The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence. The nature of the Brangwen men according to the description of them in the opening paragraphs of the text?

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

Carla Le Riche Malan

13763814

The Rainbow – D.H. Lawrence

The nature of the Brangwen men according to the description of them in the opening paragraphs of the text?

The Brangwen men are described as being in close proximity to their land literally and figuratively, “Marsh Farm”, upon which they had “lived for generations”, and to nature. It seems from the opening paragraphs of the text, that the land on which the men farm and live, derives for them a sense of identity and meaning in life, even though when they “lift [their heads] from [their] work, [they] see the church-tower at Ilkeston in the empty sky”, “making [them] aware of something standing above [them] and beyond [them] in the distance.” The Brangwen men are thus aware of something outside of themselves, even though they are content with their way of life on the farm. The Brangwen men are illustrated as being plain, or simple men “revealing themselves plainly” and, who have “… the look of an inheritor”, implying that they feel a sense of belonging, no threat and thus a sense of comfort and security in their intimate connection to their land, family and situation. The description of the men’s moods as being such that “…one could watch the change in their eyes from laughter to anger, blue, lit-up laughter, to a hard blue-staring anger; through all the irresolute stages of the sky when the weather is changing”, implies that as nature is changing and cyclical in many respects, so the Brangwen men are expressive, however, uncertain or hesitant of the purpose of expressing these moods, emotions and feelings.

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The “Brangwens came and went…”, implying regular, comfortable cycles, similar to the seasons, the sun, which is an image used throughout the opening paragraphs and the fact that “…there were always children”, continuing the cycle. “The Brangwen men were not stingy, but neither were they wasteful, “…instinct made them not waste the peeling of their apple, for it would help to feed the cattle”. Heaven and earth is depicted as “…teeming around them”, implying an unending abundance of life surrounding the Brangwen men. The men are depicted as physically being in such an intimate relationship with the abundance of life surrounding them, that they are described as “[feeling] the rush of the sap in spring,” and knowing “…the wave which cannot halt, but every year throws forward the seed to begetting and, falling back, [leaving] the young-born on the earth”. This image not only pertains to the men’s instinctual understanding and observations of their surroundings and the nature of “[knowing] the intercourse between heaven and earth…”, but also to their own instinctual desire to procreate and take their rightful place in the cycles of nature, also implied by the vivid sexual symbolism created by the natural imagery of the text, “…sunshine drawn into breast and bowels, the rain sucked up in the daytime, nakedness that comes under the wind in autumn, showing the birds’ nests no longer worth hiding”. This sexually symbolic imagery is continued in the following paragraph, focussing specifically on the Brangwen men yielding milk from the udders of the cows and feeling an intimate connection of “the pulse of the blood of the teats of the cows [beating] into the pulse of the hands of the men”. The connection of the Brangwen men with nature, specifically the milking of cows and the symbol of pulsating blood, implies a connection between these men and their children. The Brangwen men work hard on the land of the farm to create produce for the nourishment of their children, who thus in turn, symbolically harbour the origin of their pulsating blood and life.