AUTHOR

D.H. Lawrence (1885 – 1930)

• Died in France in 1930.
• Had an extraordinary ability to
• Born in England in 1885 convey a sense of specific
• Regarded as one of the most time and place, and his
influential writers of the writings often reflected his
complex personality.
20th century.
• Published many novels and poetry
volumes during his lifetime, including
Sons and Lovers and Women in Love,
but is best known for his infamous Lady
Chatterley's Lover.
• The horse dealer’s daughter was public
in 1922.
• D.H. Lawrence’s writing styles:
- Lawrence’s writing is notable for its
intensity and its erotic sensuality.
- All of Lawrence’s novels are written in a
lyrical, sensuous, often rhapsodic
prose style.
SETTING &
POINT OF VIEW
 TIME
☺ Early 1920’s

☺ LOCATION Small English town in

the country

☺ SEASON
Winter
1ST INTEGRAL PART Pond - sets the whole
☺ romantic relationship
between Mabel and
☺ 2ND INTEGRAL PART
Fergusson in motion
Serves as the
background story,
connecting the horses
to the fall out of the
family
POINT OF VIEW

Omniscient Omniscient Omniscient

third-person third-person third-person
focusing on all from the from the
the perspective of perspective of
characters Mabel Pervin Dr. Jack
Fergusson

First part Second part Third part

PLOT
 Rising action: Mabel is
Beginning: Mabel is
one of the five children
B in the cemetery caring
for her mother’s grave.
of the horse dealer.
Mabel has nowhere to
go unless she goes to
R Jack Fergusson sees
her doing this. Later, he
sees her walking by a
live with her sister
F C pond

Falling action: Jack Climax: Jack

brings Mabel back to her witnesses Mabel
house and changes her walking into the
clothes. He hesitantly pond. He jumps into
admits that he loves her the pond to rescue
and kisses her her
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
MABEL’S BROTHERS
Malcolm Pervin: the
☺ youngest brother.

Fred Henry Pervin: the

second-oldest brother.
☺ → Unconcerned and
controlling person

Joe Pervin: 33, the oldest

☺ brother. After marrying the
steward’s daughter, he
expect a job from her father
 Appearance: “of medium
Appearance: “rather
height, his face was rather
short, sullen-looking”,
long and pale, his eyes
27 years old.
looked tired.”

Kept house for 10 years

The town doctor, “was
slave to the countryside”

Characteristic:
impassive,
inscrutable
1. Family meeting: Mabel and
Fergusson first met
• Mabel’s father death left the
whole family in debt.
• Mable had been “keeping the
home together in penury for
her ineffectual brothers”, who
didn’t care for her

• Fergusson asked about her

future intentions.

• “Mabel looked at him with her

steady, dangerous eyes…”

→ Something about Mabel powerful enough made the

doctor notice her.
2. Churchyard: their eyes first met

• Mabel had to decide whether to

stay with her sister Lucy. She
‘wanted to hold the keys of her
own situation’ and came to her
mother’s grave to feel secure
and connect with her mother
• Mabel lifted eyes. Her eyes met
Fergusson’s eyes.
• “There was a heavy power in
her eyes which laid hold of his
whole being, as if he had drunk
some powerful drug.”
→ The isolation or power in her eyes bound Fergusson to Mabel.
They acted like a drug that made his life come back to him.
2. Churchyard: their eyes first met
• Fergusson walked into the frigid
water to save Mabel from suicide
despite being unable to swim.
“…he lost his balance and went
under …suffocating…struggling
madly for a few moments”
• He carried her back home,
undressed her and wrapped her in
a blanket.
→ Fergusson was acting in terms of
his obligation as a doctor.
Mabel decided to commit suicide because:
• She had no friends.
• Her brothers didn’t care about her.
• When her father died, she lived miserably in
poverty.
• The only place she felt secure was her mother’s
grave.

→ Therefore, she chose to connect intimately with her

mother through death.
3. Mabel’s house
• “He had never thought of loving her. He had never wanted to love her.”

• “He had no intention of loving her: his whole will was

against his yielding.”

• Fergusson admitted that he loved her ‘Yes’

1 2 3

→ At first, the newness of this idea bewildered him. He

even horrified of it, as it violated his professional honor.
→ Fergusson was confusing between his
emotions and his logic.
→ As a result of Mabel’s initiation, Fergusson submitted to
her demand for love after resolving his inner conflict.
3. Mabel’s house
• “He kissed her, but briefly, half in anger’’

4
3
2

1
→Though his emotions won and he admitted his love for
Mabel, his logic didn’t give in. He loved her for being
helpless, but he hated her for putting him in this situation
• ‘’I want you, I want to marry you, we’re going to be
married, quickly, quickly — tomorrow if I can.”
“And she [Mabel] broke into bitter, heart-broken
sobbing. ‘I’m horrible.’”
→ Mabel realized she was not good enough for him
4
3
2

1 5

→ Fergusson assured that he did want her, and that he

wished to marry her as soon as possible
PLOT TECHNIQUE
 Foreshadowing
“They had talked at her and round her for so many years,
that she hardly heard them at all” (page 2)

“She had suffered badly during the period of poverty.

(…)Now, for Mabel, the end had come” (page 5)

“Mindless and persistent, ….., who was glorified”

(page 5)
→ Signify her suicide attempt at the pond
 Foreshadowing

“Mabel looked at him with her steady, dangerous eyes”

(page 4)

→ Mabel makes him uncertain and she is able to shake

up his “superficial ease”. He is passive
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
 SIMILE METAPHOR

PERSONIFICATION IMAGERY
 SIMILE
• “The horses were almost like his own body to
him”
→ Joe's body

• “It is like looking into another world.” (page 6)

→ Dr. Fergusson sees a woman of heavenly
beauty
 METAPHOR
• Joe Pervin: “goes into harness”, he is “a subject
animal”.
• Fred Henry Pervin: “young stallion”
→ people’s life

• “A flame seemed to burn the hand that grasped

her soft shoulder” (page 10)
→ sensation
 PERSONIFICATION

• “It was a grey, wintry day, with saddened, dark-

green fields”
→ dark atmosphere

• “the strange pain of his heart that is broken

seems to consume him” (page 10)
→ depression and destroy his life
IMAGERY

The horses’ life

The Pervin’s house

 The horses’ life

• The great draught-horses are “tied head to tail”.

• Their movements show “a massive, slumberous
strength and stupidity”.
• They live in “the fine black mud”.

→ difficult existence and captivity

 The Pervin’s house

• The house is “debt and threatening” ,

“servantless now, and desolate”
• “The dreary dining room”
• “a big neglected area”.

→ poverty and mismanagement.

SYMBOLS AND THEME
 Question 9

What does the symbol “the pond” imply

in this story?

A: Fear B: The past

C: Death D: Nonstalgia
1. The pond with clay and water
- Death (dead, cold, dark)
- The start of Mabel and Jack’s new life

2. Mabel’s mother’s grave

- Dead soul that Mable had at that time
- Connection between Mable and her mother

3. The change of characters’ clothes

- the start of their new fresh life

 THEME
1 2 3 4
Death brings Social Class Love is a
powerful thing
about a new prejudice barriers and no matter
compassion, puts prevent how similar or
change, and women at human from different two
rebirth. the end of expressing people may
their their true be, love will
tethers. feelings. find its way.