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Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—No Balls:
As he explains his perception of Clifford to Connie, Mellors uses the idiom "no balls" to describe Lord Chatterley’s perceived lack of manliness. This leads to a funny exchange filled with situational irony. When Connie asks him to explain the “balls” comment, Mellors says:
“You say a man’s got no brain, when he’s a fool: and no heart, when he’s mean; and no stomach when he’s a funker. And when he’s got none of that spunky wild bit of a man in him, you say he’s got no balls. When he’s a sort of tame.”
She pondered this.
“And is Clifford tame?” she asked.
“Tame, and nasty with it: like most such fellows, when you come up against ’em.”
In this passage, Mellors talks about how he perceives Clifford’s masculinity. As is typical of this novel, he explains a psychological characteristic through language that involves the body. When Connie doesn’t understand what the reference to testicles means, Mellors explains by drawing parallels with other bodily idioms. He explains that just as one might say a fool has "no brain" or a coward has "no stomach," to say a man has "no balls" indicates a deficiency in his masculinity. Mellors thinks that Clifford is unmanly because he is “tame” and lacking that “wild” bit of manliness that he possesses himself.
The situation is dripping with situational irony because of the actual status of Lord Chatterley’s testicles. While Mellors uses the phrase “no balls” metaphorically, Clifford is in reality physically infertile due to his war injury. Although it’s unclear how damaged his lower body actually is, the reader knows that Clifford can neither walk nor sire children. Mellors's blunt assessment of Clifford as "tame" yet "nasty" emphasizes the difference in the two men’s characters. By saying the other man has “no balls,” Mellors is also saying that he himself does possess that “spunky wild bit of a man in him.”
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