Loss of Innocence
In this novella, D. H. Lawrence explores the theme of the loss of innocence together with the repressive character of middle-class society. Yvette’s innocence is tied to the natural passions that he presents as superior to the artificial constraints of social convention. Her innocence also equals naïveté, which she must move past not only to mature as her own person but also to expand her range of understanding beyond herself.
In a crisis when the family cannot help her, as the flood waters threaten her home, it is the gipsy who provides a steady, level-headed influence. He literally saves both her life and her innocence. Joe’s understanding of the precariousness of his position and his apparent lack of interest in deflowering a teenager, are finally revealed. Yvette realizes later that she had always seen him only as a man, social outsider, and symbol of her longings. Her epiphany that she had not even bothered to find out his name seems to imply that she may have gained the maturity to understand that in future she must consider the other person’s feelings and sense of social position as well as her own selfish desires.
Repressive Character of Middle-Class Society
In this novella, D. H. Lawrence explores the theme of the loss of innocence together with the repressive character of middle-class society. Along with the latter, he also criticizes the hypocrisy of religious leaders. Yvette’s innocence is tied to the natural passions that he presents as superior to the artificial constraints of social convention.
The lovely young Yvette and her sister Lucille are burdened by the “sinful” past of their mother. Their aunt and grandmother never tire of telling them how their mother’s wrongful indulgence of her passions damaged not only her daughters but also the entire family, both by besmirching their reputation and by leaving the girls motherless. Yvette, however, is attracted by the idea of passionate abandon, which she associates with the defiance of norms and of her relatives.
Yvette’s father is a minister, which compounds the disgrace of his wife leaving him. As he struggles to maintain a façade of condemnation even as he worships his wife’s memory, he seems hypocritical to his daughters. Their grandmother, Granny, and their Aunt Cissie uphold the narrow-minded standards of conventional respectability. Cissie’s endorsement of virtue rings hollow to the girls, however, as they are aware that her anger really stems from her personal resentment at being trapped in service to the family, especially her mother.
Hypocrisy of Religious Leaders
In this novella, D. H. Lawrence explores the theme of the loss of innocence together with the repressive character of middle-class society. Along with the latter, he also criticizes the hypocrisy of religious leaders.
Yvette’s father is a minister, which compounds the disgrace of his wife leaving him. As he struggles to maintain a façade of condemnation even as he worships his wife’s memory, he seems hypocritical to his daughters. Their grandmother, Granny, and their Aunt Cissie uphold the narrow-minded standards of conventional respectability. Cissie’s endorsement of virtue rings hollow to the girls, however, as they are aware that her anger really stems from her personal resentment at being trapped in service to the family, especially her mother.
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