That all sounds about right to me. Putting your heads together, you came up with how 'purification' was used in this context. I think now we all agree on the idea.
Probably, the guys will come in and disagree. :lol:
At last - the ending:
Final Section of Text:
Quote:
"Good-bye," he said, looking down at her. She made a small, moaning noise in her throat, lifting her face so that it came open and near to him like a suddenly-risen flower, borne on a strong white stalk. She seemed to extend, to fill the world, to become atmosphere and all. He did not know what he was doing. He was bending forward, his mouth on hers, her arms round his neck, and his own hands, still fastened on to her wrists, almost bursting the blood under his nails with the intensity of their grip. They remained for a few moments thus, rigid. Then, weary of the strain, she relaxed. She turned her face, offered him her throat, white, hard, and rich, below the ear. Stooping still lower, so that he quivered in every fibre at the strain, he laid his mouth to the kiss. In the intense silence, he heard the deep, dull pulsing of her blood, and a minute click of a spark within the lamp.
Once again Winifred is making another throat sound, this time ‘a small, moaning noise.' I find the statement “her face…. came open” interesting, because it relates to the flower image – a flower opening to Lawrence was a wonderful thing and embodied the full knowledge of a woman, in relation to a man. Here her face is compared to a “suddenly-risen flower, borne on a strong white stalk.” Combining this imagery, with the idea of the first true kiss she ever gave him, seems to indicate that Winifred is extending herself, in order to take Coutts over, in her final effort to hold him; she has him, at this very point, very much under her spell. When the text states that “He did not know what he was doing” – he is like a man in a trance or under a spell. Again, there is mention of the 'bursting blood under his nails' from the pressure layed on her arms. The two people seem to be in a very rigid and tight clasp, with her arms about his neck, and ‘this intensity’ of his hand’s grip on her wrists. They are almost like wrestlers at this minute, holding each other securely, desperately…but then the 'stain is wearisome' and she relaxes first. The next part and image of her turning her throat to him, is nearly identical to a painting that Lawrence adored and often copied, entitled “Idyll” by Maurice Griffenhagen. This was pointed out, in my Michael Black book, and now this final pose or the one preceeding, it with the arms dropped at her side limply does seem to fit this image. I will try to post a photo of the painting or it can easily be found online. It is on the cover of my novel “The White Peacock”.
Then the fateful moment of the kiss and the 'minute click of a spark within the lamp'. I love the line “quivered in every fibre at the strain, he laid his mouth to the kiss.” It sounds so poetic or musical. Then I like this part “In the intense silence, he heard the deep, dull pulsing of her blood…again musical, trance-like and poetically beautiful. Then when you add on this part….. “and a minute click of a spark within the lamp”…that seems to wake us up to reality, brings the reader back from this trace. That one little click seems to me so important as a signal of what will happen ultimately. It is reminisent of the scene we studied in "The Prussian Officer"; Virgil will recall that scene, but everyone else was not here during that discussion. Michael Black points this out and it made sense to me, but will mean nothing to most of you, so I did not quote it.
Quote:
Then he drew her from the chair up to him. She came, arms always round his neck, till at last she lay along his breast as he stood, feet planted wide, clasping her tight, his mouth on her neck. She turned suddenly to meet his full, red mouth in a kiss. He felt his moustache prick back into his lips. It was the first kiss she had genuinely given.
Here is the mention of the “first kiss genuinely given”….short lived, I may add…
Quote:
Dazed, he was conscious of the throb of one great pulse, as if his whole body were a heart that contracted in throbs. He felt, with an intolerable ache, as if he, the heart, were setting the pulse in her, in the very night, so that everything beat from the throb of his overstrained, bursting body.
That is marvelous; just the way that is written, I find it so expressive and so brilliant. Coutts is quite overtaken by that last kiss. The scene is very passionate at this point and yet the pain of it is so evident and this fact brings Coutts “out of the reeling stage to distinct consciousness”….revealed in the next line of text to follow:
Quote:
The hurt became so great it brought him out of the reeling stage to distinct consciousness. She clipped her lips, drew them away, leaving him her throat. Already she had had enough. He opened his eyes as he bent with his mouth on her neck, and was startled; there stood the objects of the room, stark; there, close below his eyes, were the half-sunk lashes of the woman, swooning on her unnatural ebb of passion. He saw her thus, knew that she wanted no more of him than that kiss. And the heavy form of this woman hung upon him. His whole body ached like a swollen vein, with heavy intensity, while his heart grew dead with misery and despair. This woman gave him anguish and a cutting-short like death; to the other woman he was false. As he shivered with suffering, he opened his eyes again, and caught sight of the pure ivory of the lamp. His heart flashed with rage.
“Already she had had enough” – such a key line and the absolute ending of the seduction. Reality is coming back to Coutts. He is returning – words like ‘stark’ to describe his perception of objects in the room. Before this the objects had a certain mystical charm for Coutts, a certain familiarity, now they are merely 'stark' objects of no importance to him. Suddenly he sees Winifred in a whole new light as well, as soon as she stops the seduction at the point of that kiss…the only real thing she desired of him and that he now realizes completely - that kiss. Suddenly her form has become as a burden, ‘heavy’ and he feels her hanging upon him. The rest is his own suffering and final flash of ‘rage’. The pure ivory lamp signals the end. I wonder if the fact, that it is pure and ivory, also relates to the idea of the moon image or the white marble statues? Now both of these images would be negative to Coutts and not as he had earlier perceived them.
Quote:
A sudden involuntary blow of his foot, and he sent the lamp-stand spinning. The lamp leaped off, fell with a smash on the fair, polished floor. Instantly a bluish hedge of flame quivered, leaped up before them. She had lightened her hold round his neck, and buried her face against his throat. The flame veered at her, blue, with a yellow tongue that licked her dress and her arm. Convulsive, she clutched him, almost strangled him, though she made no sound.
So once again, encountering the involuntary blow of his foot and the upset lamp-stand with the fire as the result of his inner anger. I don’t think this was intentional but it may have been subconscious. I still am not completely sure which I believe to be the total true. Rationally I don’t think Coutts would ever mean to harm Winifred or burn down her house. I feel consciously his anger did cause the accident but it was not intentional.
Quote:
He gathered her up and bore her heavily out of the room. Slipping from her clasp, he brought his arms down her form, crushing the starting blaze of her dress. His face was singed. Staring at her, he could scarcely see her.
Does this mean he did sustain pretty severe injuries not only to his hands, but to his face and his eyes? This last line combined with the last line of the story seem to indicate he has lost his sight, probably temporarily, but either way he runs blindly from the house.
"I am not hurt," she cried. "But you?"
The housekeeper was coming; the flames were sinking and waving up in the drawing-room. He broke away from Winifred, threw one of the great woollen rugs on to the flame, then stood a moment looking at the darkness.
Is he looking at the actual darkness or can he no longer really see?
Quote:
Winifred caught at him as he passed her.
"No, no," he answered, as he fumbled for the latch. "I'm not hurt. Clumsy fool I am--clumsy fool!"
Any thoughts on what Coutts blurts out in this line; it is that he knows he was clumsy, even going foolishly to her house to begin with, or is it just momentarily an admission of his own action (guilt?) in starting the fire accidently? I still find this line sort of curious.
Quote:
In another instant he was gone, running with burning-red hands held out blindly, down the street.
Again this word “blind”. I keep wondering if he truly is blinded. Maybe I am being too literal with this.
