The Rainbow

The chapter titled “The Man’s World” makes clear to the reader that Ursula’s journey for freedom and independence will not be easy, and the chapter depicts a period of growth for Ursula wherein she triumphs professionally, but at great personal, moral cost. The theme Gender Roles in Domestic Life undergirds this section of the novel as Ursula struggles to escape the constraints of traditional roles for women. The chapter begins by placing Ursula and Anna in opposition to one another: Ursula sees her mother as trapped and complacent due to the conditions of domesticity, marriage, and motherhood. As a result, Ursula rejects Anna for failing to achieve the liberation she now seeks for herself. Ursula builds her life in direct opposition to Anna’s version of womanhood.

This section also explores the theme Education and Industrialization. Ursula’s work in the public school introduces a bleak industrial scene in the city, signaling the completed transition from the Edenic Marsh Farm to a disenchanting, grimy place. Ursula thinks the people on her commute are “unliving” and “spectral” (342). The people around her are like empty shells rather than full human beings. Ursula’s early experiences as a teacher nearly disabuse her of her notions that she will be successful in her chosen field. She intends to practice a pedagogy in which students are led to knowledge by a kind teacher, but she quicky finds that her students are unruly, misbehaving, and at times outright cruel. When she reports their misbehavior to Mr. Harby, the headmaster, the students throw objects at her in public outside of school. On one occasion, a student throws a potato at her, bruising her hand. Sometimes, they throw stones, an act reminiscent of punishment by stoning. The world Ursula wants to break into is not one that rewards kindness—she has to become an instrument of the educational system and embrace strictness in her role as teacher.

In a startling turn, Ursula viciously beats a particularly troublesome student with her cane, finally embracing the pedagogy of violence that the other teachers and Mr. Harby pushed her toward since she accepted the job. However, when the boy’s mother comes to the school to complain that the beating made him ill, Ursula is annoyed to see Mr. Harby’s shocked reaction when he learns she did exactly what he encouraged her to do. In this moment, it appears that no matter what Ursula does in the “man’s world,” she will never get it exactly right. The other students respond to Ursula’s disciplinary tactics with sudden respect for her as an authority figure, and although she feels triumphant at last, she still feels like something is missing from her life. She soon grapples with the same existential anxieties her father and grandfather endured.

Ursula leaves her teaching position and attends college to earn her degree, but her studies do not impress her, although she is still ambitious and eager to learn. At the same time, Anton’s return suggests that Ursula will give up her ambitions and her desire for freedom and settle down into the same married life she loathed to see Anna and Lydia embrace. This scenario continues to explore the theme Gender Roles in Domestic Life. Ursula and Anton’s relationship is just as fraught as it was before, but now the differences in their attitudes and worldviews are more immediately clear. The world is bleaker, Ursula feels isolated in the industrialized world, and Anton increasingly despises the diminished natural world. When they travel to France, Ursula’s marveling at the cathedral in Rouen marks an important realization for Anton: They will never marry. He sees how Ursula is affected by the cathedral and what it represents, and he knows she wants more than he can give.

As their relationship unravels, Ursula and Anton’s sexual intimacy deteriorates to the point of causing Ursula physical pain. A generous reading of the scene may interpret her pain as a metaphor or as emotional pain upon realizing their relationship is all but over, but the narrative makes clear that Ursula takes less and less pleasure from their sexual relations, and their final time is unpleasurable to the point of being painful. Anton seems oblivious to her pain, demonstrating his pattern of attempting to force their relationship even when Ursula gains nothing fulfilling from it. The possibility of her being pregnant is worrisome, not just because she would be an unwed mother, but also because motherhood would lead her into marriage with Anton, solidifying for her a life she already knows she does not want.

The novel’s concluding pages see Ursula encountering a group of wild horses while walking outside in the rain. The rain itself functions as a baptismal scene, washing Anton away as she moves to a new stage in life. The horses, however, frighten and excite her, much as the possibilities available to her now that she is single also make her simultaneously scared and excited. The horses at first block her path, representing the overwhelming possibilities of her new freedom, but when they clear a path for her to run through and she escapes across a field, they end up steering her back to her family’s house. Instead of setting off alone, Ursula falls ill and is bedridden in her parents’ home for several weeks, and by then she knows she is not pregnant and Anton has married someone else. After recovering from her illness and processing her breakup with Anton, Ursula sees the rainbow that is symbolic of her new hope, as well as a new stage in her life, through its evocation of biblical allusion: The rainbow symbolizes the new covenant between humanity and God and the promise that humanity will never again be destroyed by God’s wrath. For Ursula, it represents a new phase in her journey to selfhood, opening up possibilities and the prospect of a new beginning. She is not pregnant, Anton’s new marriage definitively ended their back-and-forth relationship, and she is unencumbered and free to pursue the independent life she craves.