Lady Chatterley's Lover

56 pages • 1 hour read

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1928

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

One winter morning, Connie and Clifford go for a walk in the woods on their estate. When they go out together, Connie pushes Clifford in his wheelchair. Clifford is very moved by the natural world, and expresses his longing for the grounds of the estate to stay forever protected and unchanging. He tells Connie that “if some of the old England isn’t preserved, there’ll be no England at all […] and we who have this kind of property, and the feeling for it, must preserve it” (43). Clifford also expresses his regret that he will never have a child and that there will be no one to inherit his family estate.

Clifford mentions that, given that he cannot father a biological child, he would not mind if Connie conceived a child with another man. He believes that if they raised the child together, it would be as if it were their own. Connie is startled by this idea, and asks Clifford if it matters what type of man she were to have an affair with. He says that he trusts Connie’s judgement. Clifford also tells her that he would not want to know if Connie were sleeping with another man.

As Clifford and Connie are speaking, they come upon a man walking in the woods with a dog. Clifford introduces his wife to the man: Mellors, who works as the gamekeeper on the estate. He has worked in the role for about eight months. Mellors helps push Clifford’s wheelchair back to the house; he is very polite and reserved with Connie and Clifford.

Later that day, Connie asks Clifford about Mellors. Clifford explains that Mellors grew up in the nearby village; his father worked in the coal mines. Mellors was a gamekeeper employed by Clifford’s father; he left the position when he enlisted to fight in the war. Clifford was eager to hire Mellors back because he thinks he is a good worker and an honest man. Connie asks about Mellors’s personal life. Clifford says that Mellors is estranged from his wife, who engaged in relationships with other men. He mentions that Mellors also has a young daughter who is cared for by her grandmother.

Months pass; Clifford continues to become more and more successful as a writer and intellectual. Connie, however, feels that life is growing increasingly meaningless. Michaelis has also been writing, and he comes to visit Connie and Clifford to share a new play with them. During his visit, Michaelis suggests that he and Connie get married; she is shocked, and explains that she cannot leave Clifford. Michaelis seems perturbed, arguing that Clifford would get over it, and that he could give Connie a good life. After this conversation, Connie and Michaelis have sex again, and he expresses frustration that she does not orgasm at the same time that he does. This conversation disturbs Connie, and she loses her enthusiasm for Michaelis and their relationship.

Chapter 6 Summary

After her confrontation with Michaelis, Connie feels sad. One day, she asks Tommy Dukes about why men and women face so many challenges in their interactions. Tommy argues that men and women can get along perfectly fine, but states that if he likes and respects a woman, he also finds it impossible to love or desire her. Connie increasingly finds men to be cold, and feels sad and isolated.

One day, Connie is walking alone in the woods of the estate when she hears a child crying. She goes to see what is happening, and comes upon Mellors with a young girl. Connie demands to know why the girl is upset, and Mellors seems annoyed by her interference. Connie talks to the girl, who eventually reveals that she and her father happened upon a cat. Mellors, in his role as the gamekeeper, shot the cat to protect the animals on the estate, but his daughter was upset by witnessing the killing. Connie takes the little girl, who is also named Connie, to her grandmother’s cottage.

When Connie and the little girl arrive at the cottage, her grandmother is surprised that Lady Chatterley has gone out of her way to help the little girl. The grandmother is unsurprised by the conflict between Mellors and his daughter, explaining that the two of them have a distant relationship and rarely spend time together. She thanks Connie, and Connie leaves to make her way home.

As she walks, she thinks about the emptiness of her life: “[A]ll the great words, it seemed to Connie, were cancelled for her generation: love, joy, happiness, home, mother, father, all these great dynamic words were half dead now” (63). She is still interested in having a baby, but feels uninspired by any of the men she might have an affair with. Connie thinks that her best prospect would be to have an affair with someone from another country, and ponders going abroad with Clifford in a few months’ time.

Connie continues to walk alone every day. One day, Clifford asks her to take a message to Mellors at his cottage. Connie knocks at the door of the cottage, but no one answers. She goes around to the back of the house and comes upon Mellors. He is naked from the waist up, washing himself. Connie is embarrassed to have intruded on this private moment, and goes away to wait. After some time, Connie goes back to the cottage and knocks again; Mellors lets her in. She asks him whether he lives alone, and he confirms that he does. After she leaves, both Connie and Mellors are struck by the idea that the other is unusual and not what they expected.

Back at home, Connie brings up Mellors to Clifford, expressing her idea that he seems special, especially given his lower-class origins. Clifford is confused as to why she is taking such an interest in Mellors; he does not think there is anything special about the man, although he does mention that Mellors spent time in India and may have picked up mannerisms from spending time around men from the upper classes. Connie is annoyed that Clifford does not agree with her assessment of Mellors.

