D.H. Lawrence's Short Stories Thread

[Janine]

Before we go onto Fergusson I wanted to post these two paragraphs which I think reveal so much about Mabel and her state:

For months, Mabel had been servantless in the big house, keeping the home together in penury for her ineffectual brothers. She had kept house for ten years. But previously, it was with unstinted means. Then, however brutal and coarse everything was, the sense of money had kept her proud, confident. The men might be foul-mouthed, the women in the kitchen might have bad reputations, her brothers might have illegitimate children. But so long as there was money, the girl felt herself established, and brutally proud, reserved.
No company came to the house, save dealers and coarse men. Mabel had no associates of her own sex, after her sister went away. But she did not mind. She went regularly to church, she attended to her father. And she lived in the memory of her mother, who had died when she was fourteen, and whom she had loved. She had loved her father, too, in a different way, depending upon him, and feeling secure in him, until at the age of fifty-four he married again. And then she had set hard against him. Now he had died and left them all hopelessly in debt.

Note: the death of Mabel's mother is mentioned in the second paragraph. she was fourteen at the time - a hard age for a girl to lose her mother...adolescence. Also, it states quite clearly that she loved her mother, but although she loved her father in a different way - more one of 'security'. Strange because usually woman will tend to be closer to their fathers at that age and rebelling against their mothers. But this family is comprised of mostly "coarse" type men and apparently Mabel had finer sensitivity - therefore retreating to a kind of emotional shell to protect her delicate feelings.

Now onto Fergusson ---
I think this is our first introduction to the character of Fergusson, the doctor.

'Here's Jack Fergusson!' exclaimed Malcolm, who was looking aimlessly out of the window.
'Where?' exclaimed Joe, loudly.
'Just gone past.'
'Coming in?'
Malcolm craned his neck to see the gate.
'Yes,' he said.
There was a silence. Mabel sat on like one condemned, at the head of the table. Then a whistle was heard from the kitchen. The dog got up and barked sharply. Joe opened the door and shouted:
'Come on.'
After a moment a young man entered. He was muffled up in overcoat and a purple woollen scarf, and his tweed cap, which he did not remove, was pulled down on his head. He was of medium height, his face was rather long and pale, his eyes looked tired.
'Hello, Jack! Well, Jack!' exclaimed Malcolm and Joe. Fred Henry merely said, 'Jack.'
'What's doing?' asked the newcomer, evidently addressing Fred Henry.
'Same. We've got to be out by Wednesday.--Got a cold?'
'I have--got it bad, too.'
'Why don't you stop in?'
'Me stop in? When I can't stand on my legs, perhaps I shall have a chance.' The young man spoke huskily. He had a slight Scotch accent.
'It's a knock-out, isn't it,' said Joe, boisterously, 'if a doctor goes round croaking with a cold. Looks bad for the patients, doesn't it?'
The young doctor looked at him slowly.
'Anything the matter with you, then?' he asked sarcastically.
'Not as I know of. Damn your eyes, I hope not. Why?'
'I thought you were very concerned about the patients, wondered if you might be one yourself.'
'Damn it, no, I've never been patient to no flaming doctor, and hope I never shall be,' returned Joe.
At this point Mabel rose from the table, and they all seemed to become aware of her existence. She began putting the dishes together. The young doctor looked at her, but did not address her. He had not greeted her. She went out of the room with the tray, her face impassive and unchanged.
'When are you off then, all of you?' asked the doctor.
'I'm catching the eleven-forty,' replied Malcolm. 'Are you goin' down wi' th' trap, Joe?'
'Yes, I've told you I'm going down wi' th' trap, haven't I?'
'We'd better be getting her in then.--So long, Jack, if I don't see you before I go,' said Malcolm, shaking hands.
He went out, followed by Joe, who seemed to have his tail between his legs.
'Well, this is the devil's own,' exclaimed the doctor, when he was left alone with Fred Henry. 'Going before Wednesday, are you?'
'That's the orders,' replied the other.
'Where, to Northampton?'
'That's it.'
'The devil!' exclaimed Fergusson, with quiet chagrin.
And there was silence between the two.
'All settled up, are you?' asked Fergusson.
'About.'
There was another pause.
'Well, I shall miss yer, Freddy, boy,' said the young doctor.
'And I shall miss thee, Jack,' returned the other.
'Miss you like hell,' mused the doctor.
Fred Henry turned aside. There was nothing to say. Mabel came in again, to finish clearing the table.
'What are you going to do, then, Miss Pervin?' asked Fergusson. 'Going to your sister's, are you?'
Mabel looked at him with her steady, dangerous eyes, that always made him uncomfortable, unsettling his superficial ease.
'No,' she said.
'Well, what in the name of fortune are you going to do? Say what you mean to do,' cried Fred Henry, with futile intensity.
But she only averted her head, and continued her work. She folded the white table-cloth, and put on the chenille cloth.
'The sulkiest ***** that ever trod!' muttered her brother.
But she finished her task with perfectly impassive face, the young doctor watching her interestedly all the while. Then she went out.
Fred Henry stared after her, clenching his lips, his blue eyes fixing in sharp antagonism, as he made a grimace of sour exasperation.
'You could bray her into bits, and that's all you'd get out of her,' he said, in a small, narrowed tone.
The doctor smiled faintly.
'What's she going to do, then?' he asked.
'Strike me if I know!' returned the other.
There was a pause. Then the doctor stirred.
'I'll be seeing you tonight, shall I?' he said to his friend.
'Ay--where's it to be? Are we going over to Jessdale?'
'I don't know. I've got such a cold on me. I'll come round to the Moon and Stars, anyway.'
'Let Lizzie and May miss their night for once, eh?'
'That's it--if I feel as I do now.'
'All's one--'
The two young men went through the passage and down to the back door together. The house was large, but it was servantless now, and desolate. At the back was a small bricked house-yard, and beyond that a big square, gravelled fine and red, and having stables on two sides. Sloping, dank, winter-dark fields stretched away on the open sides.

