Starting from the apocalyptic modernist assumption that "[h]umanity is a dead letter” ("Women in Love" 60) Lawrence launches, especially after the Great War, his bitterest attacks on bourgeois society. He accuses Western civilisation of causing the impoverishment of what he calls the sensuous vitality of the “lower self” ("Fantasia of the Unconscious and Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious" 178), of turning human beings into spineless abstractions, and of transforming man into a consuming machine. Lawrence cannot expect from modern society anything other than post-mortem effects. He however believes that the novel, “the one bright book of life ,” as he calls it, may eventually reinvigorate this moribund society.
In order to address the notion of invisibility in relation to Lawrence’s apocalyptic / vitalistic vision, I have chosen one of his most eloquent and perplexing works, i.e. "The Man Who Died" which deals with the representation of the world’s invisibility and mindlessness. This short novel is one of his lesser works, the title of which refers to the main character who has risen from the dead as a parodic, Christ-like figure.
In this paper, I will analyse the various ways in which Lawrence endeavours to make the invisible vitality of the living world – what he calls “the phenomenal world” (143) – visible and palpable, and even more real than reality itself.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Representation of the Invisible in D. H. Lawrence's The Man Who Died
- Lawrence's Apocalyptic/Vitalistic Vision
- The Narrative and the Characters
- Lawrence's Subversion of the Christian Dogma
- The Story Line
- The Invisible Presence
- The Man Who Died: Rethinking Religious Idealism
- Identity and Social Etiquette
- Lawrence's Art: Sensuous, Lived Experience
- Lawrence's Mystique
- Two Competing Worlds
- The Man Who Died: Dramatising the Invisible
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper examines the representation of the invisible in D. H. Lawrence’s The Man Who Died, exploring how Lawrence attempts to make the invisible vitality of the living world visible. The paper analyzes Lawrence’s subversive approach to Christian dogma and the importance of experiencing the “phenomenal world” through a visceral and instinctive sense of life.
- The invisible vitality of the living world
- Lawrence’s subversion of Christian dogma
- The importance of the “phenomenal world”
- The interplay between the visible and the invisible
- The experience of death and rebirth
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The essay begins by introducing Lawrence’s apocalyptic/vitalistic vision and his critique of bourgeois society. The author then focuses on The Man Who Died, a short novel that deals with the representation of the world’s invisibility and mindlessness. The essay explores the various ways in which Lawrence endeavors to make the invisible vitality of the living world visible and palpable.
The essay then delves into the characters and events in the story, highlighting Lawrence’s subversion of Christian dogma and his exploration of themes such as religion and dogma, masculinity and femininity, and the self and the un-self. It discusses how Lawrence’s art stems from a mystical vision and how he uses the character’s consciousness to create a sense of spontaneous immediacy.
The essay concludes by exploring the interplay between the visible and the invisible in the story, highlighting the man who died’s journey of self-discovery and his realization of the importance of experiencing the “phenomenal world.”
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The key concepts of this essay include D. H. Lawrence, The Man Who Died, the invisible, the phenomenal world, Christian dogma, vitalism, the self, and the un-self.
- Quote paper
- Mansour Khelifa (Author), 2007, Invisibility in D.H. Lawrence's Short Novel "The Man Who Died". The Will to Be, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/314253
