Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Dionysus, Pan and Hermes: Greek Myth and Metaphysics in the Work of D.H. Lawrence Thesis How to cite: Bridgeman, Pamela Anne (1991). Dionysus, Pan and Hermes: Greek Myth and Metaphysics in the Work of D.H. Lawrence. MPhil thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 1991 Pamela Anne Bridgeman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000f7a3 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk ur/i^aneLcrrej> Pamela Anne Bridgeman, B.A. DIONYSUS, PAN AND HERMES: GREEK MYTH AND METAPHYSICS IN THE WORK OF D.H. LAWRENCE Thesis Submitted for the Degree pf Master of Philosophy -if Department of Literature Faculty of Arts The Open University March 1991 M >‘“ 11 ProQuest Number: 27701232 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely e v e n t that the author did not send a c o m p le te manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if m aterial had to be rem oved, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 27701232 Published by ProQuest LLO (2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 Till: SA 11.1 Ni.; OK |)||)N\>I.'S / . Ixviii CONTENTS (i) Abstract (ID References to Lawrence's Works Page 1 Introduction Page 11 Chapter 1 : The White Peacock Page 31 Chapter 2: "England, My England’ and "Tickets, Please" Page 62 Chapter 3: "The Blind Man" and "The Ladybird" Page 99 Chapter 4: Kangaroo and The Border Line" Page 137 . Chapter 5: St. Mawr and The Plumed Serpent Page 184 Chapter 6: Apocalypse Page 206 Conclusion Page 210 Bibliography Frontispiece Illustration: The Sailing of Dionysus, from The Athenian Drama: Euripides. translated by Gilbert Murray, fifth edition (London. 1911). III. Ixviii. ABSTRACT Dionvsus. Pan and Hermes: Greek Mvth and Metaphysics in the work of D.H. Lawrence This study shows ancient Greek myth and pre-Socratic metaphysics to be deeply embedded in the symbolic language Lawrence used to express what he called the complete imaginative experience of life. The Introduction provides on overview of previous studies which hove considered various aspects of Greek Influence on Lawrence. Subsequent chapters clarify and expand upon these previous studies by identifying, explicating, and tracing the development of the Greek Influences, os evident in allusions, metaphors and themes in selected novels and stories. Particular attention is paid to the interrelationship between the gods Dionysus. Pan and Hermes in Lawrence's work. In Chapter One. an examination of The White Peocock reveals, beneath the profusion of classical allusions, a more serious use of myth linked to a radical vitalism. In Chapters Two and Three, the discussion of the stories "England. My England", Tickets. Please". The Blind Man" and The Ladybird" shows how Lawrence used and developed the traditional oppositions betwoon Dionysus and Apollo. Pan and Christ to express the perpetual dual between darkness and light, mind and body, love and power. Chapter Four discusses Kangaroo and "The Border Line" and traces Lawrence's journey towards an image of Pan deeply influenced by the landscapes of Australia and America, Lawrence develops afierce, dark,phallic, and ultimately non-human god to illustrate the rise of Hermetic power after the collapse of the love-ideal. Chapter Five looks at St. Mawr and The Plumed Serpent, tracing the spiritual journey from an England where men have lost the power of Pan. into the desert of o primitive, pre-classical New Mexican world, to a new classical age in a Mexico that is the Lowrention equivoleni of ancient Greece, Chapter Six finds the Importance of the ancient Greeks to Lawrence confirmed by his statements inApocalypse. REFERENCES TO LAWRENCE'S WORKS The first reference to each work Is given In full in a footnote, and all later references are Indicated in the text by an abbreviated title, followed by the page number, both enclosed by parentheses. In the case ofThe White Peacock. St. Mawr. The Plumed Serpent and Apocalypse. I have used the available Cambridge editions, which are clearly the best scholarly texts. I have used the Phoenix edition of Kangaroo (1955) as it is considered to be more reliable than the later Penguin edition. For "England, My England", "Tickets. Please", "The Blind Man" and The Border Line", I have used Penguin's Selected Short Stories (1982), and for "The Ladybird", the Penguin English Library edition of The Complete Short Novels (1982). Further description of the editions used will be found In the bibliography. ABBREVIATIONS