Then
after the graveyard scene with Mabel, we see him again:

The doctor's house was just by the church. Fergusson, being a mere hired assistant, was slave to the countryside. As he hurried now to attend to the outpatients in the surgery, glancing across the graveyard with his quick eye, he saw the girl at her task at the grave. She seemed so intent and remote, it was like looking into another world. Some mystical element was touched in him. He slowed down as he walked, watching her as if spell-bound.
She lifted her eyes, feeling him looking. Their eyes met. And each looked again at once, each feeling, in some way, found out by the other. He lifted his cap and passed on down the road. There remained distinct in his consciousness, like a vision, the memory of her face, lifted from the tombstone in the churchyard, and looking at him with slow, large, portentous eyes. It was portentous, her face. It seemed to mesmerize him. There was a heavy power in her eyes which laid hold of his whole being, as if he had drunk some powerful drug. He had been feeling weak and done before. Now the life came back into him, he felt delivered from his own fretted, daily self.
He finished his duties at the surgery as quickly as might be, hastily filling up the bottles of the waiting people with cheap drugs. Then, in perpetual haste, he set off again to visit several cases in another part of his round, before teatime. At all times he preferred to walk, if he could, but particularly when he was not well. He fancied the motion restored him.

[Virgil]

Oh great Janine, you've pushed this further.

As to Ferguson, I'm not all that sure I can make that much of his character. Let me list some of the facts: he's a doctor, he's ill (a cold, I'm sure you know what that's like ), he stands with the brothers in a group which certainly associates him with the masculine world, and he's frustrated and tired of his work. So what can we derive from these facts? He's part of the social, masculine world; in fact as doctor, he's an institution of the social world. But certainly he desires more. And that puts him in sympathy with Mabel. We might speculate that his soul might be as similar to Mabel's soul. I don't know what to make of the fact that he's got a cold, other than what one of the brothers points out, that it is ironic that a doctor is sick. Oh another fact is that he's Scottish, and Lawrence has a tendency to have his male heros be from the north. Lawrence was from northern (actually midland, but north of engalnd's center of gravity, London) England. And the other point I can make is that it feels that Ferguson is a stand in for Lawrence himself. I think.