Chapter 7 Summary

Alone in her room, Connie looks at her naked body. She is now 27, and worries that she is wasting her youth: “[H]er body was going meaningless, going dull and opaque, so much insignificant substance” (72). She is increasingly frustrated that she is trapped in a sexless marriage and will possibly never have a child. As Connie becomes sadder and lonelier, she also begins to lose weight and appear sickly. Clifford’s aunt, Lady Bennerley, comes to visit, and expresses concern about Connie; she thinks that Connie should enjoy her life more while she is young, and suggests that Connie spend more time in London. Connie is not really interested in the idea, but she grows more and more depressed surrounded by Clifford’s friends and their lofty talk about modernity and the end of civilization.

Eventually, Connie is distressed enough that she writes to her sister, Hilda. Hilda comes to Wragby Hall and is shocked by Connie’s appearance. She tells Clifford that she wants to take Connie to London to see a doctor immediately; Clifford dislikes this idea because Connie takes care of him every day and helps him with all personal tasks, including bathing. Hilda points out that part of the problem is Connie having too much responsibility for Clifford’s care, and that he needs to hire someone to help.

Connie and Hilda go to London, where the doctor says that she needs more amusement and stimulation. Michaelis also meets with Connie and expresses his concern for her. He asks her again to come away with him, but Connie refuses. When Connie and Hilda go back to Wragby, Clifford reluctantly agrees to hire a nurse so that Connie will not have to spend so much time caring for him. They hire a woman named Mrs. Bolton, and Clifford grows to tolerate her, although he is still not happy that Connie is not personally tending to his every need. Connie, however, gradually begins to feel more relaxed and freer.

Chapter 8 Summary

With Mrs. Bolton available to care for Clifford, and spring weather arriving, Connie is able to begin daily walks on the grounds of the estate. She grows physically stronger, and also feels a connection to the natural world around her. Sometimes she finds herself standing near Mellors’s cottage without having intended to walk there.

One day while walking, Connie happens upon a small hut she has never seen before. She realizes that this hut must be where Mellors tends to the pheasant chicks. Mellors is there, repairing the hut, and invites her in. Connie quietly observes him, unsure if he is happy or unhappy about her presence. Eventually, Connie mentions that she would like to come back to the hut, and asks if there is another key she could use (so that she can access it whenever she wants). Mellors is curt and unhelpful in his responses to her questions about accessing the hut, and Connie eventually leaves in frustration.

When Connie gets back to her house, she asks Clifford about a key to the hut, and complains that Mellors was rude to her. Clifford mentions that Mellors has a somewhat ambiguous class position: He is clearly of the working class but has also held fairly high positions during the war, and mingled with members of the upper classes. The next day, Connie and Clifford go on a walk together, but she finds herself annoyed by his allusions to literature and poetry.

Even though the weather is rainy, Connie goes back to the hut alone and sits outside on the porch. Mellors finds her there; he offers to give her his key while he will find another place to tend to the pheasants. Connie insists that nothing needs to change; she can come to the hut sometimes, even if Mellors happens to be there. He worries that it will be annoying for her to have him working nearby, and Connie becomes irritated, insisting, “[A]ren’t you a civilized human being? Do you think I ought to be afraid of you? Why should I take any notice of you and your being here or not?” (99). Connie leaves the hut confused and frustrated with her ambiguous communications with Mellors.

Chapter 9 Summary

Connie grows increasingly unhappy with her family life; she feels very disconnected from Clifford and disdainful of him. Meanwhile, Clifford is growing closer with Mrs. Bolton, since the two of them spend a lot of time together and Mrs. Bolton cares for Clifford in intimate ways. Mrs. Bolton has begun to openly share gossip with Clifford about the inhabitants of Tevershall. Clifford finds these stories engaging, and uses them as inspiration in his writing. In particular, many of Mrs. Bolton’s stories focus on how much working-class men and women value the acquisition of money.

These stories make Connie feel disdainful, but Clifford becomes very interested. He begins to wonder if he has been pursuing the wrong kind of success: Rather than writing and trying to achieve cultural acclaim, Clifford begins to fantasize about becoming a successful industrialist. He takes a much more active interest in the mines and researches how to make them more productive. This new role makes him feel powerful and competent, and he becomes much happier. However, he is uneasy around Connie, and prefers to spend most of his time with Mrs. Bolton, since “only when he was alone with Mrs. Bolton did he really feel a lord and a master” (114).

Chapters 5-9 Analysis

Although Connie has already engaged in one adulterous relationship, a new perspective on extramarital relationships is introduced when Clifford explicitly suggests that she might pursue sexual relationships with other men. Notably, Clifford is not interested in Connie’s gratification, but he is concerned about what it might mean for their relationship to remain childless. Clifford’s attitude is surprisingly pragmatic; at a time when no medical technology existed to provide alternative options for building families, his proposal that Connie conceive a child with another man provides the only alternative possibility of them having what will appear to be a biological child.

