Lady Chatterley's Lover

Over the course of the novel, Connie transitions from attempting to be content with a purely intellectual life toward accepting that she needs physical pleasure in order to be fully alive. From a young age, Connie grows up immersed in intellectual debates and exchanges, “not the least daunted by either art or ideal politics” (3). When Connie and Clifford first begin a relationship, they find connection more through the exchange of ideas than through sexual chemistry, and Connie secretly feels happy that their “intimacy was deeper, more personal than [sex]” (10). After Clifford’s injuries, there is no possibility of a sexual relationship between the couple; all of Clifford’s enjoyment comes from writing, reading, and having intellectual debates with Connie and his friends. Connie initially finds satisfaction in this life and believes it will be adequate.

However, as time passes, Connie finds herself wondering if there is more to life than mere words and ideas. She notices that the men who surround her are somewhat unattractive, and observes that they have “cold minds” (35). Later, Connie realizes that she cannot imagine one man she would like to have a child with, reflecting that “there was not a man who did not rouse her contempt” (65). Meanwhile, Connie is growing increasingly alienated from her husband and dissatisfied with her life. She manifests physical symptoms of decline, growing thin and pale, because she has been cut off from access to physical pleasure.

It is only when Mrs. Bolton begins to care for Clifford and Connie is free to go for long walks in the woods that she begins to reconnect to her body and realize that she could not live an entirely intellectual life. She needs to be connected to the rhythms of the natural world, and the rhythms of her own body. This realization gains the greatest power when Connie begins having sex with Mellors and reconnects with physical sensation. This experience completely changes her sense of connection to the world: One night, she notes that “the world seemed a dream; the trees in the park seemed bulging and surging at anchor on a tide, and the heave of the slope to the house was alive” (189).

Once Connie has rediscovered the vitality that comes with living an embodied life, she becomes a passionate defender of physical life and the need to celebrate it. During an argument with Clifford, he coldly tells her that “the life of the body […] is just the life of animals” (249), revealing that he only values intellectualism. Connie insists that the body also has value; she is empowered by how Mellors openly shows appreciation for her physical form and the pleasure it can give him. As she aspires to get pregnant, Connie also appreciates the necessity of bodies for bringing new life into the world.

Connie’s eventual embrace of the physical world alongside the intellectual one undermines other dichotomies, including the distinction between reason and emotions. Connie’s embrace of the physical world is also an embrace of emotion, passion, and spontaneity. Since women have more traditionally been associated with physical rather than intellectual life, Connie symbolically accepts her femininity by embracing the needs of her body. She accepts that she does not want to live a cold and sexless life, but wants to be free to experience everything that her body is capable of, including sexual gratification and bearing children.