Cindy GUO
Ms Gao Jin
Literature and Art
7 July 2015
The Conflict and Combination between Human and Nature:
An Analysis of the character Lewis in St. Mawr
St. Mawr is a beautiful and powerful stallion in D.H. Lawrence’s eponymous novella, which serves as a symbol but disappears as a phantom near the end of the story. Apart from Lou’s comprehension about life quest and the appreciation of beauty, this novel reflects on the conflicts between modern society and nature, in which human beings should realize their condition and keep self-questioning to go forward.
This paper will focus on the image of character Lewis, the groom who works for Mrs. Witt and takes care of St. Mawr, representing the primal manhood and animal features, which corresponds to his natural attribute, and his acceptance of human society, which related to his human nature.
Avatar of St.Mawr
To some extent, Lewis is the spokesman for St. Mawr, delivering his feeling, or more accurately, the avatar of St. Mawr as a human, who doesn’t care of anything around him. Mrs. Witt describes him as a man with no mind. Actually in many occasions he appears along with St. Mawr and blends himself with the stallion.
The two grooms, Lewis and Phoenix, are the only men who reveal the attributes thata man ought to have, in spite of different causes. Phoenix performs manhood due to his ignorance and Indian blood relationship, while Lewis’s experience in his childhood explains his attitude to life and world. He experiences indifference and pain the same as St. Mawr, in addition to his favor of nature and horses. That is why he cares about nothing but St. Mawr.
The relationship in this novel can be divided between human and the horse. Because of social status and educational level, characters in this novel span several classes. Lou and her family, as well as other friends, such as Dean and Cartwright, can be seen as a class at the top. They have communication and understanding divergence with servants, let alone with St. Mawr. Lewis here plays the role of a bridge between human and horse, who can talk with both of them. While Lewis himself is a separate class, different from other servant, like the maids. His class is closer with St. Mawr, at the bottom of the hierarchy.
But like the strength and mystery emanate from St. Mawr, Lewis shows his charm as a man with his particular psychic power, which peels him from the horse step by step.
The Great God Pan
The figure of God Pan is mentioned for many times in St. Mawr, as the resident artist Cartwright introduces it for the first time. According to his words, it is possible that Pan hides behind every man, if only you open your third eye so that the God can be seen.
After the dinner with Dean and Cartwright, Mrs. Witt asks Lou about the Great God Pan in the pistol way as she always does. As a fifty-one year old woman who has got acquainted with a lot of men, she feels tired of the clever and tamed men with little spirit, aspiring for the open of her third eye and the discovery of hidden of un-fallen Pan.
Lewis is quite t different from others. He is the animal of men, not yields to anyone or cares anyone, staying isolated from human society.
Corresponding to the fact that Lou could see Pan in St. Mawr, Mrs. Witt may see Pan in Lewis so that she proposes marriage to him. The thought of proposal may come out suddenly, after their long dialogue in the night of fallen star. Lewis’s trustful and peculiar understanding of nature and God, about the talking leaves and the people on the moon, though naive and amusing, impressed Mrs. Witt, even make her on the blink of tears that the psychic power behind him, in the word of Laura, which makes him curious and fascinating may be the Great God Pan.
The transformation and compromise
However, Mrs. Witt’s love for Lewis is sort of vain that the self-sufficient groom refuses her without hesitation, though he loves her, too, in an odd way. His cold gray eyes keep her a long-distance from him, both physically and mentally. He hates women who mock and despise men with no respect, especially the woman he would let her touch his body. He feels shamed of the thought of marriage, as he feels stupid to go to the church.
Lewis can’t express his emotion for Mrs. Witt. From his natural characteristic, he rejects all intimate contact with other human beings. He doesn’t trust others, nor like them. But from the aspect of human society, Lewis is affected by Lou and her mother, gradually accepts society and the outside world. Here comes the conflict, though he doesn’t dislike Mrs. Witt and even sort of likes her, he cannot accept the unexpected proposal,which messes him up.
As Alan Wilde said in his article, the novel ends with it faute de mieux. To some extent, Lewis compromises to the human society and agrees to go to America with Lou and her mother. Otherwise, according to his characteristic, he would insist on staying on England. While after the arrival in America, he returns to the self-sufficient condition before. And then he and St. Mwar disappear near the end of the novel.
So his transformation can be divided into three periods: isolation and liberty, confusion and entanglement and compromise.
It is not hard to understand that Lewis doesn’t need a complete ending as the heroine does. On one hand, he plays the role of an auxiliary character for the reader to understand St. Mawr and assists the growth of Lou and Mrs. Witt. After the failure of proposal, Mrs. Witt recognizes her mocking attitude like a pistol and let Lou make decision on ranch herself. And Lou is inspired to understand the mutual hurt between men and women.
On the other hand, characters in this novel help each other to grow mentally. Lewis breaks his close world and blends himself in the human society. But his performance in America is a bit disappointing that it seems that his growth retrogresses.
Conclusion
In St. Mawr, D. H. Lawrence depicts the mental growth of characters in difference degrees. The novel discusses the tension between nature and human society, which is embodied directly and obviously by the England groom Lewis, who has the animal feature, the same as St. Mawr and the Great God Pan. But at the same time he is impacted by Lou’sfamily and transformed gradually. In the novel he experiences three period of mental growth, which shows the conflict and combination between nature and human society.
Work Cited
Alan Wilde. The illusion of St. Mawr: Technique and vision in D.H. Lawrence’s novel. Modern Language Association, 1964.
The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Edited by Frank Kermode and John Hollander. New York, London, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1973.