Women In Love

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1920

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-13

Chapters 14-18

Chapters 19-25

Chapters 26-31

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Moon and Water

The moon symbolizes love and mystery in Women in Love. It often appears in combination with water, which can symbolize life, but by night, water is often associated with danger and uncertainty. These symbols abound in Chapter 14, “Water-Party.” The lanterns that night are described with lunar imagery, such as a “great blue moon of light” (174) coming from a lantern Ursula holds and, simply, “moon-like lanterns” (177). It is a magical moment to hold a moonlike object in one’s hands, and at this moment, both couples’ romances seem to be coming together. Diana’s death by drowning interrupts these peaceful events, turning a setting of love and romance—the lake under the moonlight—into a symbol of death.

In Chapter 19, “Moony,” Ursula is disturbed when she finds the reflection of the moon inescapable, like it is watching her. She finds some trees and is “glad to pass into the shade out of the moon” (245). When Rupert throws rocks into the water, “[t]he moon […] explode[s] on the water, and [is] flying asunder in flakes of white and dangerous fire” (247). In this conflict between human and nature, Rupert can change the moon’s reflection, but only temporarily. The moon’s reflection always comes back together, showing that it—and by extension, nature—is superior to human intervention: “He saw the moon regathering itself insidiously, […] calling back the scattered fragments” (247).

At the end of the novel, Gerald’s death occurs by moonlight: “To add to his difficulty, a small bright moon shone brilliantly just ahead, on the right, a painful brilliant thing that was always there, unremitting, from which there was no escape” (473). This not only connects his death to Diana’s death but also brings his desire to dominate nature full circle, and he ultimately loses himself in the contest.

Flowers

Flowers are an important and varied motif throughout the novel. At some points, they represent domesticity and exoticism. Other times, they represent passion, emotion, and vulnerability. Early in the novel, Ursula connects them to living for leisure rather than work: “I think it is much better to be really patrician, and to do nothing but just be oneself, like a walking flower” (125). This speaks to how English gardens are owned by the upper class, whose inherited wealth means that they do not have to work. As such, the gardens are symbols of status and privilege. Ursula alludes to this in her reference to being “patrician,” which means an aristocrat or nobleman.

Flowers are a motif in Rupert and Ursula’s courtship. The first reference to flowers between them occurs in Chapter 3 at the grammar school, where Ursula’s students draw catkins to learn about botany. This is a practical rather than an artistic study of flowers, but it also symbolizes sexuality, as catkins’ color depends on their role in reproduction. They form the backdrop of the tension-filled conversation between Ursula, Rupert, and Hermione about sensuality and ideas, with Hermione attempting to pull Rupert’s attention away from Ursula. Later, Rupert drops daisies into the water near an island, and Ursula feels like “some sort of control [i]s being put on her. She could not know. She could only watch the brilliant little discs of the daisies veering slowly in travel on the dark, lustrous water” (130). Ursula finds the daisies beautiful, but they also symbolize obligation, which makes her uncomfortable. Flowers are also used when describing Ursula in romantic or sexual encounters with Rupert. Later, after an argument, Ursula offers a “purple-red bell-heather” (310) to Rupert in apology. Finally, Ursula is described as a flower when she becomes sexually intimate with Rupert: “She was beautiful as a new marvelous flower opened at his knees, a paradisal flower she was, beyond womanhood, such a flower of luminousness” (313). This is a transcendent moment that connects flowers to sensuality and purity, two areas that were often seen as incompatible in the novel’s time.

At the end of the novel, flower symbolism is used to describe Gerald as part of the foreshadowing of his death. During his conflict with Gudrun in the Alps, he feels “exposed, like an open flower, to all the universe” (446). Rather than an ecstatic or romantic floral opening, as in Ursula’s opening up to Rupert, Gerald’s blooming is a tragic act that he cannot control.

Dance

Dancing relates to sexuality and gender roles, as various scenes of dancing provoke different emotional responses from the characters. In Chapter 14, when Gudrun dances in the field with the Highland cattle, she is pulled by a “strange passion” (167). The moment is filled with erotic tension: “She could feel them just in front of her, it was as if she had the electric pulse from their breasts running into her hands” (168). Rupert does not understand her moment of communion with the cows and mocks her by “dancing a grotesque step-dance in front of her” (168). This occurs after Gudrun and Ursula’s adventure of rowing to a secluded area and swimming naked in the lake. It is the only time the women can express themselves sensually away from the male gaze. Gerald joins them after Rupert arrives and shoos away the cows, telling Gudrun they are dangerous, and thus changing the tone of Gudrun’s dance from a symbol of empowerment into a moment of disempowerment. This can be contrasted with the open enjoyment of dancing the men experience in the Alps: “Everybody was dancing” (410), “the men danced together, with quite as much zest as if they had had women partners” (411). Here, dance is a shared social activity. The women’s presence does not discourage the men from enjoying themselves. Dance is an important mating ritual, as in Chapter 8, when Hermione has the dinner guests perform an impromptu ballet, and Gerald finds himself becoming attracted to Gudrun.