D H Lawrence Themes in The Shades of Spring and Things

This sample essay on Dh Lawrence Themes offers an extensive list of facts and arguments related to it. The essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion are provided below.

In the two narratives, The Shades of Spring and Things by D. H Lawrence, the theme of freedom is portrayed through the text. In both stories, Lawrence attempts to express his own views of freedom and tries to explain to the reader why it is important that people have freedom, in whatever context, today.

Each short story reveals a theme of freedom, although the style in which D. H Lawrence represents that freedom varies between each narrative. The two stories have two totally different plots, character personalities, and ideas.

Along with this both stories describe many different themes. However, Lawrence seems to have brought up the theme of freedom in both of these stories, most probably to emphasise the importance of the ability and to try to get the reader to appreciate the fact that he or she should be thankful that they have freedom today.

In the Shades of Spring, freedom is depicted through descriptions involving the environment and the nature surrounding it.

The best examples of this is when the main character, D. H Lawrence describes the surrounding environment in every new scene that arises, as the story progresses. In one of the opening scenes of the story Lawrence describes the landscape, which can be seen from Syson’s position; Syson who is the main character of the story.

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When Syson arrives enters this new scenic landscape, Lawrence begins describing the surrounding in terms of the flowers, the streams, the “pools of bluebells” and the “ice-water blue lakes”. “Ah, isn’t it lovely,” Syson exclaims in the text when he sees this area for the first time.

In Lawrence’s detailed description about how Syson has never seen the country side looking so beautiful before, Lawrence forebodes the fact that Syson is reflecting on his life, and is trying to say that it was his freedom that allows him to see these beauty of nature’s setting. Not only does Lawrence express this theme in his descriptions, but it is also apparent that the theme is described in the dialogue of Syson. Again with Syson’s dialogue, Syson tries to express how free he is in the way in which he talks about the environment.

In addition to this, Syson’s perception of the environment also portrays this same idea. An example of this is when Syson is talking to Hilda, and Hilda replies to one of Syson’s questions saying, “I am like a plant… I can only grow in my own soil”. Lawrence explains to the reader that Syson was trying to show that Hilda didn’t have the freedom he had, and that is why their relationship couldn’t start again, as Syson had wanted it to be. The theme of freedom can be seen expressed in the dialogue, descriptions, and character perceptions in The Shades of Spring.

In Lawrence’s other short story, Things, freedom can be seen through the life of the family in the storyline. The theme is expressed through the way in which Lawrence describes the way the family live. Like it says in the story, “the family living free is the answer to a beautiful life. ” In the opening paragraph of the story, Lawrence emphasises that no matter what else was going on with the family, they were free, and that is all that matters.

This is clear when Lawrence states, “still – they were free. Free! ” He also says later that, “to be free is to live one’s own life! In this quote Lawrence makes, he expresses his own opinion on freedom. Valerie, the main character, has an ambition to live a free life in this story. This is apparent when we see how much Valerie pushes her son Erasmus to lead the same life as her. She forces him to live a life similar to that of the American dream, and exclaims how “giving up his freedom would mean giving up his full and beautiful life”. The words ‘full and beautiful life’ seem to appear many times throughout the text, and seem to pose some importance for Lawrence himself.

An interesting point to make about this story is the fact that America itself is used as a symbol, of an un-free country in the story. Valerie explains in the middle of the story how they had been, “free people, living a full and beautiful life,” and how moving to America had changed all that. This becomes more apparent nearing the end of the story when Erasmus, the son, tells the story about how he would not give up that “freedom which he believed in” so much. In Things, the revelation of the theme of freedom is much more easier to understand than with The Shades of Spring.

It is obvious through the in-depth analysis’ of the text that, there is a theme of freedom seen in both short stories by D. H. Lawrence. Even so this is the case, Lawrence depicts freedom in different ways in the two stories. In The Shades of Spring, the theme of freedom is defined as the freedom being able to go anywhere and make your own free choices. It is expressed through Lawrence’s intense detail to nature and other relevant surroundings. In Things we look at freedom in how to be free to live ones own life.

In Things, Lawrence is trying to state that being free and being free to make your own decisions in life without someone else making them for you, is necessary if you wish to live ‘a full and beautiful life’, as Lawrence puts it. Not only do the stories differ in the way the theme of freedom is used, but also there is a rather big difference in the way the theme of freedom is represented in each of the texts. Each story follows a certain style of description, which Lawrence uses to portray his themes and ideas.

In Things, Lawrence focuses more upon a family and their life, looking specifically at their ambitions and aims in life. In the other story, The Shades of Spring, Lawrence uses nature to illustrate and symbolize a sense of freedom within the text. Also what appears to be apparent is the detail that Lawrence uses symbols more often to describe his opinion about freedom in, The Shades of Spring, whereas in Things, his opinion is more clear right from the beginning of the story.

Even though Lawrence uses different techniques to describe his theme on freedom, his opinion and his personal message to the reader appears to be the same. This message is that we should be thankful that we are free and able to do whatever we want and what is best for us, without someone having to make our minds up for us. In a simple context, he is trying to say that if we have freedom we can live a happy life. Lawrence must have had some personal motivation to include this theme in more than one story. We can also see this theme being used in other D.

H Lawrence stories, another good example being The Horse Dealer’s Daughter. In this story the main theme being represented was that ‘life controls us’. This is connected to Freedom again, as we see in this story, Mabel, the main character, can’t control her life, and we see a depressing life being formed at the start of the story, as a result of this. Lawrence is trying to tell people to turn this around, make yourself control your life, and be independent, because at the end of the day, it is freedom that makes us happy.