying Gerald.
However, this is somewhat a hostile representation of women by
Lawrence, who shows a kind of hatred for this type of women, although
he can not overcome women or live without their love.

Lawrence uses the character of Ursula to represent the real portrait

of his wife, Frieda. He creates a great woman who struggles for liberation
and lives fully independent. Ursula also represents Lawrence expectation
from the women he loves, women whom he wants to be mentor and self
responsible.

48
 Lawrence expresses his deep emotions for his wife, Frieda through
a letter to a friend in the 17th of April 1912, which shows the strength of
his feeling toward Frieda. He makes this point clear in the following:

She is ripping- she is the finest women I've ever met- you must above all
things meet her. She is the daughter of Baron Von Richthofen, of the
ancient and famous house of Richthofen- but she's splendid, she is
really.Mrs.- is perfectly unconventional, but really good in the best
sense. Oh, but she is the woman of a life time (Aldous 8)

Like most of Lawrence's novels we can see how women are

portrayed sensually and spiritually and who is a real reflection of
Lawrence's own women. As in our case study, Women in Love can treat
with Lawrence's view of women, and their images. Lawrence thinks that
women should be treated in a special way because they are very sensitive
and they have the right to discover the world around them. Lawrence's
ideas were not accepted by his society at his time, but later on they are
accepted as a result of women's movements.

Moreover, Lawrence through this novel seems to encourage

women to speak out against the dominance and control of men that were
imposed upon them by patriarchal and society too. I think that Lawrence
wants women to be able to decide their destinies and be able to choose
what they find mentally and spiritually acceptable.

Martin Green in The Von Richthofen Sisters: The Triumphant and

the Tragic Modes of Love Else and Frieda Von Richthofen, Otto Gross,
Max Weber, and D.H. Lawrence sums up what Lawrence wants from
women. He says:

He did not want to show women finding fulfillment in the world of men.
Ursula was to be Frieda she was to go into and through the world of
men, but out the other side, into a higher form of what I have called the

49
 world of women. There, ideally, she would achieve a life so splendid
that it would compel men also into admiring emulation, and so, to some
degree, save the world just as much as suffrage claimed it was going to."
(Green 343)

Lawrence wants a great change to happen to the feminization

concept, he wants women to be more active in their life, he recognizes
through the Brangwen that these women look for another way and style o
life than theirs, the world, women wants to know and discover more
about life, they want to enlarge their scope and face the dominant men.
These women who are depicted by Lawrence do not want to be ordinary,
they have a sense of where they are going, and they want to be proud of
their identities.

Ursula studies and gets out into that man's world to discover her
individuality, she rejects the social and familial restrictions in her society,
and her mother generations way of life, she wants to discover the world
of men and to free herself spiritually. Also Ursula is depicted a passionate
young woman, who is whose most important demand is to be proud, free
like man but at the same time. She is aware of being submissive to men
will threat her independence and self freedom.

Through the analysis of the novel, we notice that there is a theme

of duality which enables us to understand the female characters in
relation with males according to Lawrence's viewpoint.

Peter Preston and Peter Hoare in their D.H Lawrence and the Modern
World point out that Lawrence makes his conception of Duality clear.
They mention:

Men and women are roughly, the embedment of Love and Law: they are
two complementary parts. According to him, what we want is always the

50
 perfect union of the two, which is the Law of the Holy spirit, the Law of
consummates marriage. (Hoare and Peterson 74)

Moreover, Lawrence is also concerned with the conflict between

the two genders which he sees positive and contribute to make more
mutual understanding between Birkin and Ursula. This conflict leads to
more perfect relationships between men and women, and it enhances the
love relationship between men and women.

Lawrence in Women in Love represents different models of women

in the 20th century, showing their role and importance in the world of
men, although he sometimes reveals women as devil such as his portrait
of Gudrun, he also reveals Ursula as a good model of female who is more
preferred by the readers than Gudrun's character. However, Lawrence
hints that both must accept other's gender role and differences; they must
share mutual love and desires.

Whatever Lawrence may be considered by critics, I

think that no other novelist respect women and treat them with such a
great respect, Lawrence finds even that men are responsible for the failure
of women's general conditions. In fact Lawrence and many other
novelists during his time have contributed to develop women's position
and encourage women's movement. The improvements of women's
conditions as a social construct, gender identity, are all issues that greatly
interested Lawrence which leads me to consider him as a feminist writer.

