The significance of the stallion in D.H. Lawrence 's St Mawr

Abstract

D.H. Lawrence's St Mawr (1925) is a very entrancing short novel which talks about a woman and her dissatisfaction with men as whole . It 's a very well – structured story , and one of the wises story as Lawrence presents a clash between the fictional ( the horse ) world , and the real world ( men world ) . Through it , Lawrence creates a world with very few words and with real characters .It is the first of his writings to be set in America on a ranch in Arizona .
Lawrence's intention in St Mawr is to show the vitality of a splendid stallion which is lacking in men .For Lawrence , men have abused their own powers , the phallic power embodied in the stallion ,St Mawr , and allowed women to become powerful , the female principle to assume the ascendant .It is quite clear that St Mawr conveys a lament for the loss of maleness , which Lawrence attributes to the modern , mechanistic ,money grubbing world – the world of men .It is only in the face of such a loss that women can become powerful and independent . Lawrence , as a result , presents St Mawr as the antithesis of the modern man .He endows St Mawr with those qualities which are more properly aspects of male principles such as life – power,energy,and courage .The horse figure utterly dominates the whole of St Mawr .
The significance of the stallion ,St Mawr , is first imparted to the reader through the heroine's , Lou's , sense of it ; then it is developed and enforced by a wealth of poetic language and dramatic means ;i.e , Lawrence uses poetic language in giving a minute description of the stallion .
The stallion , as a powerful and vital animal , makes Lou senses the emptiness of her life and discovers the illusion of her marriage .Thus ,at the end of the novel she decides , after realizing that men are not men enough , to live alone with her mother in a ranch in Mexico , as her heart has been broken by men .She prefers to stay alone and starts new life with nature ; she thinks that nature will keep her soul and sex from being cheap .In this respect , Lawrence believes that if men refuse to be men ," babies and playboys ,poor things showing off all the time , even to themselves ", then it is right that women should forsake them and fine new ways to live without them .Such as an action is not a denial of sexuality , but a proper respect for it ; not a denial of relation and community , but refusal to cheapen either , not a negative and cynical move , but a brave and positive one .
Hence, the present study focuses on the importance and significance of the stallion as viewed through the eyes of the heroine of St Mawr