Hi Pensive! I'm glad to see you around and I hope you will remain in this thread throughout the discussions, help us decoding the message of Lawrence's short story.
You pointed out well one of the story's themes; but I think that we could decode more. Certainly we've got to find a single major theme and other secundar themes. You said that the major theme descends from Hilda's memorable reply
I would permit to contradict you and say that, in my humble oppinion, the major theme aims at the relationship between a man and a woman, refering in this case at blind love: I think there is no possibility of happiness in a couple if the two persons are different. Hilda points out: .
I believe that the next part I selected from Hilda's and Syson's dialogue would be edifying in the search of the major theme:
I think that Lawrence's idea is that if a man and a woman are suitable, they do actually follow the same
way- I would insist on this word which occurs many times in the character's dialogue.
From this dialogue I understand that the two charcaters are really different; Hilda believed that she needn't have follow the same ''path'' as her former lover, because she claims that she is
a separate being. By giving this reply, I understand that Hilda doesn't have any love for Syson,because, if you love someone, you certainly have to follow in life like the person you love,don't you think? And it occured to me an old greek legend that I once heard: the greeks believed that when we are born, we are given half of heart and we are obliged to find out the person from this world who's got the other half. Only in this way we can reach happiness;
Hilda and Syson could have never been happy because they have different views about love and life. Applying the greek legend to the characters' fates, I would afirm that Syson hasn't found yet the other ''half of heart''. Hilda could have possibly find it at the keeper. And in this consists the hero's drama. He loved a woman who wasn't alike him. I think and I am sorry for repeating myself, that this is the fact which Lawrence wanted to insist on: the importance of choosing the suitable ''half'', constituting in the same time, the major theme of the short story.
I think that the theme you found, Pensive-very good, of course- would fit as a secundar theme, refering to Hilda's views about life and love; but of course, I might be wrong. Nobody's perfect, is it?
I invite the other participants in the discussion to say their own oppinions about the major and secundar themes of the short story. Perhaps they've got other ideas and we'll be happy to listen to them
Edit: Sorry Janine, I posted after you but haven't seen your post; I guess you were posted while I was writing. I will refer to your post in a next post.