Lady Chatterley's Lover

“To get away from the house…she must get away from the house and everybody. The wood was her one refuge, her sanctuary.”

This quotation occurs early in the novel, during the early years of Connie and Clifford’s marriage, when she is still very devoted to him. The quotation reveals that Connie grows increasingly restless and stifled with her isolated life, long before she begins having affairs. The quotation also establishes the significance of the natural world as a place where Connie can be free and connected to her authentic self. The house represents social constructions and social norms, including marriage and monogamy, whereas the woods will be a place where Connie can follow her natural instincts and have an authentic experience of sexuality and desire.

“He really reaped the fruits of the sensual satisfaction she got out of Michaelis’ male passivity erect inside her.”

This quotation references how Clifford (the “he” of the passage) benefits from Connie having her first affair. Due to the sexual pleasure she enjoys with her lover, Connie becomes more cheerful and energetic. The quotation shows that while Clifford is not consciously aware of his wife’s adultery, the relationship impacts him because of how intertwined and dependent he is. The quotation also reveals the amoral perspective that the narrative presents regarding adultery: Connie’s relationship with Michaelis has benefits for both her and the people around her, even though it would traditionally be considered a bad thing for her to do.

“I just simply can’t vibrate in unison with a woman. There’s no woman I can really want when I’m faced with her, and I’m not going to start forcing myself to it.”

Clifford’s friend Tommy Dukes speaks this quotation while he, Clifford, and some of their other friends are having a philosophical discussion about love and sex. Connie is quietly listening, and has interjected to disagree with Tommy’s cynical perspective on women. Nonetheless, Tommy doubles down, arguing that he cannot experience a true and authentic connection with women, and thus prefers to avoid sexuality all together. The quotation represents how many wealthy intellectual men of the upper classes fixate on philosophical questions around love and desire, and become unable to feel enthusiasm for either. This perspective hints at why Connie will find it unappealing to have relationships with men from her own social class, and ends up pursuing a more frank and authentic connection with Mellors instead.

“I mind more, not having a son, when I come here, than any other time.”

Clifford speaks this quotation to Connie as the two of them walk through the woods of the Wragby estate. Clifford is moved by the ancient forests, which have been preserved and cared for by generations of his ancestors. Clifford confides to Connie his regret that, as a result of his injuries, he is unable to father children. Notably, Clifford is concerned mostly with the lack of a son and heir to whom he can pass down his estate. The end of Clifford’s biological family line symbolically reflects the end of an era in which an aristocratic, landed class controlled England; Clifford is grappling both with the advance of modernity and with the looming end of his personal family legacy.

“You just wouldn’t let the wrong sort of fellow touch you.”

Clifford speaks this quotation to Connie as the two of them have their first direct conversation about the possibility that Connie could have an affair, get pregnant, and then raise the child with Clifford. Connie asks if Clifford would care about the type of man who fathered her child, and Clifford’s response reveals his biased assumptions about class. Clifford presumes that Connie would never be interested in having an affair with a man from a different social class; because he has such rigid notions about social class, he presumes that his wife shares them. The quotation ironically foreshadows conflicts to come later in the novel, since Connie is subsequently going to fall in love with a working-class man.

“Since Michaelis, she had made up her mind she wanted nothing. That seemed the simplest solution of the otherwise insoluble.”

This quotation reveals the despair and loneliness that Connie experiences before the start of her relationship with Mellors. She is isolated and unhappy in her marriage and life, but does not think that anything is going to change or get better. Faced with her despair, Connie tries to cut herself off from feeling any form of desire. This quotation sets the stage for the renewal and revitalization that Connie will experience when she begins her affair and begins to have hope for the future. The quotation also reveals that human beings are not intended to live life without hope or passion; even when Connie tries to renounce desire, it eventually finds its way back into her life.

“She was old, old at twenty-seven, with no gleam and sparkle in the flesh. Old through neglect and denial, yes denial.”

This quotation occurs when Connie, growing increasingly frustrated and unhappy, looks at her naked body in despair. Although Connie is objectively still quite young, she feels afraid that her youth is passing her by. Because Connie is not having any sexual experiences, she feels that her beauty is being wasted, and she is also afraid of her fertility declining and missing out on the experience of having a child. Connie’s assessment of her age and desirability is revealed to be subjective: When she is lonely, she perceives herself as aging and undesirable, but once she begins a passionate relationship, she feels much more at peace with her body.

“Yet still, she breathed freer, a new phase was going to begin in her life.”