Lawrence, throughout his distinguished writings, reveals himself as

a genius writer, who is able to portray women in their life, but at the same
time never gives up the thought of a rebirth. He reflects his own
experience in the novel, particularly his life experience with his wife,
Frieda. He thinks that the ambition of the novelist himself to give fruitful

51
picture of life. The relation between Gudrun and Gerald seems a wish for
destruction of the self, while Birkin and Ursula's relation seems a wish to
have a meaningful life, and thus becomes a motive, or rather an
instruction in giving birth and hope in the future life of men and woman.
Women in love becomes an icon in literature, and it is also an icon of
inspiration for countless people. His writings remain a proof of his genius
as a novelist, and as an insightful feminist who strongly supports
women's issues.

52
 Chapter Three

Depicting Modernity in Lawrence's Women in Love

Lawrence wants to create a special relation to modernity through
the character of Ursula that resembles his wife, Frieda. Lawrence
describes Ursula as self responsible and independent. He relates Ursula to
the idea of modern woman that she is independent and knows what she
wants in her life. Lawrence writes to Edward Garnett in 18 April:

I can write what I feel strongly about: and that, at present, is the relation
between men and women. After all, it is the problem of today, the
establishment of a new relation, or the adjustment of old one, between
men and womenin a month the sister will be finished. (Aldous 200)

Anthony Giddens in Conversation with Giddens: Making a sense

of Modernity describes his vision of modernity as:

A shortened term for modern society, or industrial civilization. Portrayed

in more detail, it is associated with (1) a certain of attitudes toward the
world, the idea of the world as open to transformation, by human
civilization; (2) a complex of economic institutions, especially industrial
production, and market economy; (3) a certain range of political
institutions, including the nation-state and mass democracy. Largely as a
result of these characteristics, modernity is vastly more dynamic than
any previous types of social order. It is a society more technically, a
complex of institutions which unlike any proceeding culture, lives in the
future rather than in the past. (Giddens 94)

Lawrence in Fantasia of the Unconscious presents a description of

modernity progress in the world. He mentions:

Onward, Christian soldier, towards the great terminus where bottles of

sterilized milk for the basis are delivered at the bedroom windows by

53
 noiseless aeroplanes each morn, where the science of dentistry is so
perfect that teeth are implanted in a man's mouth without his knowing it,
where twilight sleep is so delicious that every woman longs for her next
confinement, and where no body ever has to do anything except turn a
handle now and then in a spirit of universal love. (Lawrence 98)

Thus, the novel is more an art than an autobiography; he tries to

make it an autobiography into art. Lawrence makes this relation through
the human sexual relationship as possibilities within modernity.
Lawrence writes to Edward Garnett early June 1913 "All along I knew
what allied the book. But it did me good to theorize myself out, and to
depict Frieda's God Almightiness in all its glory. This was the first crude
fermenting of the book. I will make it into art now." (Lawrence 208)

Women have been considered victims of their own gender,

prevented from opportunities to achieve freedom and liberty; they have
been left to suffer the feeling of being worthless, and inferior to men.
Women tried to establish their own style of writings to present
themselves in literature, and defend their characters in a better way than
that adapted by masculine style of writings. Hence, they opt for a new
style of feminine writing.

French Feminists, including Helen cixous and Luce Irigary, insist

that women must use their bodies to express and defend themselves.
Helen cixous argues that women were faked in literature written by men.
As a result of that, we need a real representation of women to defend
women in a better way than that what is written before. The use of their
bodies motivates them to be aware of their identities and be able to
analyze feminine texts without the use of masculine approach to
literature.

54
 The relationship of two remains significant due to its particularity.
In life no one can attain universality without particular relationship. In
Women in Love, the meaning of modernity is determined and
understanding of modern society. The relationship between Gerald and
Gerald is profoundly conducted by the different responses to work.
Gudrun relates to art as much as Gerald relates to coal industry. As a
result of that, they become isolated and spiritual empty. No one of them
understands their fate. Fore instance, after Gudrun's making her first love
with Gerald. She was unaware of separateness between them. "He was
beautiful, far off, and perfected. They would never be together. Ah, this
awful, inhuman, distance which would always be interpreted between her
and the other human being?" (Lawrence 460)

Accordingly, they can not overcome the mutual isolation; they

embraced the fate of their destructive world. While Gerald commits
suicide, Gudrun embraced the destructive fate with Loerke " the inner,
individual darkness, sensation within the ego, the obscene religious
mystery of ultimate reduction, the mystic fictional activities of diabolic,
reducing down, disintegrating the vital organic, body of life." (Lawrence
605)

