Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Intellect vs. Bodily Experience
Nature vs. Machinery
Class, Consumerism, and Money
Gender and Sexuality
Catastrophe, Continuity, and Tradition
Summary
Analysis
Hilda writes a letter to Connie informing her that she will pick her up for the Venice trip on June 17; again, Connie resents that other people make decisions on her behalf. Clifford also does not want Connie to leave—not because he will miss her, but because her absence makes him feel insecure. Connie knows Clifford will be fine, given his almost “mad” focus on finding the cheapest new ways to run his mines.
Again, Connie’s newfound sexual passivity makes her want to take more agency over other aspects of her life. The novel increasingly pathologizes Clifford’s perspective, painting him less and less as a complicated, hurting character and more and more as a “mad” man.
Themes
One day, Connie finds out that Mrs. Bolton and Clifford have been gambling with real money—and that when Clifford wins, he keeps his winnings. This disgusts Connie, who insists that Clifford start paying Mrs. Bolton more to cover these gambling losses. Clifford agrees, largely because he is still worried that Connie will leave him for good on her Venice trip. Clifford wants Connie to have fun—and he even sort of wants her to get pregnant—but he is terrified at the thought that she might disappear forever.
Even in games with his much less wealthy servant, Clifford cannot let go of his acquisitionist mindset; to Connie, class hierarchies now seem like a form of insanity. Clifford’s intuition once more warns him of Connie’s betrayal, even if Clifford is too stubborn to admit this truth to himself.
Themes
Indeed, privately, Connie and Mellors plot for her to leave Clifford almost as soon as she returns. Mellors wants to run away with her to America, and Connie is thrilled by stories of his past experiences in Egypt and India and South Africa. The mention of the Colonies makes Mellors think about his beloved colonel. Though the colonel sometimes ran Mellors’s life, he also influenced him a great deal, particularly in his ideas about class and masculinity.
The novel has thus far presented numerous examples of masculinity, from the old-fashioned squire Leslie Winters to the intellectual ramblings of men like Hammond and May. But perhaps no group of men is painted with as much admiration as military generals (like Tommy Dukes and Mellors’s mentor), who turn physical strength and aggression into service for their country.
Themes
Mellors again discusses the link between the popular hunger for money and the death of real manhood: he says people are becoming “all alike.” Mellors also believes that sanity is located “in the balls,” and he fears that if men keep going in their current direction, they will become insane, killing each other until humanity is completely wiped out. Mellors even feels that bringing a child into such a world is irresponsible—and this deeply wounds Connie.
Mellors shares Connie’s fear that society is becoming too mechanical, but his concern—perhaps inspired by the technologically wrought carnage of World War I—is that these humanmade machines will eventually kill out humanity entirely. Once again, Mellors uses anatomy as a statement on personality, now locating sanity in the same part of male genitalia that he previously located potency and manly “wildness.”
Themes
Literary Devices
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Connie makes Mellors promise to have hope for their future, and her passion arouses him. While they snuggle, Mellors vows to turn his attention away from money and towards carnal desire and beauty. But Connie is barely listening; instead, she is threading forget-me-not flowers through Mellors’s pubic hair. Connie wants to share her observations about Mellors’s body, but Mellors cannot break himself out of his bad mood. As he puts it, thinking about the future makes him feel as if he has “swallowed gall.”
As foreshadowed by the sounds of the Stacks Gate mine, Mellors is having trouble focusing on his present happiness, instead finding himself disturbed by the poisonous (“galling”) mechanization around him. But Connie, now making the sexual symbolism of flowers literal, tries to keep Mellors focused on the beauty of nature, as it appears both in forget-me-nots and in human desire.
Themes
It starts to thunderstorm, and Connie gets up and takes off her night clothes. As she does so, she feels a little triumphant in her knowledge that Mellors’s sadness is linked to her going away, even though he does not say so. Invigorated, Connie runs out into the rain, dancing wildly in the storm. Mellors laughs and follows suit, stripping and heading outside to dance. He grabs Connie from behind, surprising her, and they share a naked embrace in the rain.
