Some ecocritics have studied Women in Love in terms of the opposition between nature (Birkin) and modern civilisation (Gerald). However, this ethical approach has missed the interrelationship between Lawrence's descriptions of nature and historical or political conditions. This paper focuses on the way in which Gerald's healthy body and the natural environment surrounding him function in a historical context. The discourses on the soldiers' health and Nietzsche's ideas permeate the depictions of Gerald. Taking into consideration the theories of racial degeneration and eugenics of the time, he appears to represent a racial ideal for England. On the other hand, the text describes some supporting characters as having deformed bodies and living in filthy environments. Their characteristic traits and qualities, such as parasitism, infertility, and Jewishness, are those of racial degenerates. Therefore, Gerald's hatred of them indicates England's fear of racial degeneration. In this process, representations of his healthy body in the natural environment function as a national ideal that condemns those considered deviant according to the theory of eugenics.

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