The relationship of Birkin and Ursula is quite different from that of

Gerald's and Gudrun's relationship. Their struggle for an erotic
relationship is inseparable from their critique to modernity. While the
struggle of Gerald's and Gudrun's is for dominating one each other. To
achieve their quest, they must use their erotic connections as mediation to
that, and they have to prepare themselves to struggle against the fatalistic
tendencies of modern society. Fore example, Ursula's fatalism is
inseparable from modern life and the routine habits of her work in
particular. Ursula describes her feeling after her first sexual intercourse at

55
Water Party with Birkin as: "obliterated in a darkness that was the border
of death." (Lawrence 255)

Ursula feels that her life is full of routine and repetitions. She
describes her depressed life as: "to die than live mechanically a life is
repetition of repetitions. There is complete ignominy in an
unreplenished, mechanized life." (Lawrence 257) for Ursula, her
depressed life is a result of her work. She mentions:

Another shameful, barren school-week, mere routine and mechanical

activity. Was not the adventure of death infinitely preferable? Was not
death lovelier and nobler than such a life? A life of barren routine,
without inner meaning, without any real significance. (Lawrence 257)

The destructive future of the society is caused by the

misunderstandings between the characters in Women in Love, while in
The Map of Love there is a fruitful relationship, caused by the mutual
understandings between the characters; they gave us a pessimistic portrait
of the future. Thus, Souief draws a portrait of the fruitful society, which is
satisfactory margin of personal freedom and social significance.

Women in love is a unique contribution to literature: Lawrence

considered Women in Love as his historical record of life, and his vision
toward the upcoming world. So, he succeeded to create a kind of
relationship toward the future of the world through sexual relationships
which is built on his critical vision of the utilitarian world around him. He
creates his relation to modernity through sexual relationships among
human beings.

As Birkin and Ursula are walking in the local market, they discuss
the kind of relation they want to have in the modern life. Birkin states his
principles of wanted life as: "you have to be like Rodin, Michael Angelo,

56
and leave a piece of raw rock unfinished in your figure. You must leave
your surroundings sketchy, unfinished, so that you are never confined,
never dominated from the outside" (Lawrence 474).

Accordingly, Birkin and Ursula decide to leave England, to leave

the destructive land and move to another landscape appropriate for their
relationships. Ursula agrees with Birkin's vision. She thinks that it is
necessary for them to go out of England to have a better life. She states:
"one has no more connection here. One has a sort of other self that
belongs to a new planet, not to this. You have got to hop off." (Lawrence
586)

Ursula and Birkin raise the issue of art; they think that art should
be grounded in the real life. In fact, Ursula raises this issue in her
argument with Loerke and Gudrun when she says: "world of art is only
truth about the real world." (Lawrence 576). where as Loerke and Gudrun
see the art as separate from the lived experience as "absolute world of
art." (Lawrence 575) The novel represents Lawrence's viewpoint towards
the modern world. Lawrence does not show explicit reference to the war,
although it was written during the war time.

Lawrence creates his relation to modernity through human

relations: through the relation of Gerald to Gudrun, Ursula to Birkin,
Hermione to Birkin, and Loerke to Gudrun. Lawrence in Women in Love
wants to show that people in life would be either in a destructive sense or
fruitful (generating sense). Here, we see that Lawrence wants to make
this relation through the midst of war, but without mentioning the
fatalism of war. Lawrence through his relation wants to guide us to
discover the new meanings of the world, and how life changes human
beings.

57
 Lawrence uses his town Bradley to show his historical point
critique of the modern culture. He identifies the home of Hermione as
'kulturage' as a medium or a link between the past and the modern
cultures. He wrote about his town Bredalbey that: "there seemed a magic
circled drawn about the place, shutting out the present enclosing the
delightful, precious past, trees and deer and silence like a dream."
(Lawrence 489)

In England, the scale of rural production was based on single

production where the landowner treated the laborers fairly. There was a
personal aspect of relation between the landowner and the labors, while
the appearance of capitalism required free labors and disappearance of
customs and traditional rights; it entailed determined wages that limit the
relations between the land owner and the labors.

