A seemingly impenetrable solitude permeates human life in DH Lawrence's two short stories, "The Smell of Chrysanthemums" and horse dealer". Within Lawrence's fictional worlds, the thematic isolation of individuals from each other (often compounded by a profound distance from oneself) is situated as a paradoxically separating yet potentially unifying force between people – but, first and foremost, as a completely cumbersome aspect of the human condition. . Each of Lawrence's stories conveys the essential tragedy of the human condition through the ever-present reality of inevitable death. In the lives of the central characters, an uneasy divorce from any true understanding of mortality helps to further complicate their confusing isolation; each individual struggles mechanically in a dark world, immersed in the weight of his "everyday self" ("Horse" 2665), or appears as Mabel does to Jack – as a "little black figure moving in the hollow of the dying day" (2666 ). In "Chrysanthemums," the immense gap that exists between people on earth becomes a reality for Elizabeth Bates as the tragically overdue realization brought about by a death, while in "Horse," Lawrence ambiguously portrays the possibility of making amends - of overcoming that gap. and connect with another - before time runs out. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Lawrence opens each story by presenting his characters as immobile subjects in a moving surrounding world. In “Chrysanthemums,” Elizabeth and her son wait among “rattling and stumbling” (2647) locomotives and trucks that “[rattle] heavily” (2648). The reader finds the story's subjects in a bustling industrial coal mining village, an environment whose frenetic, active atmosphere highlights the quiet solitude of its people, isolated from the moving world and from each other. The activity that continues in their presence is described as "inevitable movement" (2648), a constant progression of civilization that emphasizes the apparent ineffectiveness of human beings like Elizabeth, a wife and mother who remains "insignificantly caught between jolts of black wagons" (2648). . Likewise, “a confused tramp of horses” provides the backdrop to the desperate silences of the Pervin family, emitting a “strange air of ineffectiveness” (“Horse” 2660). Not just Joe's opening question to Mabel, "what are you going to do with yourself?" (2660) point to the metaphysical immobility of Lawrence's central characters, but this immobility forms a divide between the family members themselves. The narrator conveys this in lines such as "[Mabel] did not share the same life as her brothers" (2660). The horse riding outside furthers the "sense of disaster" (2661) that resulted in Mr. Pervin's death. While in "Chrysanthemums" it is above all the perpetual movement of trains that surround Elizabeth's harsh existence, the horses that surround and define the Pervin family take on a more complex symbolism while Joe, in a "stupor of ruin" ("Horse" 2661) , compares the horses' militant but unconscious passing to his own human circumstance: Each movement displayed a massive, sleepy strength, and a stupidity that kept them in submission. The lead groom looked back, tugging on the lead rope. And the cavalcade disappeared from sight along the path, the last horse's tail, bobbed and stiff, strained by the great swinging hips as they rocked behind the hedges in a sleep-like motion. (2661)The "massive" presence of these mammals clearly reflects the apparent power of life itself, both animal and human;However, the horses' state of harness reminds the reader that a related, if less definable, burden rests on the Pervin family and, by implication, on all living beings whose dramatic movements are characterized by inherent subjugation. Lawrence peculiarly inverts his description of the horse's movement (or lack thereof): while a more typical allusion to sleepwalking would perhaps have been satisfactory in conveying the horse's propensity to move without autonomy, the author invokes the rather unpleasant notion of “motion-like sleep.” ", thus suggesting that the beings he describes live in perpetual semi-consciousness; not fully engaged in actions, nor receptive to the guidance of others; one's life may appear to be in motion but in reality involves no trace of free will or self-determination. With this pervasive and metaphorical sleep, the frustrating darkness of the surrounding world highlights the characters' inability to see the reality of their existence (assuming that , that is, that human life can be clarified in general). of his characters comes both from within and without. Elizabeth, for example, struggles to overcome the oppressive atmosphere when she periodically "peers piercingly through the twilight" ("Chrysanthemums" 2648), just as Jack Fergusson demonstrates the rare success of locate a person “in the midst of such darkness” (“Horse” 2666); however, a number of Lawrence's characters, both living and deceased, are afflicted with impaired vision. The eyes of Mr. Bates's corpse are not only "half-closed" but "glazed in darkness" ("Chrysanthemums" 2659), and the reader of "Horse" cannot help but refer to the "glassy, ​​hopeless eyes" of the brother of Mabel (2661) at the appearance of the corpse in "Chrysanthemums". Both stories are full of references to the enigmatic world in which humans live and breathe; each landscape continually marked by "uncertain darkness" ("Chrysanthemums" 2650) or "dark, dim gray" ("Horse" 2667) serves to accentuate the motif of Lawrence's solitude in the face of an inscrutable environment. Before both narratives develop into a discussion of connections between individuals, Lawrence paints his characters in such an autonomous light that human life seems to be an inexorably singular experience. Throughout the family's wait for Mr. Bates' return in "Chrysanthemums," "their faces [are] hidden from each other" (2650), or appear transfigured by the flickering light of the fire. Since it is rare for the characters in "Horse" to actually look each other in the eye, Mabel sits fixed and unnoticed among her brothers who "had been talking to her and around her for so many years, that she almost didn't hear them at all" (2662 ). Each central character's isolated struggle to see clearly in their own story then evolves into a concern to see others clearly: another human being inevitably grappling with the same earthly uncertainty. For Elizabeth, her husband's death provides that dose of clarity that allows her to reflect on the complexity of human relationships; faced with the oppressive presence of her husband's naked, heavy corpse before her, Elizabeth is overwhelmed by the separation of her being from his: "There lies the reality, this man." And her soul died from fear: she knew she had never seen him, that he had never seen her, they had met in the darkness and fought in the darkness, without knowing who they had met or against whom they had fought. And now he saw, and in seeing he was silent. Because she was wrong. He had said it was something it wasn't; she had felt familiar with him. While he was away all the time, living like she had never lived, feeling likeshe had never heard of it. ("Chrysanthemums" 2659) Lawrence's passage highlights the symbolic "darkness" that circulates in the world of his characters; in each story, this darkness obscures clear vision, points to human boundaries, and comprises a concrete representation of the line that must be crossed before individuals can truly “see” one another and connect. However, Elizabeth's reflections at the end of "Chrysanthemums" are less susceptible to the plausibility of the conquest of solitude.at all. She and Mr. Bates had the luxury of finding each other "in the dark," but continued to have no genuine knowledge of each other's essence. Elizabeth is struck by the realization that a consciously formed "marriage" may in fact be a pure artifice - that the bond one seeks to form in the world may ultimately be thwarted by unsurpassed individuality, leaving the one "familiar" with the 'other but always foreign to the other. his internal experience of life. Suggestive of the "massive, sleepy strength" that characterizes animal life in "Horse," the burdensome weight of Mr. Bates's corpse expresses to Elizabeth the stark boundaries of the physical body – and, in turn, the true horror of human solitude: " A terrible terror gripped her all the time: that he could be so heavy and completely inert, numb, separate. The horror of the distance between them was almost too much for her - it was a gap so infinite that she had to look beyond it." "Chrysanthemums" 2660). “Chrysanthemums” is thus ambiguous as to whether the lack of unity between Mr. and Mrs. Bates is specific to their circumstances, or a sign of a dark consequence of the human condition: the mortal impossibility of solidarity, empathy or love. ", Jack Fergusson peers into "the thick, ugly falling twilight" and sees Mabel "quite positively" (2666). Their mutual gaze evokes in each of them the sensation of being "discovered by the other" (2665), suggesting the possibility that, in this case, two characters can understand each other's situation, despite their explicitly different natures. While Lawrence portrays Jack's entanglement with "the innermost body" (2666) of people's lives, Mabel is, until her encounter with death, "immune from the world" (2665). However, Mabel's portentous gaze penetrates Jack's "agitated, everyday self" (2665) from across the abyss of twilight. that separates them. Lawrence thus begins to restore the hope (absent in "Chrysanthemums") that some universal thread binds human beings after all; the prospect of a greater, unspecified meaning becomes especially imminent through the union of two struggling people in the same twilight. To some extent, Jack and Mabel's new love places them in the middle of old problems; only now are their most heartfelt experiences shared. Even during Jack's passionate realization of love for Mabel, death and inertia continue to characterize their unflappable nature. Jack "stands still, suspended for one of man's eternities" as he fears "the look of death" (2669) in Mabel's eyes. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Although the dark message of "The Smell of Chrysanthemums" emerges through Elizabeth's painful thoughts about death and loneliness, the reader of "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" finds that what develops between Jack and Mabel offers redemption for the human nature highlighted in Lawrence's earlier writings. history. While for Elizabeth Bates a meeting in the dark can promise nothing but companionship between two innately autonomous people, Jack and Mabel's discovery of each other is a triumph. At the end of "Chrysanthemums", Elizabeth realizes what life is..