Abstract
In the pastoral world of The White Peacock appear more than a hundred kinds of plants, among which apples stand out. Apples are a very common fruit seen anywhere in the real or fictional world. In the novel which might have been entitled Crab-apples, however, apples are, more often than not, full of meanings. Both visibly and invisibly, apples reveal themselves metaphorically or symbolically; for example, they appear in the narrative of the novel, in the characters' speech, and even in the titles of the chapters.
The question we have to ask here is why in The White Peacock Lawrence so strongly attached himself to apples. Gathering all the apples in the story makes it clear that they lie mainly between George and Lettie. This paper focuses its attention on the couple and examines how each apple acts on their relationship.
A close look at apples' function in the unfolding of the story shows that Lawrence utilizes them effectively to depict the characters' unhappy romance in the pastoral milieu.