Lawrence also mentioned the Roddice family, who inherited the

past, they believed in traditions and they can separate their political and
economic power from verities of the past. Moreover, the brother of
Hermione, Alexander, was a member of parliament, although he was
liberal, but he goes to church every Sunday to read his lessons there. He
was asked a question by one of the church attendants if he was a
Christian, to whom he answered: "No.I am not. But I believe in
keeping the old institutions." (Lawrence 132) Through Alexander's
speech, Lawrence wants to point out that there was not tension between
the modern civilization and the society.

Lawrence traces back the roots of historical beginnings of modern

society. It was come from the first mine of Gerald's grand father who first
opened it in the eighteenth century. " the initial idea had been, to obtain as
much money from the earth as would make the others comfortably rich,

58
would allow the workmen sufficient wages and good conditions, and
would increase the wealth of the century altogether." (Lawrence 248)

Accordingly, the sole motive of the capitalists is the greed and self-
interest. They exploit the poverty and rural people and the poor laborers
had no choice but to work at mines.

All was plenty, because the mines were good and easy to work. And the
miners, in those days, finding themselves richer than they might have
expected, felt glad and triumphant. They thought themselves well off,
they congratulated themselves on their good fortune, they remembered
how their fathers had starved and suffered, and they felt better times had
come. They were grateful to those others, the pioneers, the new owners,
who had opened out the pits, and left forth the streams of plenty.
(Lawrence 248)

The rural people experienced the harsh realities of rural life with its
difficulties. The new life of them witnessed a new life condition, which is
based on industrialism. Thomas Crich thinks that the new life conditions
helped people to gain sufficient wages, and improve their life well. He
thinks that his mines "primarily great fields of plenty for all the hundreds
of human beings gathered about them" (Lawrence 248). Thomas Crich
stated that he treated his workers fairly; he treated them as his sons. He
thinks that "fathers of loving kindness and sufficient benevolence."
(Lawrence 251)

Lawrence mentioned that Thomas Crich feels guilt, because he has

a disparity between the religious values and material values too.
Lawrence states:

He had always the unacknowledged belief, that it was his work men, the
miners, who held them in their hands the means of salvation. To move
nearer to God, he must move toward his miners. His life must gravitate

59
 toward theirs. They were, unconsciously, his idol, his God made
manifest. (Lawrence 287)

Thomas Crich proposed a solution to overcome the disparity

between his belief and materialistic values by giving charity because he
will be close to God and his workers too, but without sacrificing his
wealth and power.

Charities in all religions are useful to the poor, because they

become equal to each other. Thomas affirms the fact that: "there should
be equality. No part should subordinate to any other part; all should be
equal" (Lawrence 250). When Thomas first introduced in the first chapter
of Women in Love, he was described as "tall, thin, care-worn man"
(Lawrence16), and thorough novel, he gets weak. He refused the idea of
death. He was told that two of his family members will die. After his
death, Gerald commits suicide, because Gudrun left him alone at the end
of the novel, and went away to Italy. Gerald told Birkin that "once
anything goes wrong, it can never be put right againnot with us. I've
noticed it all my life..you can't out a thing right, once it has gone
wrong." (Lawrence 202)

Lawrence also mentioned the Brangwen family in The Rainbow as

a source of values and verities, while he shows it in Women in Love as a
source of destruction. It is dominated now by destructiveness and
violence as a result of industrialism. Ursula charges her father for using
love as "bullying and denial." (Lawrence 489), while Gudrun feels that
the Brangwen house never had any personality "they never had any
personality, and only a place with personality can have a ghost..I
suppose so. Are you weeping the past? We are" (Lawrence 502). To both
sisters, the very thought of constant and stable family seems madness.

60
 Moreover, Lawrence shows Birkin at Bredalbey aware of the
disintegration of traditional values "the park slumbering centuries of
peace. And then, what a snare and delusion, this beauty of static things
what a horrible, dead prison Bredalbey really was, what an intolerable
confinement, the peace." (Lawrence 128)

Then, Hermione recognizes that the traditional values become

devoid of meaning "the old great truth had been true. And she was a leaf
of the old great tree of knowledge that was withering now. To the old and
last truth then she must be faithful, even cynicism and mockery took
place at the bottom of her soul." (Lawrence 389)

Lawrence in Women in Love shows Gerald's interest to constitute a

new civilization which is based on his grandfather idea of getting coal out
of ground. This new civilization had little interest in individual feeling
and suffering. Firstly, he dismantles all the vestiges of moral and social
values at mines. Then, he pensioned off the old workers, and hired them
new trained technicians. Finally, he also introduced new technological
machines.

