Margaret Storch
Framingham State College, USA
Outsider or cultural chameleon? Lawrence's true self
It is acknowledged that matters of self and identity may be problematic in Lawrence. His visit to Cambridge in 1915 was a pivotal episode in his life. Russell, Keynes and others recognized and admired his artistic talents. Yet Lawrence was reluctant to be absorbed into the elite culture that was prepared to welcome him and to support his literary productions.
A working-class young man with a semi-illiterate father, Lawrence broke into a sophisticated upper-class world through his distinction as a novelist. Women in Love and other writings demonstrate how successfully he integrated the mores and style of that world, as he did those of other cultures, such as the Central-European/Germanic he encountered through Frieda, and those of Mexico and New Mexico
Lawrence felt compelled to remain an 'outsider,' in his own and John Worthen's sense. Yet he was also a cultural chameleon, absorbing and adopting the quality several disparate cultures as he travelled and lived in different regions of the world. He stated that he belonged to no social class, but motifs in his work suggest he was drawn to the upper class and the exotic through the female. Returning to the setting of his early life in Lady Chatterley's Lover, he resolves some of the conflicts arising from early relationships.