D.H Lawrence - Vin Ordinaire

Analyse de textes littéraires anglais

« Vin ordinaire – D.H Lawrence »
INTRODUCTION : In a short story, details are very important. Everything must be explained. The reader needs to go line by line like a fine tooth comb. Focus on the details and the meaning of them. We have to read with a dictionary and prove our justifications with evidences in the text and biography.
Literature is also an art; it wakes up our imagination and emotions.
THE TITLE:
Vin Ordinaire or Thorn in the flesh reminds of a religious background, a biblical symbolic, reminds of the Christ, the crucification. Perhaps the crucification by the society. There is a symbol of allegory. (expression d’une idée par une autre.) Bachmann is a 20th century Christ like personage suffering from the crucification of society.
It seems to be without sense, there is an exotism from the French, a defamiliarization. It catches the curiosity of the reader.
It’s also a cold drink for the average men, symbol of fate and destiny that he has to swallow.
D.H LAWRENCE (1885 – 1930):
Lawrence is an author/writer who manipulates words to share ideas and emotions. Details are very important in his writing. Biography is a potential and hypothetical source. In this case it is significant. Lawrence’s texts exceed his life. Texts exceed biography, it makes then interesting. Biography is not sufficient but is useful.
He wrote this short story and made a brief strong impression. He’s a visionary; he is interested in the First World War and the political and social changes that he’s living in. He was isolated and a visionary figure. He knew the ww1. Social class, the stereotypical roles attributed to men and women. Where to find inspiration/values in a world that’s falling apart? A world whose values and structures were fast changing and put into question. Materialism, old class structure, industrialization. The individuals were erased from society. They became blurred. Individuals vs group.
He was aware that his world was crumbling, searching for new ‘values’. He felt the pressure of the group, the society. He was an outsider. Classes were not supposed to mix. He comes from a working class background. His father was from a working class background and his mother the middle class. He got a higher education than most men in the working class.
He was very interested in love relationships between genders (men and women, women and women and men and men.)
Sex was a taboo in his time; he’s one of the first to write about sex, to explore that world. Why? Because religion was failing. Religion did not prevent the WW1, nor the inequalities. Not allowing the individuals. Sex was seen as an essential energy. Nature also plays a big part in his writing, at least in this short story.
He ran away with the wife of his german teacher, they got married and lived together. He left Christianity (being with a woman without being married). He was an aloner, not conformal to the stereotypes and rules of the church.
NATURE : Just in one line, we already have a detailed picture of nature, we have the impression that nature is more alive than the living characters. Humans are compared to nature (bears) = not a very nice description of men. Feeling of a natural universe. There’s contrast between the nature and the human. Once more, the nature is ascending and the humans are trying to elevate themselves (climbing the mountain) but they fail.
Image of war “green bladed flowers”. Nature gets contaminated by society in a negative way; “wrecked airplanes” = negative image of war. The industrial is overtaking the organic. The dirty language corrupts the human being and brings him down to a lower level.
BACHMANN : It is the Prussian (German) army in France. Bachmann is a german name.
Bach is in german “broek”, which is a small river. This gives us “the man of the river” or “the man crossing the river”. His name symbolizes a metaphoric crossing from one side to another. Leaving one identity behind and trying to reach a new one but he fails.
The physical description is also significant. Bachmann is looking for a new identity. We have to pay attention to the details. His physical description is not the one that should be given to a military man. “Voluptuous” is a feminine term that Lawrence gives to a man in the army. That prepares the way to see the relationship that he has with women. We find complex person that is actually the stereotype of the army man. He’s a very masculine man but also very feminine. There’s also some sort of vulnerability.
In a way, it is not usual that a 40 years old man NEEDS to write to his mother. He needs that connection to her.
Lawrence is very precise when talking about flowers. They are very present in the story and some of them have an important signification.
The “speedwell”: la Veronique. It’s a blue flower just like Bachmann’s eyes. St. Veronica was one of the women that wiped Christ’s face when he was carrying his cross on his way to death. Does that link him to the cross episode? Who may be the personage similar to Veronica? This is again a use of contrast because it’s not usual to find this biblical aspect in a context of war and army.
Voluptuous evoques the pleasure of the flesh, something ecstatic, sensual. Terms individualize characters. Terms that suppose something animal, intuitive, linked to nature.
Military life is microcosmic. He has to conform to what the group demands from him. But even so, he stands out. Bachmann is the most remarkable member of the army because he like showing off, he’s handsome and well proportioned.
“Graceful” is not a term that comes in mind for a soldier. It’s the Prussian army, it demands stiffness. Bachmann doesn’t have that stiffness that the other soldiers have. After the gracefulness, we get a stereotypical soldier. It’s the reverse. We have the soldier that conformed to what the group wanted but that lost his individuality and is a lost man. Nature comes again; the wine is linked to resurrection, poppies flowers are linked to the war (linked to the war of Flanders: strange phenomenon because the text is written before the war and he couldn’t predict it.)