Despite the fact that Mellors never outright states his love for Connie, she is able to feel his care for her in his gestures and moods—much more than she feels Clifford’s affection, even though he articulates it endlessly. Connie’s rainy dancing is another way that she links her own natural nakedness to the nature around her.
Themes
Literary Devices
Mellors goes back to the house, but Connie takes her time in joining him, picking flowers as she goes. Connie sits by the fire to dry herself off, and Mellors admires the shape of her posterior. “Tha’s got the nicest arse of anybody,” he tells her, “it’s the nicest, nicest woman’s arse as is!” Mellors is particularly enchanted by how curvy Connie’s rear is, unlike the “button-arsed lasses as should be lads” that are so in style. Mellors even loves to think of Connie going to the bathroom, as it proves her real womanhood all the more.
This important passage shows the extent of Mellors’s love of nature; whereas most people prefer to ignore the bodily logistics of going to the bathroom, Mellors calls attention to it, embracing Connie’s body because it works to sustain itself, no technology needed. Mellors’s praise of Connie’s voluptuous figure once more sets her apart from her more androgynous (“button-arsed,” flapper-esque) female contemporaries.
Themes
Literary Devices
Now it is Mellors’s turn to weave flowers into Connie’s pubic hair; he wants to make sure she will “remember” him even in her most private places. Mellors and Connie discuss her trip, and their plan to leave Wragby—hopefully with a child in tow—after she returns. For the first time, Mellors admits to feeling self-conscious about his lack of wealth and his status as Connie’s husband’s game-keeper.
When Clifford craves permanence, he writes a story or builds a mine, hoping to produce some new commodity and thus earn fame, wealth, and a bust of himself in a museum. By contrast, Mellors and Connie seek permanence in “memory”; indeed, the fast-wilting forget-me-nots are the only tangible proof they have of their love for each other.
Themes
Moreover, Mellors informs Connie that he has gone to a lawyer about his divorce—and the lawyer has warned Mellors that in order for the divorce to go through, he will need to live a scandal-free life for the next several months. The mention of scandal makes Connie especially sure that she must see Mellors again before she leaves, even though Hilda is arriving soon. Connie decides that she will ask Hilda to drive her away from Wragby—but then, secretly, she will have Hilda bring her back for one more night with Mellors before they head to Italy.
If news of Mellors’s affair with Connie—ostensibly his boss—ever came to the light, it would be a gigantic scandal. In order to allow his divorce to go through, Mellors and Connie will need to take some time apart from each other, making one last pre-Venice visit feel all the more imperative.
Themes
Connie and Mellors go back to cuddling, giving each other new nicknames: Connie calls Mellors the “Knight of the Burning Pestle,” while Mellors calls Connie “Lady of the Red-Hot Mortar.” Mellors goes out and gets more flowers, and he lays them all over Connie’s body. “This is John Thomas marrying Lady Jane,” Mellors says, “and we mun let Constance an’ Oliver go their ways. Maybe—”
Again, Mellors’s nicknames poke fun at the idea of English ladies and knights, using these supposedly sacrosanct titles to refer to genitalia. Mellors has never mentioned marriage in a legal form, but his decision to wed John Thomas—his penis—to Lady Jane—Connie’s vagina—suggests a different form of union, one based not on paperwork and finances but on sexual desire and connection.
Themes
Literary Devices
Connie desperately wants Mellors to finish his sentence, but he doesn’t. This cliffhanger is one of the biggest disappointments in Connie’s life. As Mellors walks Connie towards the gate, he switches back into his heavy vernacular, and Connie feels (as always) charmed and a little confused by the dialect. The happy couple runs into Mrs. Bolton, who takes in the love in both their eyes. Mellors kindly salutes Mrs. Bolton and heads back to his cottage.
The fact that Constance does not know what Mellors might say here emphasizes that part of being in true love is being confused (or “lost,” as the novel put it earlier). There will always be parts of Mellors that Connie does not understand, but she is learning to embrace the confusion. Mrs. Bolton’s tacit support of this couple reveals that ultimately, her loyalty is to women and others of the working class, even if Clifford’s high status has momentarily enchanted her.
Themes