An enormous electric plant was installed, both for lighting and haulage
underground, and for power. The electricity was carried into every mine.
New machinery was brought from America, such as the miners had
never seen before, great iron men, as the cutting machines were called,
and unusual appliances. The working of the pits was thoroughly
changed. All the control was taken out of the hands of the miners, the
butty system was abolished. Everything was run on the most accurate
and delicate scientific methods, the miners were reduced to mere
mechanical instruments. They had to work hard, much harder than
before; the work was terrible, and heartbreaking in its mindlessness.
(Lawrence 304)

61
 Gerald's quests to establish new civilization is accompanied with
abandon all traditions and humanitarian works. The workers had to
understand that the new civilization must be instrumental rather humanly
activity. Thus, the workers had to adopt themselves to the new order.

There was a new world, a new order, strict, terrible, inhuman, but
satisfying in its very destructiveness. The men were satisfied to belong
to the great and wonderful machine even whilst it destroyed them it was
what they wanted. It was the highest that man has produced the most
wonderful, and super human. They were exalted by belonging to this
great and super human thing like god like. Their hearts died within them,
but their souls were satisfied. This was a sort of freedom. The sort
they really wanted. It was first great step in undoing, the first great phase
of chaos, the substitution of the mechanical principle for the organic, the
organic unity, and the subordination of every organic unit to the great
mechanical purpose. It was pure disintegration and pure mechanical
organization. (Lawrence 256)

Clearly, it is obvious that Gerald dehumanized the individuals. The

workers become functional instrument of the new world and they will
form their social relations according to that. Gerald is unlike his father, he
believes that it is necessary to dismantle all the social values and tradition
too.

Loerke discusses that the work is not destructive process; it is

destructive if we change the living beings into instruments. He said "the
machinery and the acts of laborers are extremely, maddeningly beautiful."
(Lawrence 566) it is an act of violence. The goal of new world is to create
anew human being as a machine without social cultural relations. The
social relation of the new world is just between machines. Fore example,
Gudrun is attracted by the voice of machines. She says: "in their voices
she could hear the voluptuous response of darkness, the strong, dangerous

62
under world, mindless, inhuman. They sounded like machines, heavy,
oiled" (Lawrence 22). Moreover, Palmer, technician hired by Gerald,
also attracted by machines. He states:

He was too cold, too destructive, to care really for women, too great an
egoist. He was polarized by the men individually he detested and
despised them. In the mass, they fascinated him, as machinery fascinated
him. They were a sort of machinery to him but incalculable,
incalculable." (Lawrence 153)

Obviously, Gudrun thinks that Gerald as an instrument which she

can use for her power. She mentioned: "He was sheerly beautiful, he was
a perfect instrument. To her mind, he was pure, inhuman, almost
superhuman instrument. His instrumentally appealed so strongly to her,
she wished she were God to use him, to use him as a tool." (Lawrence
585) Moreover, the act of violence with Hermione decision to kill Birkin
is both sexually and electric. She says: "Terribly shocks ran over body,
like shocks of electricity, as if many volts of electricity suddenly struck
her down." (Lawrence 138)

As for the social relations being conducted as machines, the

individual machine becomes isolated within him/ her self. Each character
is internally become isolated and separate from the world. Gerald is the
character who is wholly isolated socially and instrumentally. That is why
he does not accept Birkin proposal of love because he "But he would not
make any pure relationship with any other soul. He could not. Marriage
was not committing of himself into a relationship with Gudrun. It was a
committing of himself in acceptance of the established world" (Lawrence
470) Moreover, Gudrun also feels isolated "always this desolating,
agonized feeling that she was outside of life." (Lawrence 219)

63
 The main source of characters isolation is only their works. The
best example of this is Loerke who is totally isolated. "He cared about
nothing, he was troubled about nothing. He existed a pure unconnected
will, social and momentaneous. There was only his work" (Lawrence
570). When Gudrun asks him about his horse, he responds with rage: it is
a picture of any thing, of absolutely nothing. It has nothing to do with any
thing but itself. It has no relation with everyday world. (Lawrence 575)

Lawrence in Women in Love poses a question of the relation to the

modernity. Every character poses this question of marriage in terms of
and what means to their social relations and modern society. Every
character has a different form of the marriage in term to social relation
and modernity. Birkin and Ursula longs to create new one which is
meaningful and fruitful, while Gerald and Gudrun have different view of
the social relations and modernity which is destructive and meaningless.
Gerald sees marriage empty and meaningless. In addition to that, Gudrun
sees modern society meaningless and empty, and if she gets married to
Gerald, she will embrace the destructiveness of the modern society, like
Gudrun he thinks that if he gets married to her will accept the
conventions of the new world. Gerald says:

Marriage was not the committing of himself into a relationship with

Gudrun. It was a committing of himself in acceptance of the established
world, he would accept the established order, in which he livingly didnt
believe, and then he would retreat to the underworld of his life.
(Lawrence 470)

Birkin and Ursula have different view of the established world.

