I found myself very troubled by the argument Birkin presents
Ursula when she comes to have tea with him.
I do not really understand what he is trying to explain to her. There seems to be a connection between his
earlier experience in the grass. I say
this because he asks Ursula if they could be together by ceasing “to be (147).”
When he was naked in the grass Birkin was presumably feeling this separation of
self that he is asking Ursula to now experience with him. I am not sure if this
is exactly what he is asking of her because his delivery is confusingly
cold.
I think Birkin is experiencing the desire to exist as a being separate from the social and emotional ties of humanity. His seemingly cold proposal to Ursula sounds like him trying to describe the complete disconnection from the human world. In this world there would be no emotions and no bonds, only the knowledge and experience of one's true self untainted buy the world.
ReplyDeleteThere is an irony in that he seems to be seeking company for this existence so he won't have to be alone.
I agree that Birkin is confusing--he is reaching for something, wanting to exist in nakedness of soul with another person, to throw off pretensions of the human world...but how can he express these in the human language? Birkin is esoteric, to say the least, and to put that upon Ursula is rightfully wrong. But Ursula's response, to demand his admission of loving her, similarly disturbed me...
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