We have a symbol that finishes by meaning more to us a hundred years later than at the time the text was written.
The flowers are in a sad stage compared to how they were at the beginning of the story.
THE CLIMBING: Bachmann stands out and has no submissiveness, like a “dodget”. He was afraid of climbing and was hiding it. He has to repress his nature; he has to show courage that he doesn’t have to conform to the army. It’s a man that is more comfortable around women.
Water is a sign of life: “water was still” on the other side. The water that has to be crossed. The soldiers are feeling dwarf. Humans are small and taking over nature. “The soldier moving off the cliff”; we would expect a “him” but he is classified as “It”. He is dehumanized. Leitmotiv; repetition.
The commandant: An individual who’s will is mechanical and no longer own. He doesn’t really see anymore, he is moving against his will. The broken individual does what the army wants, and then we have Bachmann. “The squaring of the circle”; you obey your will identifying it to the will of the authority. It’s a forced integration. He’s divided; it’s a dilemma between what he wants and what society wants. Everything he does, his body betrays. It’s his real nature rebelling against the action. He’s dead and alive. Bachmann is climbing but seized by fear and humiliates himself to a point he can’t control his natural functions. Humiliated, embarrassed. In the army, there is no forgiveness for that lack of courage. It’s not a manly behavior. “Carcass” = dead body of an animal. The reaction of the army leads to self-hatred.
The commandant turns into an enraged dog. Bachmann doesn’t want to give up in front of his yelling commandant. He’s feeling threatened by an animal. The commandant is also making animal like noises, it shows that he is no longer a human being. Bachmann hits him (not on purpose) and doesn’t conform to the army by leaving. He chooses his life against conformity. There seems to be no choice between the group and individuality.
Lawrence seems to imply that Bachmann is all of us. In the end people did not know what they were fighting for. Humans act mechanically, but they do not know what motivates their life. Stereotypical land: America. The foreign land associated to freedom, possibilities. No possibility of a happy medium, a compromise, a harmony.
LAURENCE’S NARRATOR: Lawrence makes a change in the story; the narrator is omniscient and he switches to free indirect discourse. That happens when Bachmann feels frightened; this narrative form intensifies Bachmann’s individuality. The author does that to intensify the distress of the character. That way we can be closer to the conflict and identify to the character and our adrenaline rises.
The narrator can have similarities with the author. Here the narrator has similarities with Lawrence but yet they are not the same!
First person narrator (focalized): the “I” voice. He’s the character.
Third person narrator (free indirect discourse): is not a character, he’s outside the story. Omniscient, non-focalized.
Once the narrator is a character, we have a focalized 3rd person narrator.
Modes of presentation : Diegesis = description. Mimesis = mise en scène.
BACHMANN’S EXPERIENCE WITH EMILIE: Bachmann decides to go hide at Emilie’s place. He felt that he could trust her. He had a feeling that led him there. The place reminds him of a less industrial society. He’s in the countryside, picturesque places. He did not hesitate to get here as if the forces of destiny directed him.
When we first meet Emilie, her appearance is very revealing. She’s very distant from the beginning. It’s an announcement of betrayal.
There is also a contrast between Bachmann and Emilie. She has a hard face, she’s cold and masculine. She’s his opposite.
We have alternance between diegetic and mimetic mode of presentation. We have the feeling that something is unsaid.
There is a sense of judgment, you have the feeling that Bachmann has rather a doom than a salvation. It’s a battle of minds and genders. She begins to dominate and he’s passive.
He felt like he was acting without his identity, like a puppet. She takes the responsibility against his will. She did not come to rescue him as the women did for Jesus.
Lawrence was known for his explorations of sex scenes. Our generation can recognize herself in this text because there is no end. The question still appeals, we have just passed the Victorian/Edwardian age. Lawrence doesn’t get into the act, not because he’s afraid, but because he doesn’t want the fusion to end there. There is a separation between them.
P.133 : she allows him to take refuge in her bedroom, the baron example isn’t significant. It’s the most important passage of the text (soumission).
THE CRUCIFICATION THEME:
There’s an opposition between two faiths. Most of the authors seen in class come from a protestant background. We cannot project our beliefs on the ones of the author. The Christ was a common man like Bachmann. He also suffered in the hands of society. Normally Bachmann shouldn’t relate to Jesus because of the opposition between Catholics and Protestants. However, he felt sympathy for him and thought that they were alike: he almost felt like they were brothers. There is a lot of sexuality; he thought of what Emilie would think about seeing a blind, naked man. He felt thirsty, he wanted water. It was kind of a consolation: it was what Christ was offered several times. It’s thirst of life, an existential thirst that is never over. Emilie did not give him anything to drink. He feels alone, lonely and does not enjoy it. It’s a contrast compared to the beginning where he seems to be apart. It’s a part of who he was. Submissiveness is on for both Bachmann & Emilie. There’s a question of privacy. If she lets him in, it would be like breaking through the armor that she has built. He is a soldier, part of an army. She’s a servant. They are both under the power of a master. Master-servant dynamic is something that they have to deal with and that could break their psychological defense. She feels disturbed by him, a dependence that she cannot escape. This makes her feel uncomfortable. She exchanges some kind of enslavement or another parallelism. This parallelism in life cannot be escaped. Her rejection reminds him of the past. They suffer of paralysis; they feel incomplete, irritated, embarrassed, and unable to survive. They are unable to survive by themselves but annoyed by that dependence on the others. Before getting arrested, Jesus was betrayed by his disciples. Here Bachmann is betrayed by Emilie. She turns out being Judas. The soldier is compared to an animal in a negative way. Bachmann is powerless so that’s why the Baron has to save Emilie. If she had confessed everything, things would have been different.