They believe in the possibility of the established world. Thus, they can
develop a social relation and a new source of life in the future. Their

64
relationship is genuinely based on the relations of the past and present to
have future life.

Lawrence in Women in Love wants to shed lights on the

importance of social relationships among human beings. He, through the
development of relationship, wants to say that modern society is full of
violence and destruction. Fore example, Gerald's murder means that the
violence and destruction pervades modern society. It is possible that
modern society does not reach its limit by war then, but it also seeks to
show the capacity of destruction on personal sides.

Lawrence shows Gerald and Gudrun as failure, although their

relationship can be successful but a result of this being isolated and
dehumanized. Gudrun describes herself "one of life's outcast, one of the
drifting lives that has no root" (Lawrence 504). Gerald describes himself
as "he was immune and perfect" (Lawrence 560). Gudrun needs another.
She said: "why wasnt there somebody who would take her in their arms,
and hold her to their breast, and give her rest, pure, healing rest"
(Lawrence 623). Gerald, too, needs has Gudrun needs for another. "Life
does not center at all. It is artificially held together by the social
mechanism." (Lawrence 73)

Birkin and Ursula long for a better life in the future to have a
possibility of fruitful life. Gerald and Gudrun do not believe in the
possibility of future, so he sees marriage with Gudrun as an acceptance
of the established world of mechanism. Gerald says: "I live to work, to
produce something, in so far as I am purposive being. Apart from that I
live because I am living" (Lawrence 69). As a result of work tension,
Gerald thinks that women position as release for men "after a debauch

65
with some desperate woman, he went on quite easy and forgetful."
(Lawrence 307)

Gerald and Gudrun think that marriage is a social arrangement

without love relation. Fore example, Gudrun sees marriage as a next step,
it is not based on love relation, and it is social institution. Gudrun says
about marriage: "it seems like inevitable next step" (Lawrence 7). Gerald
says to his friend, Birkin, after his decision of marriage to Ursula "one
comes to the point where one must take a step in one direction or another.
And marriage is one direction" (Lawrence 468). According to Gudrun,
marriage will be a kind of acceptance of new established world of
violence and destruction.

Gerald is attracted to Gerald because she sees him as the medium

the she herself gains her power. She sees Gerald as: "was sheerly
beautiful, he was a perfect instrument. To her mind, he was pure,
inhumane, almost superhuman instrument. His instrumentally appeared
so strongly to her; she wished she were God, to use him as a tool"
(Lawrence 585). to gain her power over Gerald.

Gudrun sees the capacity of Gerald's violence as he also notices her

capacity of violence and destruction. Gerald mentions:

There was body of cold power in her. He watched her with an insight
that amounted to clairvoyance. He saw her a dangerous, hostile spirit
that could stand undiminished and unabated. It was so finished, and of
such a perfect gesture, moreover. (Lawrence 158)

Accordingly, Gerald is aware of Gudrun power over him, he

become conscious of her power over him. Gudrun says: "his mind was
gone, he grasped for sufficient mechanical control, to save himself. She
laughed a silvery little mockery, yet intolerably caressive" (Lawrence

66
227). Gerald accepts her as a condition of relationship. She recognizes
that his knowledge is limited. The consequence of their relationship
becomes obvious struggle for dominance. The result of the struggle is
inevitable. Gerald commits suicide at the end. That becomes an indication
of nihilism of modern culture.

Lawrence discusses that the modern established-world suffers from

spiritual emptiness and lack of values. He thinks that the modern world
would be subject to destruction, as scenes of violence would pervade the
modern culture. Gerald's suicide at the end of the novel is derived from
the modern destructive society, because it is devoid of meaning and
feeling. Thus, we see that Lawrence presented a critique of the modern
destructive culture.

Gudrun sees modern society as meaningless, empty, and

destructive because it dismantles all social relations and emotional
intensity of individuals. Birkin and Ursula have different critiques of
modernity.

