"Erotic Images and Structures of Feeling. The challenge of D. H. Lawrence"

D. H. Lawrence’s writing – from the first poems, to Sons and Lovers, to his later novels – is pervaded by erotic moments which tend to underline the importance of naturalness and instinctiveness in contrast with the dominant morality of the time. A more detailed analysis of The Virgin and the Gypsy shows how the erotic and formative adventure of the protagonist develops through her contact with a Gypsy’s culture and contains a peculiar mixture of Eros and Thanatos. Lawrence’s strongly symbolic writing in this piece of short narrative anticipates in many ways his last novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover.