Women In Love

The second half of Lawrence’s intended single novel about the Brangwens, Women In Love examines the relationships of Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen with Rupert Birkin, an intellectual, and Gerald Crich, an industrialist. In many respects, the essentials of Lawrence’s world are tied up in the four; Ursula and Birkin the transcendentalists, Gudrun and Crich the modernists drawn by the flame of money. Critics have seen much of Lawrence in the character of Birkin not least in the swirls of homo-eroticism created by his relationship with Crich. Ken Russel’s 1969 film version shows this aspect in its celebrated nude wrestling sequence in front of a roaring fire. In an effective coda to the plot, Lawrence has Birkin ruminate on such a relationship in a discussion with Ursula, ending with an affirmation of love between men which Ursula denies.