Birkin's and Ursula's relationship seems successful and it gives a

glimpse that future transcends their relationship to a fruitful one. Birkin
asks Ursula where they are going. She responds: "it is locality" then he
said 'it is a perfected relation between you and me, and others, so that we
are free together" (Lawrence 420)

67
 Conclusions and Recommendations
The two novelists of The Map of Love by Ahdaf souief, and Women
in Love by D.H Lawrence devoted their efforts to defend women's rights.
They enhanced women positions in their life, and they focused on the
important role of women in their societies.

Souief in The Map of Love defends the Arab women's rights; she was
inspired by French school of Feminism, particularly Helen Cixous, who
urges women to establish their own style of writing; she argues that
women were misrepresented and faked in literature. Hence, women had
to present themselves in a better way, than that of masculine style. She
also argues that women had to use their bodies to write from within show
her own style of writing. Souief created or adapted a new style for women
in general, and for the Arab women in particular. She used her novel to
correct the false representation of the Arab women.

Lawrence in Women in Love supports women and revealed them as

intellectual and educated females who are able to be responsible for their
selves. He shows women as self responsible and independent.

The two writers, Ahdaf Souief and D. H. Lawrence, have

undoubtedly a clear role in writing about feminine issues, because they
wrote in details about their lives, their experiences, and their societies.
They were fair in presenting women's portrait to the readers, especially
the portrait of Western women, who were presented positively. Souief
presented the portrait of the Arab women in general, and the portrait of
women in Islam in particular, in away that reflect that personality.

Despite all the obstacles that prevent the development of women's

position, and roles over the course of time, a number of critics and

68
novelists like, Lawrence realize that there must be a great change and
pragmatic approach to improve the role and position of women. Since
during Lawrence's time, the revolutionary spirit in women enables them
to appear very strong, self-responsible and encounter the social that
undermine their ambition.

Lawrence and Ahdaf support the idea of refuting the dominance of

males who enslave women, we also see that they deal with women who
have participated in the feminist movement, and who are also suffragette.
They themselves encourage the feminist movement and devote most of
their writings to express women's own perceptions, needs and the right
for the equality with men.

Souief in The Map of Love seeks mutual understanding to have a

successful relationship like Birkin and Ursula's relationship. She
presented an excellent portrait of Arab women that they are most
pleasing, and they are longing for their freedom and identity. Souief also
focuses on the spirit of generosity in the Arab world that women meet in
order to sip tea, and speak gently with each other. She says: "All in all, I
do confess, I found the company and conversation most pleasing and
quite contrary to the prevailing view of the life of the harem being one of
indolence and torpor" (Souief 237).

We notice through The Map of Love that souief's journey from the
West brings her grace and respect of every body and let others
sympathize with her quest to achieve her freedom, while the female
heroine in Lawrence's fiction seems selfish, as they do every thing for
their personal reasons. We notice that the female character in The Map of
Love revolts against the restrictions of society that were imposed upon
women, and it comes out in a change that paved the way for fruitful

69
relationship, which is based on mutual understanding. Souief shows that
love bonds are stronger than any restrictions; it is a heavenly gift that no
one can stop it. She contributed to persuade the people of two cultures
that mutual understanding brings the two together, and they can live in
peace. Through Sharif and Anna's individual experience, we notice that
women can defend themselves and challenge their society to achieve full
liberation, unlike the individual experience of Gudrun and Gerald ,which
results in dominance and agony for the lovers.

In The Map of Love, we witness a new turning point in the writings

of the Arab women; they created their own style of writing to defend
themselves in literature in a better way than that of men's writings about
women; this means that she writes from her own experience. Souief in
her novel has a great contribution to correcting the portrait of the Arab
women in the world, not in Arab world, but in the whole world. Her work
is incomparable in its value and worth, as it exceeds all other works in the
same field.

Specifically, Lawrence's success lies in his works about women

feelings in different situations. Thus, his works are considered worth
throughout history. Through the study of women movements, we notice
that Lawrence supports women issues like, equality, the right of
production, voting and the like. He wants women to play an effective role
in their societies. He also inspires the world with his positive portrait of
women that inspired the life of men, and enhance the social development
in each society. Thus, we notice Lawrence's respect towards women, and
he blames men for degrading them. He thinks that men are serious
hindrances in the way of women's emancipation from the restrictions of
that were imposed upon them by society. He stresses that we have to give

70
women the chance of emancipation from the old restrictions that
determined their role in society.