A Apocalypse an d the Writings on Revelation CSN The Complete Short Novels K Kangaroo PS The Plumed Serpent SM St. M aw r a n d Other Stories SSS Selected Short Stories WP The White Peacock INTRODUCTION These early Greeks have clarified my soul. ^ Equilibrium argues either a dualistic or a pluralistic universe. The Greeks, being sane, were pantheists and pluralists, and so am 1 .2 D.H. Lawrence was an eclectic writer. In the foreword toFantasia of the Unconsc/ous written in 1921, he referred to himself os an "amateur of amateurs' rather than a scholar: I am no "scholar" of any sort. But I am grateful to scholars for their sound work. I have found hints, suggestions for w hat I say here in all kinds of scholarly books, from the Yoga and Plato and St John the Evangel and the early Greek philosophers like Herokleitos down to Frazer and his "Golden Bough", and even Freud and Frbbenlus. Even then I only remember hints - and I proceed by lntuition.3 Whilst acknowledging this eclecticism, I shall focus on the hints and suggestions that Lawrence found In ancient Greek literature and philosophy. I shall cite Gilbert Murray's translations of the Greek tragedians, particularly the plays of Euripides,^ Murray's Four Stages of Greek Religion.^ John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophyfi and Hesiod's The Homeric Hymns and Homerlca^ as his most significant sources. In general, I will demonstrate how the myttis and metaphysics 1. Letter to Bertrand Russell. (14? July 19151. TheLetters of D.H. Lawrence, edited by George J. Zytcruk and James T. Boulton. II (Cambridge. 1981). p.364. 2. 'Him Witti His Tall In His Moutti' In Ptwenix II. edited by Warren Roberts and Harry T. Moore. (London. 1968). pp.427-435 (p.431). 3. Fontana of theUnconscious and Psyctxoanatysls theand Unconscious. (Hormondswortti. Middlesex. 1971). pp.11-12. 4. The Attienlan Drama: Euripides, translated Into English Rhyming Verse by Gilbert Murray, fifth edition (London. 1911). III. 5. Four Stages of Greek Religion. (New York. 1912). revised csFive Stages of Greek Religion, second edition (New York. 1925). Lawrence read both versions. 6. Early Greek Pt)llosopt)y. second edition (London. 1908). 7. TheHomeric Hymns andHomerica. translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. (London. 1915). of the early Greeks provided Lawrence with a metaphorical frame-work for his own philosophical theories. In particular, I shall show how Lawrence revitalised the gods of ancient Greece in order to express what he called "complete imaginative experience, which goes through the whole soul and body".® Lawrence believed that art and religion were essentially the same. He w anted to restore to the modem world the vital religious roots he felt had been lost or suppressed by a lifeless, dreary, isolated, unimaginative, narrowly monotheistic Christianity. Lawrence considered himself to be a pluralist and a pantheist.^ His many gods illustrated different sides of one God, as manifested in human lives. Lawrence was also a pragmatist who knew that mankind needed myths. I will show, by the close analysis of selected works of fiction In the light of what Lawrence wrote inApocalypse, how Lawrence used the gods of the Greeks, notably Dionysus, Hermes and Pan, as metaphors for the different aspects of one, whole life-force. Several writers have already considered the subject of Greek myth and metaphysics In Lawrence's work. Keith Sagor has recognised the Influence of the early Greeks on Lawrence's poetry. Other previous studies, however, have been partial In the sense that they have looked only at one aspect of Greek influence or have been limited to general observations rather than a detailed analysis of texts. In 1959, John B. Vickery approached the subject through a sketch of Lawrence's extensive use of material from anthropology and comparative religion, but his thorough analyses of "England, My England", "The Virgin and the Gypsy" and "The Fox" were deeply flawed. Vickery went astray because he based his interpretations on the claim that Sir James George Frazer's The Golden Bough was one of Lawrence's most Important sources and failed to take into 8. Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation, edited by Mara Kalnlns, (Cambridge. 1980). p.50. 9. See note 2 above. 10. D.H. Lawrence: Life Into Art. second edition (Harmondsworth. Middlesex. .1985). See especially Chapter Six. "Little Living Myttis": Birds. Beasts and Rowers, pp. 194-245. 11. "Myth and Ritual In the Shorter Action of D.H.