While Clifford’s proposal might seem generous and progressive in some ways, he also presents it in a cold and aloof way that ends up distressing Connie: She finds herself noticing that “the child, her child, was just an ‘it’ to him” (43). Clifford’s coldness continues as he elaborates on why he would not care if Connie had a brief sexual relationship with another man: “[I]t’s the living together from day to day, not the sleeping together once or twice […] habit, to my thinking, [that] is more vital than any occasional excitement” (44). Clifford’s attitude reveals that he does not see the significance of sexual pleasure, or the type of connection it can forge between partners. This perspective foreshadows why he will later be so intolerant of Connie’s desire to pursue happiness and freedom.

Clifford’s desire for a child is related to a desire to have an heir who can continue his family lineage; he does not seem to have any interest in emotional connection or providing nurturing. Clifford’s attitude reflects his class position. Historically, English landowners passed their estates down to the eldest son through a system of primogeniture. Clifford’s desire to have a child reflects his broader desire to preserve tradition and the history of class privilege; he argues to Connie that “we who have this kind of property, and the feeling for it, must preserve it” (43). By the 1920s, traditional systems of class had been eroding in England for over a century, as industrialization and urbanization wrought drastic changes to how society was organized. It was increasingly costly and often unrealistic to maintain large estates like Wragby, and events like World War I also exacerbated social shifts and a decline in the power of the aristocracy. Clifford’s inability to have his own biological child reflects the inevitable end of the traditional class system, but his desire to find a way to circumvent this fate reflects a refusal by the traditional elite to accept modernity.

Mellors appears in the novel for the first time immediately after Connie and Clifford have this conversation about the possibility of Connie having an affair with another man. This structure, in which Mellors appears like “the sudden rush of a threat out of nowhere” (46), makes it clear that he is going to play a pivotal role in the plot and in Connie’s life; it also has him appear almost as a kind of divine solution to the stagnant impasse at which Connie and Clifford find themselves. Mellors encounters the couple out in the woods, reflecting a motif through which the natural world is positioned in contrast to constructed social spaces governed by norms and class expectations.

Connie becomes curious about Mellors immediately, signaling that she may register attraction before she is even conscious of it. Her impression of Mellors and her subsequent questions reveal that Mellors occupies an ambiguous class position. He comes from a working-class position and is an employee of the estate, thus clearly subservient to Connie and Clifford; however, he is clearly articulate, intelligent, and well-mannered. Connie finds herself noting that “he might almost be a gentleman” (47). This quotation reveals that Connie is very much a product of her upbringing and social context, as she measures Mellors in comparison to her own standards of class position.

In addition to an attractively ambiguous class position in which Mellors can combine the virility and authenticity of a working-class man with the grace and intelligence associated with the upper classes, he is positioned as able to offer one thing that Clifford cannot: children. Connie’s questions about Mellors’s history quickly reveal that he already has a child, and she encounters his daughter directly a short time later. Since by this point Connie is effectively shopping for a man to father a child, this information is not insignificant in developing a burgeoning attraction to Mellors.

While Connie is initially intrigued by Mellors, she is really only free to pursue the relationship because the arrival of Mrs. Bolton liberates her from her role as Clifford’s primary caregiver. External observers are able to see that Connie’s isolation, and the demands placed upon her by Clifford, are draining her of her energy and vitality in an almost vampiric way. While Connie is too dutiful to advocate for herself, her sister is able to intervene and insist that Connie get more assistance. Mrs. Bolton’s labors give Connie more free time and more independence, allowing her to note that “quietly, subtly she was unraveling the tangle of his consciousness and hers, breaking the threads gently, one by one, with patience and impatience to get clear” (86). While Connie becomes freer to explore her authentic self and reconnect to her desires, she achieves this only because of another woman’s labor. While Mrs. Bolton is portrayed as pleased and satisfied with her new role, the substitution of one woman for another raises questions about how much freedom can be achieved, and who is deserving of it.

Interestingly, the emotional intimacy that quickly arises between Clifford and Mrs. Bolton comes to function as a pseudo-adulterous relationship, and a case of cross-class intimacy that mirrors what will happen between Connie and Mellors. Connie notes with contempt that “there was no mistake that the woman was in some way in love with him” (104), while Clifford enjoys the sense of power that he achieves in response to Mrs. Bolton’s deference. For her part, Mrs. Bolton “was thrilled by her contact with a man of the upper-class, this titled gentleman, this author who could write books and poems” (103).

The relationship between Clifford and Mrs. Bolton is socially condonable because it exists within the boundaries of a structure in which she is an employee and he is in charge. The class boundaries also mirror gender positionality, whereas the relationship between Connie and Mellors will disrupt them: Clifford occupies a position of greater power due to both his class and sex. These power structures allow Clifford to enjoy the intimacy and vulnerability of having Mrs. Bolton tend to him in physically intimate ways. In a way, because Mrs. Bolton is older and seems to have successfully subsumed her sexual desires into care-giving tendencies, she can appropriately fulfil the role that is a burden and prison to a vibrant young woman like Connie.