Harlequinade Grotesque in D. H. Lawrence’s Novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’

Abstract

The article is devoted to the interpretation of D. H. Lawrence’s novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. The basis for reading the novel in a carnival key is provided by both the facts of Lawrence’s biography and the presence of carnival interpretations in his other works in recent decades. The study of the harlequinade imagery in the novel makes it possible to characterize the ‘Lawrentinian’ harlequinade grotesque and its role in reflecting the writer’s worldview. Through the analysis of the characters, the author establishes similarities between Mellors, Connie, and Clifford with Harlequin, Columbine, and Pierrot. Allusions to popular pantomimes and farces of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as ‘Merry Sherwood, or Harlequin-Forrester’ (1795) by O’Keeffe and ‘Pierrot Fumiste’ (1882) by Laforgue, are identified. In addition, a hypothesis is put forward regarding the reasons for the writer’s choice of specific names for his characters. In particular, a version is proposed according to which the character Clifford Chatterley owes his name to Clifford Essex — the most popular performer of the Pierrot role in England at the beginning of the 20th century. The author argues that in the novel, Lawrence reproduces the plot and composition of English pantomime in order to contrast buffoonish laughter with the grim aspects of England’s reality in the 1920s.