[Janine]

Oh great Janine, you've pushed this further.

As to Ferguson, I'm not all that sure I can make that much of his character. Let me list some of the facts: he's a doctor, he's ill (a cold, I'm sure you know what that's like ), he stands with the brothers in a group which certainly associates him with the masculine world, and he's frustrated and tired of his work. So what can we derive from these facts? He's part of the social, masculine world; in fact as doctor, he's an institution of the social world. But certainly he desires more. And that puts him in sympathy with Mabel. We might speculate that his soul might be as similar to Mabel's soul. I don't know what to make of the fact that he's got a cold, other than what one of the brothers points out, that it is ironic that a doctor is sick. Oh another fact is that he's Scottish, and Lawrence has a tendency to have his male heros be from the north. Lawrence was from northern (actually midland, but north of engalnd's center of gravity, London) England. And the other point I can make is that it feels that Ferguson is a stand in for Lawrence himself. I think.

Oh, V, glad you saw my post and answered some of it. It is good what you have written and summarized. Just take the beginning part first, if you like. I should have posted them separately; it may be overwhelming.
It is funny but we are both thinking the same way here...that Fergusson "is a stand in for Lawrence himself". I was going to suggest it since I see definite parallels to L and his past experiences. First off I told you before, that he saw this same thing happen to Jesse's family. Jesse was a woman, who also was surrounded by men (her brothers), except in her case her mother was still alive. And also the family finally had to vacate their premises and leave their beloved farm and lands, which Lawrence loved and it broke L's heart. Lawrence often had a cold and somewhere in the text he mentioned Fergusson desiring to walk when he did not feel well, since he thought it theraputic. This is absolutely true of Lawrence himself. He walked all the time and he was ill in the lungs most of the time. The landscape in this particular story is very reminiscent of the places where L grew up. It is interesting, as Lawrence got closer to his death he seemed to go back to these places of his childhood or early manhood, at least in his mind. He sort of revisited them and in this story I feel he is doing so, also the theme of the horse-dealer. This goes back to L's early days. Interesting to know that L's area is more north and he makes his heros from the north. I wondered why he made Fergusson Scottish, now I sort of see why.
Again this part:

he stands with the brothers in a group which certainly associates him with the masculine world, and he's frustrated and tired of his work. So what can we derive from these facts? He's part of the social, masculine world; in fact as doctor, he's an institution of the social world.

This is good and yes he did align himself, when in the house, with the sons as men would be apt to do. But he is all the time observing Mabel in a subtle, unassuming sort of way. Yes, I think he does desire more, and but what at this point? Does he even know himself? I don't think he is aware of it yet. It will take the transfiguration for him to get through to his own thoughts.

[Virgil]

It will take the transfiguration for him to get through to his own thoughts.

Do you think Ferguson also undergoes a transfiguration? I guess we'll get to that later. Perhaps we should next look over the pond scene and that clay we talked about.

[Janine]

Do you think Ferguson also undergoes a transfiguration? I guess we'll get to that later. Perhaps we should next look over the pond scene and that clay we talked about.

Well, Virgil, you have surfaced again from Titus. I have been checking in to read that thread but things seemed to have slowed up some. Thanks for checking back and writing some more comments here.

Well, I am not sure if Fergusson does undergo a transfiguration. I am still not 100% clear on the meaning of the word as Lawrence intends it. F seems to hear himself talking in the last scenes and before that he seemed unaware of his inner thoughts concerning Mabel. If he has not experienced a transfiguration perhaps he is desiring one. Yes, we could go to the clay significance in pond scene soon, but first I would still like to look at that last paragraph I posted - the one about Fergusson living next to the church and about his feelings concerning his profession, life, etc. I think that paragraph reveals some important things about him, or at least suggests them.

