Lady Chatterley's Lover

Clifford Chatterley is an important secondary character in the novel. He eventually comes to act as the novel’s antagonist, since he creates conflict and stands between Connie and her desire to achieve her goal (i.e., being with Mellors). Clifford is an upper-class Englishman who is born into an aristocratic family and inherits an estate that has been in his family for generations.

Before the plot of the novel begins, Clifford is severely injured while fighting in World War I, and is paralyzed for life. He is reliant on a wheelchair to move around, he needs someone to help him with all daily tasks, and he is not capable of having sex or fathering children. Clifford has also been deeply traumatized by his wartime experiences: “[S]lowly, slowly the wound to the soul begins to make itself felt, like a bruise” (50). Clifford is quite spoiled and demanding, believing that the upper classes are inherently superior to the working classes. He does feel a strong connection to his ancestry and heritage, and wishes that he had a son.

Because of his entitlement and the infantilization he experiences due to his injuries, Clifford can be very demanding, needy, and controlling. He eventually transfers his almost obsessive tendencies from Connie to Mrs. Bolton. Clifford can sometimes be portrayed as quite villainous, especially as the plot progresses, but it is unclear if his character actually changes or if Connie’s perception of him changes. Clifford is partially a victim of circumstances outside of his control, and he can be sympathetic because of his loneliness and physical vulnerability. However, Clifford cruelly refuses to divorce Connie because he wants to punish her for having a relationship with a working-class man. He tells her coldly that, “I follow my own inclination, and I’m not inclined to” (316). Clifford’s character experiences a negative arc over the course of the novel, as he becomes more controlling and domineering.

Oliver Mellors is an important secondary character, as his relationship with Connie drives the main conflict of the plot. Mellors works as a gamekeeper on the Chatterley estate. He lives alone since he is estranged from his wife and has little contact with his daughter.

Mellors was born into a working-class family, but has been able to acquire a good education and has spent time abroad and among the upper classes while serving in the army. He has a quiet elegance and refinement that leads characters like Hilda to notice that “he was instinctively much more delicate and well-bred than herself” (260). Mellors sometimes speaks in a local dialect and sometimes in more standard English, reflecting his ambiguous class position. He enjoys sex and finds it difficult to avoid becoming enmeshed in romantic and sexual relationships, even though he would prefer to avoid the emotional complexities that they engender.

Readers gain limited insight into Mellors’s character since his inner thoughts and feelings are only occasionally included. At first, he seems quite cautious about his relationship with Connie and is reticent to express his emotions for her. This reserve reflects Mellors’s awareness that it will be hard for them to pursue a life together, and also his fatalistic sense that the world is only going to get worse. Mellors eventually agrees to divorce his estranged wife and plan a future with Connie; he also comes to feel hopeful about him and Connie having a child, even though he initially fears “it seems to me a wrong and bitter thing to do, to bring a child into this world” (231).

By the end of the novel, Mellors has developed into a man who can much more freely express his love for Connie, and who sees the world in a hopeful way; as he tells her, “[T]hough I’m frightened, I believe in your being with me” (320).

Mrs. Bolton is a secondary character who comes to live at Wragby Hall to work as Clifford’s personal nurse. Mrs. Bolton is a working-class woman who has lived in the village near Wragby Hall; she is in her mid-forties when she comes to live with Connie and Clifford. Mrs. Bolton was widowed as a young woman and raised two children alone; she eventually tells Connie that she has continued to love and miss her husband for decades.

Mrs. Bolton and Clifford become very close, and she entertains him by telling him all of the local gossip. Mrs. Bolton often comes across as a somewhat crass and unrefined woman who likes to gossip, but she is also shrewd and observant. She is able to quickly deduce that Connie is having an affair with Mellors, and she chooses to keep this information secret.

At the end of the novel, when Connie reveals her affair and tries to ask Clifford for a divorce, Mrs. Bolton is also kind and non-judgmental, even though it might seem more probable that she would side with Clifford. Mrs. Bolton tells Connie, “I’ll be faithful to Sir Clifford, and I’ll be faithful to you, for I can see you’re both right in your own ways” (317). Mrs. Bolton shows that characters are seldom entirely good or entirely bad.