On the Artistic Significance of Music, Singing and Dancing in D.H.Lawrence's Novels

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

As a writer, Lawrence's interests are in the deeper levels of the psyche, below the part usually seen as human. Lawrence no longer wants to trace what a character 'feels according to the human conception'. Instead of conscious, fixed and stable egos (the 'old stable ego'), he seeks to expose 'another ego' - the 'unknown self - underlying the 'allotropic' states which human beings pass through'. Such an innovation gives his novels a new kind of structure: 'the characters fall into the form of some other rhythmic form, like when one draws a fiddle-bow across a fine tray delicately sanded, the sand takes lines unknown'. He tries to expose allotropic vibrations of the psyche, revealing the 'fundamental' substance of characters who are magnetically trembling in the unconscious domain.
To convey the 'allotropic vibrations' of the psyche becomes Lawrence's central concern. To express the 'vibrations' of the inner mind, he uses more poetic, incuitive and dynamic means of artistic expressions than traditional forms of novel. Therefore, he relics very much on various 'non-verbal'(sensual, physical or non-discursive) means of expression. His important characters are often artists, or have artistic affiliations. In The Trespasser, Hampson is a composer: others express themselves through mime (Ursula, Gudrun and other house guests at Breadalby), or through dancing and singing(Lettic and George in The White Peacock, Paul and Miriam in Sons and Lovers, and Ursula, Gudrun. Birkin and Gerald in The Rainbow and Women in Love). Sometimes they interpret, rather than create - Siegmund and Helena in The Trespasser are instrumentalists. Artistic dynamism of all kinds - playing music, singing, dancing and acting - plays a very' important part in Lawrence's novels.
Artistic performances - singing, dancing, playing music and improvising drama, interpretation of the works or attending attentively to these kinds of artistic expression - all mark intuitive moments in Lawrence's novels when what is most deeply hidden in the psyche is suddenly revealed By the non-verbal means of arts, the main characters express their innermost emotions, feelings, and erotic desires, at the same time revealing intuitively Fundamental differences between them, when they instinctually interact with each other through the artistic involvement. And main characters in Lawrence's novels are attracted to each other through what is unconsciously expressed. Frequently, men and women seem to be possessed by the mysterious power of Eros when they sing, dance, or feel the sensual effects of singing, dancing and acting. Often the non-verbal works of art serve as 'erotic' catalysts for their emotions and passions, although they are not fully conscious of what is happening.