DH Lawrence’s “The Fox”:
Analysis of the Finale

CREDITS:
Urban Carlotta
5 ALS
As 2015/2016
In the present work I will analyse the finale of DH Lawrence’s novel “The Fox” in order to find out what message it may send.

The finale of the short story begins when March comes to know that Banford is dead. Indeed, cutting a tree that falls over the woman, Henry kills her. Banfrod’s death seems to be the turning point of the novel since it marks Henry’s victory: now that March’s friend is dead, the women can be possessed by him; The soldier is finally free to submit March, who is forced to renounce on her independency.                                               Therefore, the extract turns out to be the narrator’s reflection on existence; In particular, DH Lawrence chooses to analyse March’s condition in order to come to a universalized analysis of human beings’ existence that is useful to understand March’s reaction towards it. Indeed, while in the first part of the extract March seems to bear his defeat, in the last lines of the novel she will change her mind. But, in order to understand March’s change of mind, first of all the reader must consider her initial defeat.

Right from the first lines of the finale, the reader can fully understand March’s condition of defeated:
“Her black eyes gazed on him with the last look of resistance. And then in a last agonized failure, she began to grizzle, to cry”
The “look of resistance” connotes a women who is always trying to be independent, but the narrator says that it is the ‘last look of resistance’; together with the word ‘failure’, the adjective ‘last’ brings to light March’s decision to give up and let the young soldier posses her. In addition, the narrator chooses to juxtapose this paragraph with the one that starts with the brief sentence “he had won”. The expression will be repeated five times, but three of them will have a variation (“he had won her”), that highlights the man’s awareness of possessing the women.  
Another device used by the narrator to evoke the idea of March’s submission is the composition of the scene: While March cries sitting on the grass, Henry stands above her. As a consequence, March is “looking up at him” and Henry is “looking down on her”. The opposition high-low recalls the opposition master-slave and connotes the power the young man has on the woman.

Interesting to notice, is that both the characters are aware of their condition of winner-defeated. Indeed the narrator connotes March’s glance as a “look of helplessness and submission” and highlights also that Henry “realized that it was awful for her to be at the farm any more” (because the farm recalls the independence March has lost). 
In particular, the narrator focuses his attention on March; The woman “did not feel free” nor happy: even if she knows that she has to react and do something, she feels as if there’s nothing to do “and no direction in which to strain herself”. The character’s condition is drawn through the metaphor of the “seaweed” and the comparation between her current state and how she used to be. 
The metaphor of the “seaweed” used by the narrator, perfectly represents the life of a submitted, who has “to be passive” and “to acquiesce”. Like the seaweeds, who never rise and look forth above water while they live, March has not to “do something” (this aspect is highlighted by the obsessive repetition of “never”). In addition “beneath the wave they might have powerful roots, [..] they (seaweeds) might be tenacious”: in other words, March has to support his man whatever he does, without hinder him.
Considering the comparison between March’s current condition and her previous one, the reader finds out that it is summarised by the sentence
“And she had been so used to the very opposite”
Before Henry’s arrival March considered herself independent and useful: “in her own small way, she had felt herself responsible for the well-being of the world”; She used to take care of Banford’s health, happiness and well-being and she used to be happy for her feeling of responsibility. On the contrary, now Henry wants her to be a submissive wife; “She wanted some goal, some finality – and there was none”.

Nevertheless, March’s present condition is not the only source of displeasure. Indeed, after Banford’s death and Henry’s victory, March finally sees that her happiness, due to her feeling of responsibility, was just an illusion. Her goal of making “one beloved creature (Jill) happy” was just a failure: “it seemed so grand an easy at first”, but it turned out to be unachievable. Therefore it seems logical that the narrator addresses the woman using the expression “poor March”, since the character is now aware of her dramatic condition. Her attempt of being independent (that is her way of achieving happiness) seems clearly a failure.
The intelligent reader is now able to unveil the message of the short story: through the novel, DH Lawrence wants to make the reader aware of which is the meaning of human beings’ existence and what it implies. But, to make sure that everyone will understand the message, the narrator chooses to repeat it addressing an indeterminate “you” and using a simple metaphor that is easily understandable. 
DH Lawrence asserts that human beings’ finality is to reach “after the fatal flower of happiness”. Nevertheless, while men try to pick the “fatal flower” they “pluck flower after flower” but “it is never the flower” because the flower they are looking for is “a horrible gulf”. Life seems to be horrible so much so the narrator asserts that “it must be sweet to be dead”.

But, does DH Lawrence only presents human beings’ existence as a destiny characterized by frustration and dissatisfaction?
Of course not. On the contrary, DH Lawrence’s message seems to expand in the last part of the finale. Indeed, in the last lines of the story the narrator focuses his attention on March’s behaviour in front of Henry’s hopes of submitting her completely:
“Her eyelids dropped with the slow motion, sleep weighing them unconsciousness. But she pulled them open again” 
Since the closure of the eyes metaphorically stands for the woman’s submission, highlighting the act of opening them, the narrator underlines the decision of March of reacting in front of the submission (this explains the pain in Henry’s voice). In the same way, human beings should not stop seeing, understanding, trying to reach happiness even if it is out of reach; to give up and simply bear a condition that someone else has chosen for you, is a way of wasting your life.