[Virgil]

Well, I am not sure if Fergusson does undergo a transfiguration. I am still not 100% clear on the meaning of the word as Lawrence intends it.

Well, who knows exactly how Lawrence intends it, but here's the first several paragrapghs of my thesis where I define it:

"Life is a traveling to the edge of knowledge," D. H. Lawrence states in his essay "The Crown," "then a leap taken" (Phoenix II, 374). So many of Lawrence's narrative structures, within his stories, novellas, and novels, are based on this principle that it may be construed as one of Lawrence's aesthetic hallmarks. He continues: "It is a leap taken into the beyond, as a lark leaps into the sky, a fragment of earth which travels to be fused out, sublimated, in the shining of the heavens." Here, then, is the leap's significance, a transformation of matter to spirit and the spirit's ultimate coalescence with cosmic vitality. Lawrence's theosophy is pantheistic; the knowledge is mystical; the transformation, "the leap taken," a transfiguration.

If so much of Lawrence's opus is concerned with this leap, with this transfiguration, then it certainly is worthy of study. What is a transfiguration? It is not an epiphany--an epiphany being a momentary burst of enlightenment or awareness. Transfiguration goes beyond. Certainly it has religious connotation. "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light" (Math., xvii, 1-2). The transfigurative experience crosses into many religions, especially of western culture: Moses returning from the Mt. Sinai with his face shining (Exodus, xxxiv, 34), St. Francis receiving the stigmata, and the pagan metamorphoses of Persephone, Dionysos, Adonis, and Osirsus. Lawrence certainly had these in mind when he employs the term. After two years of marriage, Tom and Lydia Bragwen of The Rainbow pass through such a transformation:

They had passed into the doorway into the further space, where movement was so big, that it contained bonds and constraints and labours, and still was complete liberty...At last they had thrown open the doors...whilst the light flooded out from behind on to each of their faces, it was the transfiguration, the glorification, the admission (95-6).

The transfiguration, in general, then, is a spiritual conversion so overwhelming that it has caused a transformation--the physical transformation being emblematic--within the consciousness of the transfigured.

From my master's thesis, "Toward the Transfiguration: An Examination of the Use of the Transfigurative Experience in D. H. Lawrence’s Late Fiction."

I think this can serve as a jumping off point for the next part of our discussion.

[Janine]

Virgil, I have to read this and then read it again. I am a bit tired now - you know brain dead, temporarily, after going out tonight shopping. I will contemplate it tomorrow or sometime on the weekend. I still find the terms a little confusing in relation to Fergussen. I have to let it sink in and think about it more. I did read it several times when I read your thesis.

[Janine]

Virgil, I understand "transfiguration" in the passage to describe Tom and Lydia Bragwen of "The Rainbow", but when it come to Fergussen, I can't see it yet. Tom and Lydia take time for that to happen, maybe even years to come to that point, but Fergussen is new to the touch or the contact with Mabel. Also, he repeatedly says he did not mean to love her. This seems to indicate doubt on his part in the fullfillment of love or physical love and furfillment and consumation. In this way wouldn't "transfiguration" be a possibility, but not yet realized in this story? The exact meaning of "transfiguration" still is not totally clear to me. Maybe you can point out something specific to me to make me see the transfiguration on both their parts.

[Asa Adams]

What Are we reading next? I think I might join after you finish this discussion!

[Janine]

What Are we reading next? I think I might join after you finish this discussion!

Asa, Well, we have not really decided yet. We have been doing that when we finish up a story. This one is in a bit of lull right now. Virgil is preoccupied with "Titus" and "Frome". I am in "Frome" discussion but I skipped "Titus".