This quotation occurs after Mrs. Bolton begins working as Clifford’s nurse, before Connie begins her affair with Mellors. The quotation foreshadows the momentous impact of Connie’s relationship with Mellors while also revealing that the conditions had to be correct to enable the relationship to thrive between the two of them. Connie can only explore the desire that draws her towards Mellors once she is free from the pressure of being Clifford’s primary caregiver. Connie’s relationship with Mellors is not simply about a romantic connection to a man; it occurs within a larger shift as she returns to her authentic self.

“Yet it was spring, and the bluebells were coming in the wood, and the leaf-buds on the hazels were opening like the splatter of green rain.”

This quotation provides insight into the setting at the time when Connie is about to begin her affair with Mellors. Connie is growing increasingly unhappy in her marriage, but the natural world around her is erupting with beauty as the seasons change and the weather warms. Spring is typically a season associated with rebirth, renewal, and fertility; the earth literally thaws, flowers bloom, and many animals give birth to their offspring. The setting provides thematic and symbolic echoes of the emotional and sexual vitality that will return to Connie when she embarks on her relationship with Mellors.

“She lay still, in a kind of sleep, always in a kind of sleep. The activity, the orgasm, was his, all his; she could strive for herself no more.”

This quotation describes the first sexual encounter between Connie and Mellors, emphasizing the passive role she enacts. Connie is so disconnected from her body and her desires that she simply lies quietly and does not experience much pleasure. The quotation is important because it shows that Connie is not aggressively pursuing pleasure, and sets the stage for the relationship to evolve between Connie and Mellors over time.

“It’s life […] there’s no keeping clear. And if you do keep clear you might almost as well die. So if I’ve got to be broken open again, I have.”

Mellors speaks this quotation as he reflects with a sense of melancholy on the consequences of beginning a relationship with Connie. Mellors has been trying to keep himself isolated, particularly to avoid emotional and sexual entanglements with women. He has been badly hurt by the end of his marriage, and still has a legal tie to his estranged wife. However, unlike the upper-class characters, Mellors accepts that individuals are going to keep experiencing desire and emotional connection; he is resigned that he was never going to be able to stay away from women entirely. Mellors is realistic enough to see that emotional pain likely lies ahead for him and Connie, but he is also brave enough not to try and run away from those consequences.

“You’ll have to care, everybody has. You’ve got to remember your ladyship is carrying on with a gamekeeper. It’s not as if I was a gentleman.”

Mellors speaks this quotation to Connie shortly after they begin their affair: He is warning her that it will be impossible to keep their relationship a secret forever, and that she will be socially stigmatized when the truth comes out. The quotation shows that Mellors is more pragmatic, while Connie is more idealistic. He knows from the onset of their relationship that there will be consequences, and he warns Connie about them. The quotation also reveals what is risky about the relationship: the fact that Connie is having an affair with a working-class man. Many people would overlook an affair with a man from her own class, especially given that her husband is disabled, but Connie takes a much greater risk when she chooses Mellors as her lover.

“Rippling, rippling, rippling, like a flapping overlapping of soft flames, soft as feathers, running to points of brilliance, exquisite, exquisite and melting her all molten inside.”

This quotation describes the pleasure that Connie experiences during her third encounter with Mellors. She experiences relatively little physical enjoyment the first two times that they have sex, but begins to have intense orgasms as their encounters continue. Lawrence uses poetic and figurative language to capture the pleasure that Connie feels; descriptions such as this were part of what made the novel shocking (See: Background). Notably, Lawrence describes these sexual encounters from Connie’s point of view and focuses on her physical enjoyment, not the enjoyment that Mellors derives. Through these poetic descriptions of the sensations that Connie enjoys during her sexual encounters with Mellors, Lawrence conveys the significance of sexual satisfaction to the human experience, implying that it is important for women to experience sexual gratification.

“Another self was alive in her, burning molten and soft in her womb and bowels, and with this self she adored him. She adored him till her knees were weak as she walked.”

This quotation describes the development of Connie’s feelings for Mellors and notes the key shift that occurs after she begins to experience pleasure during their sexual encounters. Although Connie does not initially feel love or emotional attachment to Mellors, these feelings arise as a result of the sexual pleasure they experience together. Lawrence advocates for the importance of sexual compatibility between partners by showing that two people who are well-matched and have strong sexual chemistry (such as Connie and Mellors) can also develop affection for one another, even though they initially have little else in common. By contrast, the lack of sexual connection between Connie and Clifford gradually erodes her affection for him, even though they share intellectual interests.