THE END :
The text begins with bullying and ends with bullying. The army bullies Emilie just as they bullied Bachmann in the beginning.
The soldiers were feeling powerful but they realize that they’re not different from Bachmann.
Emilie behaves like Judas and Pilates: she washes her hands and denies it all. Bachmann is crushed and the Baron re-establishes the order to shut down any desire of rebellion of Emilie at all cost.
Ambiguous end : not totally and open end but not everything is revealed about them, the baron, … so that the reader can keep asking questions. (lawrence’s technique)
Vocabulary
Poplars; peupliers
Rye; seigle
Vineyards; vignoble
To bristle ; se hérisser
Pile up; s’accumuler
Corrugated; ridé
Sweltered; étouffé
Nasturtiums; capucine
Shade; l’ombre
Drill; entrainement
Wire fence; la barrière métallique. (wire = metal / fence = barrière)
Cupboard; placard
Blossom; fleur
Green bladed; en forme de lames vertes
Wrecked; endommagé
Scattered; éparpillé
Limber; souple
Clumsy ; maladroit
Reddish ; rougeâtre, tirant sur le roux
Frost ; gelé
Speedwell ; la véronique
To lounge ; se prélasser
To sprawl ; s’affaler
Meagerly ; maigrement
To gnaw ; ronger. (gnawed by fear = rongé par la peur)
Conceited ; suffisant (pej,) / prétentieux
Swagger ; arrogant
Duty ; obligation
Poppies ; coquelicots
Corn ; blé
Whilst ; while ; pendant
Dogged ; tenace
Slack ; lache
Reckless ; inconscient, imprudent
Sword ; épée
Path ; chemin
Drew ; draw ; se diriger
Winding ; sinueux
Thickets ; taillis
Rustling ; froissement
Daisies ; marguerite
Slipper ; chausson
Glimmered ; lueur
Moat ; fossé
Terse ; sec
Cliff ; falaise
Dwarf(ed) ; nain
Lush ; luxuriant, gras
Gloomy ; sombre
Grasping ; cupide
Dull ; monotone
To crouch ; s’accroupir
To grope ; tatonner
Ignominy ; ignominie
To snarl ; grogner
Ledge ; rebord
Molten ; en fusion
To paw : pédaler
Rung; échelon
To clutch; se cramponner
To pitch ; tomber en avant
Swoop ; descente
Swoon ;
To blot ; faire disparaitre
Slacker ; lambin
To stire ; se remuer
Eagerly ; impatiemment
Feat ; exploit
To clasp ; agriper
Gap ; crénau
To trample ; piétiné
Daze ; être abasourdi
Panting ; haleter
Bewildered ; déconcerté
To tingle ; avoir des frissons
Fierce : féroce
Leap ; bond
Thrust ; imposer
To bark; aboyer
Gibber; baragouiner
To jerk ; secouer
To stagger : tituber
To saunter ; flaner
Errand; course
Pinnacle ; sommet
To prick; piquer
Strain; tension
To falter; chanceler
Conspicuous; voyant, qui se remarque
Steed ; coursier
Eager; avide
Gust; coup de vent
Bullock-wagon; char à boeuf
Harvest; moisson
Swarm; essaim, grouiller de
Pump; pompe
Freckled; avec des points de rousseur
Dreary; morne
Dismayed; consterné
Steady; imperturbable
Bearing; maintien
Tray; plateau
Loin; filet
Plait; tresse
Stove; cuisinière
Enamel; émail
Pan; casserole
Withdrawn; renfermé
To flicker ; vaciller
Quiver ; frisson
Bare ; vide
Drawer; tiroir
Bony; osseux
Forlorn; malheureux
Grasp; prise
Aloof; distant
To clutch; s’agripper à
Sheer; pur
To shudder; frissonner
To doze; somnoler
Fitfully; irrégulièrement
Sullen; maussade
Lain; pp. of lie; mentir
Thudded; tomber en faisant un bruit sourd
To ramble; se promener, vaguer
Dim; sombre
Bugle; clairon
Fretted; inquiet
Fluttered; agité
Bitingly; de façon mordante
Rifle; fusil
Clod; motte
Pace; pas
Lumber; advancer à pas lourds
Tramped; marcher lourdement
Sleeve; manche
Bitter; amère
Sneer; sourire dédaigneux