The Rainbow Essay Questions

The novel tracks a large degree of development in social and technological areas. How does Lawrence regard this progress?

Lawrence has a mixed attitude towards the forms of progress that he represents in the novel. On one hand, Ursula represents the progress made in the pursuit of women's rights in the early-20th century. She finds work outside of the home, develops friendships with other women, and participates in political activity, even though women do not yet have the vote. Lawrence writes in the beginning of the novel that the Brangwen women "wanted another form of life" than the one they were afforded on Marsh Farm. By the end of the novel, Ursula has in many ways succeeded in attaining this new life. Progress in this sense is portrayed favourably.

At the same time, Lawrence is also highly critical of the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon the environment and the social order. While the novel begins in the idyllic pastoral space of Marsh Farm, it ends in a "stupid, artificial, exaggerated town" (414). The previously quaint landscape has been replace by a "cold world of rigidity, dead walls and mechanical traffic" (423). Likewise, at the beginning of the novel a railway is placed near Marsh Farm and by the end of the novel Ursula and Anton are horrified while watching a train "fuming with dirty smoke . . . groping in the bowels of the earth, all for nothing" (431). In this sense, Lawrence contends that what might seem as technological or industrial development is actually a form of degradation.

Ultimately, Lawrence is both supportive and critical of the forms of progress that are represented through the course of the novel, and his ability to approach them with nuance is a great strength of the novel.

At one point, Lawrence intended to title the novel The Wedding Ring. What might be the significance of this title?

Wedding rings are an important symbol in The Rainbow. In the first chapter of the novel, when Tom is courting Lydia, he notices that Lydia still wears the wedding ring from her dead husband and he concludes that "it bound her life, the wedding-ring, it stood for her life in which he could have no part" (39). Thus, the wedding ring creates a sort of enclosure that binds two people together. Still, he proposes to her and they marry. Yet Tom's intuition is correct as a certain distance separates him and Lydia—the wedding ring she once wore marks a part of her life that he cannot access.

Wedding rings are also a type of circle—another important symbol in the novel. Indeed, two of the novel's chapters are titled "The Widening Circle." For Lawrence, a circle represents harmony and completeness. We talk about "the cycle of life" as the complete journey from birth to death, and in The Rainbow, Lawrence depicts this complete circle. The wedding ring represents the unity of love that is part of the broader circle of life. Yet, a circle (and a wedding ring) can also function as a kind of enclosure or a trap. Ursula in particular seeks to escape the enclosure of marriage and wants to preserve her freedom by refusing marriage.

Evidently, the wedding ring is a rich symbol in The Rainbow and it should be little surprise that Lawrence considered titling the novel The Wedding Ring.

What is the significance of the scene at the Lincoln Cathedral?

The scene at the Lincoln Cathedral exhibits some of the most expansive and evocative language in the entirety of the novel, as Lawrence describes the profound effect that the church has upon Will. For Anna, however, the experience is drastically different. For her, "the altar was bare, its light gone out" (188). She grows impatient and begins poking fun at a set of faces carved into the stone of the Cathedral. Anna's jokes are profoundly upsetting for Will, and Lawrence writes that Anna "had even destroyed the passion he had" for churches (190).

This is just one scene in the tumultuous relationship between Will and Anna, yet is is particularly noteworthy as it suggests that there are certain unbridgeable, irreconcilable differences that may prevent two people from ever having true harmony with one another. In this case, it is that Will has a sense of spirituality which Anna cannot understand or appreciate.

The scene at the Cathedral also initiates an important development in Will's religious understanding. After his divine illusion about the cathedral is destroyed, he realizes that "there was much that the church did not include" (191). Instead of seeing churches as the place where God resides, and where humans can be in touch with the divine, Will realizes that churches are more symbols of religion than anything else. His love for churches becomes more practical and he begins to work as a care-taker for the church near their cottage. He then finds great joy and serenity in this role. Thus, while the scene at the Cathedral is painful for Will it also initiates an important development in his religious understanding.

The Rainbow was regarded as a scandal when it was first released in 1915, to the extent that it was banned in Britain for over a decade. In particular, the novel's depiction of sex and sexuality was regarded as obscene by censors. How does Lawrence present sexuality in the novel?

Surprisingly, The Rainbow is not the most scandalous of all of Lawrence's books—that honor is generally given to Lady Chatterley's Lover. Still, The Rainbow continued plenty of material to upset censors, notably the relationship between Ursula and Winifred and the descriptions of Ursula and Anton having sexual intercourse. As critic Robert McCrum writes, "the sexuality of [Lawrence's] characters throbs through the narrative like a feverish pulse." At the time of its publication, writing about sex of any kind was seen as taboo (even criminal) not to mention writing about pre-marital sex and homosexuality.

For Lawrence, sex and desire are as normal as life itself. To signify this, his characters frequently have erotic encounters amidst the beauty of nature, like Will and Anna on the cornfield or Ursula and Winifred kissing naked in the rain. Throughout the novel, he pushes back against the notion that sex is a shameful or impure act. Rather, he wants to demonstrate that it can be beautiful and liberating—one of the great joys in life. To use a contemporary term, we could say that Lawrence is "sex positive." While this was scandalous for its time, Lawrence helped pave the way for more liberal attitudes towards sexuality.

Throughout the novel, Lawrence presents a number of parallels between the generations of the Brangwen family. Identify one and explain its significance to the novel.

Just as much at the parents and children in The Rainbow quarrel, they also share a number of similarities: Tom favors Anna to all his other children just as Will favors Ursula, Lydia is prone to depression as is Anna, and Will is a talented artist just like Gudrun. Perhaps the most striking inter-generational similarity is in the respective relationships between Tom and Lydia, and Will and Anna. Both relationships are characterized by a passion which slowly fades into tumultuous feelings and resentment. Both relationships are highly quarrelsome and filled with as much hatred and love. Both Tom and Will try to find warmth in their relationships with their daughters instead of their wives. At times, it seems like Lawrence is just repeating the same story with a new generation of characters.

Through these parallels, Lawrence is suggesting that our parents or guardians play an essential role in the development of our character and morals. Whether or not we feel a closeness to these forbearers, we are invariably shaped by their actions and attitudes. Thus, just as Ursula strives to make a life for herself that is different from her mother or grandmother, scholar Mary Ann Melfi argues that "the weight of generations of simple, inarticulate Brangwens before her lessens Ursula's chances for liberation" (357). Thus, Lawrence argues that while we may desire the freedom to create our own lives, we are inevitably shaped by the generations that came before us.