Anyway, Asa, great! I am so glad you might join in. We don't really have a time we will start; we started this thread loosely and figured we would just play it by ear, no pressure that way. Have you a suggestion for the next story? I picked the first one and V picked the second one, but you could pick the third. We could stick to the 10 or so available on Lit Net, or others, if we all have the complete set of the short stories. Virgil and I both do. The stories available on here are under "England, My England".

We have to progress and finish up this story soon. Hope you do join in on the next. Let me know if you want to pick the story. You seem very knowlegable about Lawrence's works.

[Virgil]

The exact meaning of "transfiguration" still is not totally clear to me. Maybe you can point out something specific to me to make me see the transfiguration on both their parts.

Janine, the best way to describe transifguration is to give an example from a movie I'm sure you've seen. In "The Ten Commandments" Moses (Charlton Heston) goes up to the mountain and talks to God. When he comes down from the mountain, his hair is grizzled and changed. His whole persona has changed. That experience has altered his being. That's a transfiguration.

If you understand that, then go back and read those paragraphs from my paper. Now Lawrence is dealing with realistic fiction usually, so the transfiguration is not a physical one, since that doesn't happen every day. Lawrence has the character undergo a psychological change as overwhelming as Moses's physical/spiritual transformation. In the end, it's all basically spiritual for Lawrence.

Did i make myself clear now?

[Janine]

Yes, that is very good, Virgil. I think I do understand it to that point. I do get the concept and how L looked on it. I just am not sure I see a total transfiguration in the instance of Fergusson and this story. I better read the ending again. It has been awhile now and my mind is muddled about it.

Last night I was reading some of the Lawrence letters and it threw some more light on L's thinking - now I am just on the early ones when he was a youth (The Formative Years section) but the beginnings of his philosophy are rooted there. One letter particularly stood out. He did a bit of preaching in it and then would surface saying something had interrupted his dream and the preaching. I am so enthused now and want to soak up all of the letters he wrote.

Note Asa's post and my post back to him; maybe we could pick the next short story ahead, so that he can start reading it.

I can't write anymore now - going somewhere today - apointment.

[Virgil]

Yes, that is very good, Virgil. I think I do understand it to that point. I do get the concept and how L looked on it. I just am not sure I see a total transfiguration in the instance of Fergusson and this story. I better read the ending again. It has been awhile now and my mind is muddled about it.

Good. And I'll have to re-read that ending too. I haven't made up my mind about Ferguson either. In fact until our discussion here recently it never occured to me.

Last night I was reading some of the Lawrence letters and it threw some more light on L's thinking - now I am just on the early ones when he was a youth (The Formative Years section) but the beginnings of his philosophy are rooted there. One letter particularly stood out. He did a bit of preaching in it and then would surface saying something had interrupted his dream and the preaching. I am so enthused now and want to soak up all of the letters he wrote.

I have his collected letters and one or two volumes of his complete letters. Which letter are you referring to? I can look it up and read it if I have it. Just give me the date of the letter and to whom written.

[Janine]

Virgil, I am so tired out tonight. I am going to sit and watch a movie. I answered the post by Scher in the Frome discussion, but did not get to yours, which really proceeded it. That was complicated and I could not think of what else to write about the truth or validity of the narrator. I have to think about all that when I am more wide-awake, ok.

You wrote:
"Good. And I'll have to re-read that ending too. I haven't made up my mind about Ferguson either. In fact until our discussion here recently it never occured to me."

I did that today at the doctors, but now I can't think of what to write. Give me till tomorrow...again when I feel more alert.

The letter I spoke of in my post is to: Blanche Jennings, 25 June 1908
(note: I have not finished reading this letter yet - it is quite long)

I also read a long letter of interest to: Reverend Robert Reid 3 December 1907

These are early letters as you can see. He was quite young....23, 24.

[Asa Adams]

Janine, I love D.H.L, Though I only did study him loosely through My University career. I am focusing on this thread so that I may learn something new and interesting. Bio-"Student for life"

You can pick Any L story for me, Guys. Im along for this glorious eye opening ride,