Hillary Simpson in D. H. Lawrence and Feminism stated that

Lawrence in his works tends more strongly to females rather than males:
"I believe that Lawrence initially made a strenuous effort to reconcile the
male and female elements in him, but that he was unable to affect such
reconciliation" (Simpson 22). Lawrence's presents a double portrait of
society, one positive and the other negative. He shows the negativity of
the modern culture that based on materialism and desire in the character
of Gerald as the victim of the mechanized life of modern culture : Gudrun
leaves him to join with Loerke, a practice which resulted not only in the
agony of Gerald, but also of his unexpected death.

Souief in The Map of Love shows that women speak when they are
powerful and proud of being female. They are full aware of their
decisions. She presents that people called Anna as Alangelizia, but thats
does not weaken her identity, but she continues in her way of defying
every body to achieve her full identity. Souief also supports women in
gaining better education. She creates the character of Sharif Basha that he
works to improve the need of education for women. He states that women
must be educated to be aware of themselves, and their identities. He
makes his point clear in the following words:" Women will decide for
themselves about the veil. But if we can agree that girls should be
educated"(Lawrence 381). Anna supports Sharif in all his needs because
she knows that her husband is well known in Egypt, and she believes that
there is a great change in the lives of women through education.

In this sense, Souief's novel can be said to be influential one due to

souief's ability to create characters that worked for women rights. She

71
creates characters that can fight against the injustices that they had
suffered from. She also tells us that both men and women are equal. They
worked and fight for their rights; thats why Sharif and Anna went to the
representation of her country to register their marriage; they refused to
register the marriage, but she insists on her decisions of marriage.

Lawrence and Souief, through their distinguished works, revealed

themselves as genius writers who are capable of portraying the human
psyche and their deep wish for a fruitful future. They become an icon of
inspiration for countless people. Their works remain as an evidence of
their creativity as writers, critics of real life, and as insightful feminists.
Souief in The Map of Love wants to portray the women's quests to gain
their identity, and in particular the Arab women, because they were
misrepresented in literature. She rejects the societal restrictions over
women that limited the role of women in their society. She urges women
to challenge every hindrance in their way to gain their rights. She
presents that women are able to write from within themselves to show
their real suffrage. Moreover, she shows that women and men are equal,
and they work hand in hand to improve women's positions in society. She
shows that women at the end gain their identity, and they are able to
make full decisions. Lawrence reveals his own experience through his,
Women in Love. He shows that women are the source of inspiration in the
lives of men. He thinks that women played an effective role in the lives of
men. He shows that women are long for a better life, where they can
establish their identity, a way from the patriarchal dominance of men.

We can conclude that Lawrence and Souief portray the female

characters differently and to a large extent positively. They were satisfied
with the role of women in the lives of men. Most of the female characters
represent the writers own experience.

72
 Women in Love and The Map of Love represent the intellectual
depiction and their relationship with lovers, enable us to understand
Women's inner thought and feeling, as we simply discover through the
thesis. We notice that the relationships between men and women in The
Map of Love and Women in Love are successful, and they have total and
mental understanding toward their identities.

The thesis comes to the following findings: Lawrence and Ahdaf

have succeeded in delivering a clear massage relating to the women's
identity, and social relations. They supported feminism and the feminine
point of view and encouraged them to face the men to fight for their
freedom. They also encourage young women to be strong to face the men
world and achieve equality with men. Thus, women are now capable to live
a better life.

Any how, women nowadays have gained many rights, including

political positions, as a result of women's movements throughout history.
But they still suffer from inequality and social absence. From this
perspective, it is hoped that Women would be able to find a better future
in their strife for equality with men.

D.H Lawrence and Ahdaf souief as many other writers in the past
offer great contributions of women positions in the British and the Arab
societies. Despite the acceptance of women's rights all over the world,
many women still suffer and lack equality to men. However, this thesis
needs more elaboration to cover more English and Arab vision toward
women to discover the positive vision of women.

73
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 End Notes

1- Zainab Fawwaz is the first Arab novelist to deal with women

issues. She shows a great interest in this concern in her (Man's
Heart 1904, Shreen 1907). This adds to the novel historic value
that the novel represent real person who served the Arab women's
rights.
2- For more details see; Ryan, April. "A history of American
feminism." Associatedcontent.13 April 2011. http://www.
.associatedcontent.com/a- history- of- American feminism. This
link shows women's situation during the nineteenth century. It
also explains the three waves of feminism. It extends to describe
Women's situation during the twentieth and twenty first century.

79
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81