Understanding the Function of Religious Imageries in D. H. Lawrence’s poems,
Tortoise Shout and Snake
David Herbert Lawrence or the popularly known poet of today, DH Lawrence or sometimes DHL, has been a controversial and much talked about literary artist. His words in his works were seen by many as unrestricted and instantaneous (“Lawrence, D.H.”). His works received several criticisms, both positive and negative which have primarily disputed the openness and controversy in his works. Lawrence was mainly seen to portray a romantic poet. However, as more of his works came into the main stream literature, people noticed that he also possessed the qualities of a visionary and prophetic poet. His works have been noted to contain both religious, sexist and very personal imageries that revealed a lot about the real nature of the author. This was attributed by his critics to his complex and complicated background. Lawrence grew up hating his father while working hard to give his mother and himself a good future (Gillespie). This was seen as a probably factor which filled Lawrence’s personality with a mixture of different emotions that created inexplicable feelings in his heart that can only be expressed through his ability of writing proses, poetry and novels. Two of his well loved and criticized works are Tortoise Shout and Snake- two poems that plainly depicts animals but holds much deeper meaning reflected through religious imagery and symbolism. And that although, what is more notable about Lawrence is his inclination to sex, the presence of religious symbols in his poems quite reveals a much more serious root and inspiration.
The Religious Imageries in Tortoise Shout and Snake
The poem Tortoise Shout is basically a story being told about the peculiar ear-breaking sound of a turtle’s cry-like scream. The author’s way of describing this kind of scream has been impeccable throughout the entire poem; however what is much more notable is his ability to mix non-combinable fields of religion and sexuality. This poem clearly depicted revealing sexual messages that pertained to the sex act itself while mentioning several religious imageries like the crucifixion, the cross and even Christ’s name.
Crucifixion / Male tortoise, cleaving behind the hovel-wall of that dense female … The Cross, / The wheel on which our silence first is broken / Sex, which breaks up out integrity, our single inviolability, our deep silence … The same cry from the tortoise as from Christ, the Osiris-cry of abandonment (Lines 29-30, 79-80, 85; Lawrence 297-299)
These imageries of both the sexual act and religious symbols may indicate that although what the author was trying to express was the mere reality of sexuality – that it steals a significant part of people from time to time and makes them scream – the author nonetheless wanted to portray himself as a human bound with religious codes, limitations and knowledge. Aside from this, the imagery of the male tortoise being “crucified to sex” covertly expresses male domination over females as he strive sinfully and painfully to orgasm while screaming out loud (Sword 109). Moreover, the association of other religious symbols to the female counterpart of the tortoise can be interpreted to be the author’s representation of the patriarchal religion and the law like “some hairy horrid God the Father in a William Blake imagination” (LCP 385, qtd. in Sword 109). And in looking at the usage of the symbol of the cross, it can be said that this was the author’s way of putting into words how people are being crucified and nailed onto things that both give them agony and pleasure.
Just like in Tortoise Shout, Lawrence once again used the character of an animal to represent a meaningful message in Snake. This poem just like the first one abovementioned tells the story of how a man was torn between killing the serpent – as how his mind tells him – and just letting it live. In many cultures, the snake may symbolize holiness and piety like in
Chinese cultures. However, some see this as a symbol of most a constructive and destructive force (LaChapelle 43). But in the context of Lawrence’s work, the snake seemed to appear like royalty to the speaker, which he refuses to kill because of such an impression.
And the voices in me said, If you were a man / You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off / But must I confess how I liked him … For he seemed to me again like a king, / Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld, / Now due to be crowned again. (Lines 25-27, 36-38; Lawrence 44,46)
This implies a deeper kind of conflict which reflects a man’s dilemma brought about his knowledge about a serpent being naturally evil and his natural attraction to it like his liking to a king and to a god. It presents the reality of how people become naturally fascinated by snakes because of the gracefulness of their appearance although these creatures may have been associated with evil in the past (LaChapelle 43). With this thought it can be said the serpent more than being a mere reptile represented some religious and cultural symbolism in the poem. And its significance can be seen with how the author tries to express that the concept of evil is only being associated to a beautiful snake only by a man’s creative imagination taught with histories and legends. But what the author seems points out is that a king will always be a king in the eyes of its servant no matter how much education will try to change that impression.
Works Cited
Gillespie, Gavin. “DH Lawrence 1885 – 1930 ‘Rising Above the Flames’.” (15 May 2009). (28 July 2009). <http://www.lawrenceseastwood.co.uk/>.
LaChapelle, Dolores. D. H. Lawrence Future Primitive. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 1996.
Lawrence, David Herbert. Snake and Other Poems. Courier Dove Publications, 1999. pp 44, 46.
Lawrence, David Herbert. The Works of D. H. Lawrence. Wordsworth Editions, 2002. pp. 297-299.
“Lawrence, D. H. – Introduction.” Ed Jenifer Baise. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 93. Gale Cengage. Enotes.com. (2000). (28 July 2009). <http://www.enotes.com/twentieth-century-criticism/lawrence-d-h>.
Sword, Helen. Engendering Inspiration. University of Michigan Press, 1995. p. 109.
