The meaning of Connie's“pregnancy”deserves our fullest consideration. Through pregnancy, Connie discovers the
perfect harmony of
motherhood and
womanhood, which turns out to be Lawrence's final definition of true womanhood.
This“harmony”cannot be found clearly in Lawrence's foregoing works including previous two versions of
Lady Chatterley. Up to now, women, who have experienced“pregnancy, ”believe that“a mother is a prime being.”Such self-centeredness of them checked their husbands' masculinity and their own femininity as well. Consequently, there happens a conflict between motherhood and womanhood within them, and thence their children were a“stumbling block”to the“equilibrium”between the sexes.
In
Lady Chatterley's Lover, however, Connie's“pregnancy”does not drive her to maternal self-absorption, but it makes her appreciate Mellors' masculine dignity. Truly, her“foetus”completes her womanhood and her equilibrated relationship with him. In other words, Lawrence discovers a woman's possibility“to bear herself”by means of“bearing children”in this novel.
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