https://www.marilenabeltramini.it/schoolwork1516/UserFiles/5ALS_CToso/questions_about_the_fox.docx

QUESTIONS ABOUT "THE FOX"

• Find out all the denotative elements by which D. H. Lawrence describes the fox from the very first time it appears.

  In the first lines of the novel, the fox is presented through the eyes of Banford and March as a "demon" because it represents a danger for them, indeed he carried off the hens. So the narrator underlines the fox's slyness. But when the fox is seen to the March's eyes it acquires a curious fascine that attracts woman. The intelligent reader can notice this effect in different passages of the novel in particular when March focuses her attention on the fox’s physical aspect. She is attracted by the dark, shrewd, unabashed eyes of the fox that capture March's mind.

• Find out the possible reasons why the fox might stands for something different on the connotative and metaphorical level 

  Moreover the reader can recognize some textual elements that suggest the metaphorical meaning of the fox: in March’s mind, the fox represents the soldier Henry. So, it becomes the symbol of the gender male, this is uncovered by the use of the subject pronoun "he". Therefore the fox is the male sexual attraction for March. In the end, the conflict of the two farmers and the fox serves to affirm their autonomy against the male word.

• Consider the way March is introduced from the denotative level

She is presented to the narrator in her male and female features; indeed, in the first lines of the text the novelist says: "she would be the man about the place", "was more robust", "did most of the outdoor work"; but at the same time he says "her face was not a man's face ever", and she has big, wide and dark eyes and a pinched mouth. Her female features predominate after the arrival of the soldier Henry because she is attracted of the new man of the farm.

• On 21st of March starts spring, so nature wakes up again and March symbolically represents the instincts in human beings. The choice of the narrator to give the name March to the character underlines how she seems dominated by instincts.