“And you and I can go away. They never need even know it is you. We can go to another country, shall we? To Africa or Australia. Shall we?”

Connie speaks this quotation to Mellors as she begins to dream up a plan in which the two of them could be together. At first, Connie is mostly curious about Mellors, and she only gradually falls in love with him. This quotation reveals the extent to which their relationship has developed, since Connie is now willing to abandon her entire life to be with him. The quotation also shows how Connie has grown bolder and more optimistic about the future: Rather than resigning herself to a miserable life at Wragby Hall, she begins to plan for, and imagine, a new life.

“He fastened fluffy young oak-sprays round her breasts, sticking in tufts of bluebells and campion; and in her navel he poised a pink campion flower, and in her maidenhair were forget-me-nots and wood-ruff.”

This quotation describes the scene in which Connie and Mellors playfully decorate each other’s naked bodies with wildflowers. The quotation reveals how the natural world is an important context for the joy and pleasure that Connie and Mellors experience: They become one with the natural world by embracing their own instincts. It also shows the real tenderness that develops between them. Their relationship is not solely about sex, but also filled with playfulness and affection.

“Give me the body. I believe the life of the body is a greater reality than the life of the mind: when the body is really wakened to life.”

Connie speaks this quotation to Clifford when the two of them get in an argument. Connie becomes frustrated with Clifford and his tendencies to be a pretentious intellectual, and she tells him that she thinks the body is just as valuable as the mind. The quotation shows how Connie is becoming bolder and more assertive as her relationship with Mellors progresses, and how she is more willing to voice her own opinions. It also reveals the central conflict between mind and body presented throughout the novel.

“‘He’s our game-keeper,’ faltered Connie, and she flushed vividly like a shamed child.”

Connie speaks this quotation to her sister Hilda; it is the first time she tells anyone about her affair. The quotation reveals that Connie is not yet completely confident in her choice; she knows that the relationship will be controversial, and she is embarrassed to talk about it with Hilda. By focusing on Mellors’s occupation, Connie admits that she sees him as existing inside of a social and class structure.

“She would have thought a woman would have died of shame. Instead of which, the shame died.”

This quotation occurs during the description of the final night that Connie and Mellors spend together before she leaves for Italy. They have their most passionate night yet and explore new sexual acts together. Connie is left realizing that she has been misled by false beliefs that sex is bad and shameful. She is no longer afraid to explore and revel in her sexuality, and she becomes much more defiant of social norms. This realization paves the way for Connie to boldly pursue a future with the man she loves.

“Emotions change. You may like one man this year and another next. But Wragby still stands.”

Connie’s father speaks this quotation after she confides that she is pregnant. Connie’s father is not judgmental, but cautions his daughter against leaving her husband. He sees Wragby and the Chatterley name and fortune as a source of security for both Connie and her unborn child. He thinks that emotions and attractions are too volatile to be a good basis for decisions. This quotation shows that most people value security and continuity, heightening the contrast when Connie decides to openly pursue a new life.

“I’ve a dread of puttin’ children i’ th’ world […] I’ve such a dread o’ th’ future for ‘em.”

Mellors speaks this quotation to Connie when she tells him that she is pregnant. Mellors is shocked and frightened; he does not feel hopeful about the future, and he is hesitant about bringing children into the world. The quotation provides a rare insight into Mellors’s character and vulnerabilities; it also shows that the novel’s characters struggle between optimism and fatalism in the wake of the trauma of the war.

“It is bitter as death to me to have this order of life broken up, here in Wragby, and the decent round of daily life smashed, just for some whim of yours.” 

Clifford speaks this quotation to Connie when he expresses why he is so upset that she wants a divorce. Clifford has repeatedly condoned Connie having discreet affairs, but he never imagined she would actually leave him. Clifford thinks Connie is being short-sighted and impulsive; for him, continuity and routine are the highest values. In particular, because Clifford is so physically dependent on receiving care from others, he is extremely distressed by the idea of his routine being disrupted. The quotation shows that Clifford is selfish, but also cannot stand when anyone else acts in their own self-interest.

“You’re not normal, you’re not in your right senses. You’re one of those half-insane, perverted women who must run after depravity.”

Clifford speaks this quotation when he lashes out at Connie after she reveals that she has been having an affair with Mellors. Clifford was willing to tolerate Connie having an affair, and is upset by the news that she wants to leave him. What truly enrages him, though, is the idea of his wife having a relationship with a working-class man. The quotation reveals Clifford’s rigid views on social class, and how quickly he turns against Connie when he feels betrayed.