The Rainbow

by D. H. Lawrence

The Rainbow: Style 1 key example

Chapter 1: How Brangwen Married a Polish Lady
Explanation and Analysis:

Lawrence’s style in The Rainbow is lyrical and introspective. There is very little dialogue in the novel. Instead, the narration emphasizes the intense internal reflection of characters, employing rich imagery drawn from nature to express psychological states and human relationships. This style is exemplified in a passage from the first chapter of the novel, where Lawrence describes the men of the Brangwen family returning home after a day of working in the fields: 

It was enough that they helped the cow in labour, or ferreted the rats from under the barn, or broke the back of a rabbit with a sharp knock of the hand. So much warmth and generating and pain and death did they know in their blood, earth and sky and beast and green plants, so much exchange and interchange they had with these, that they lived full and surcharged, their senses full fed, their faces always turned to the heat of the blood, staring into the sun, dazed with looking towards the source of generation, unable to turn round.