D.H. Lawrence's 'Snake'.

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Aside from the reality of a mysterious, occasionally poisonous predator is the archetypal image of the serpent, latent with mythological, biblical, and historical symbols. Among the most common phobias is ophiaphobia, or fear of snakes, despite the unlikeliness of one to encounter a snake in the urban world (Rapoport 195). Lawrence, though does encounter "Snake", and while fear is, without a doubt, entangled in the web of reaction to and regard of the serpent, it is not the only dominant emotion. Intimidation is immediately established from the dawn of the poem, where Lawrence's narrator is "in pajamas for the heat", in the company of a visiting serpent (2). In such casual attire as pajamas, one is left feeling vulnerable and exposed, susceptible to social attack. Lawrence's character is, of course, vulnerable to the snake's venomous predation, but he is also susceptible to society's and human nature's convictions of the slithering snake, which effectively influences the narrator's judgement. Naturally, this intimidation is absurd. It continues throughout the poem while the narrator "like a second-comer" waits, but the snake, throughout the incident, proves to be harmless (15). The true daunting forces of the narrator's sentiments are the "voices of [his] education" (22). While the said voices remain mysterious, foreboding, and unnatural in Lawrence's realm of natural thought and environment, the snake is familiar, and is accredited with figurative familiarity:

He lifted his head from drinking, as cattle do,

He looked at me vaguely as drinking cattle do (16-17).
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Comparing the snake's actions to the docile, accustomed behaviour of a primarily agricultural species lessens the threat that the snake projects, yet the poem's tension is not respectively decreased. Ironically, the stereotypically conniving, quick-witted serpent image in not reflected in this simile. Cattle are slow, tribal followers. The snake's independent arrogance is contradicted by such a comparison, yet this contradiction effectively serves to strengthen the bond, the connection, between the narrator and the snake. The narrator relates to the serpent, yet he is still afraid.

Essentially, the narrator's fear of the snake is actually distrust or wariness ...

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