Summary:
X - "The Widening Circle"
The narrative focus shifts to Anna and Will’s eldest daughter, Ursula. Ursula is close with her younger sister Gudrun, and the two fued with a family of boys named the Phillipses’ along with their two younger sisters, Theresa and Catherine. The two families of children engage in a brawl, much to Anna’s outrage.
At the age of twelve, Ursula is sent to a school in Nottingham with Gudrun. Ursula dislikes living in the chaos created by her younger siblings, and she craves time by herself when she can read and daydream. She begins to sneak into the parish office, but her younger brother and sister discover the spot and damage the room. Their father grows outraged and slaps Ursula in the face with a cloth, so that “the fire of mistrust and defiance burned in her, burned away her connection with him” (249).
Ursula develops into an imaginative and intellectually ambitious young girl. Like her father, she is drawn to Christian imagery and “Sunday was very precious to her” (254). The Brongwen’s spend Christmas together, although Ursula is unsatisfied by the shallowness and short-lived nature of the happiness that the holiday brings. She questions and considers a range of theological questions, such as “why is the risen body deadly, and abhorrent with wounds” (262).
XI: "First Love"
Ursula begins to doubt her religious faith. She questions the divide between the “Sunday world” of divinity and worship, and the rest of her “week-day life” which consists of banal actions (264). After this period of doubt however, she regains her faith, comparing herself to a lamb held by Christ himself.
When she is 16, Anton Skrebensky, the son of her parent’s friends, visits her home along with her uncle Tom. At twenty-one years old, he is an engineer with the army presently on a month’s leave. Ursula is immediately attracted to him. They begin to see each other and she start to become attentive to her physical appearance.
One day he takes her to the fair in Derby, and upon returning home he kisses her passionately. It is implied that she has an orgasm like a “powerful surge of water” and she is shocked by the experience (278). She and Anton continue to be intimate with one another. Anton gets a car—a noticeable technological development from the previous carriages—and Ursula rides with him. Anton returns to his military service.
That autumn, Ursula’s uncle Fred gets engaged to a woman named Laura and the wedding is held at the Marsh. Anton returns and is reunited with Ursula. After the wedding, she and Anton walk along the canal where they spot a coal barge. Ursula hops onto the barge and befriends the captain and his wife. She grows fond of their young baby daughter, and after gifting her a pearl necklace, the parents agree to name the child ‘Ursula.’
Back at the wedding, Ursula and Anton dance together. Ursula then wanders off to the cornfield and Anton follows her. Under the beautiful moon and stars, they passionately embrace one another.
The next morning, Ursula and Anton attend church and she realizes that “Whatever God was, He was, and there was no need for her to trouble about Him” (302). Shortly thereafter, Anton receives orders to fight in the Boer War. Before he leaves, he visits Ursula at the Marsh for a day but she discovers that the passion between them has waned. Ursula and Tom drop Anton off at the railway station, and in the following weeks Ursula grows agitated and depressed.
XII: "Shame"
Ursula nears the end of her schooling, and develops a close relationship with her teacher, Winifred Inger, who is described as “a rather beautiful woman of twenty-eight” (311). Winifred takes the class swimming and she and Ursula race in the pool in an erotically-charged scene. Winifred invites Ursula to share tea with her that weekend. After tea, the two women undress, stand naked in the rain, and kiss. Ursula writes a “burning, passionate love-letter” to Winifred (316).
The two women grow very close and Winifred tutors Ursula on the topics of religion and philosophy. After the end of the school-year, Winifred travels to London. She invites Ursula, who rejects the invitation. Ursula’s love for Winifred begins to fade.
Ursula receives an invitation to stay with her uncle Tom in the coal-mining town of Wiggiston which he manages. Ursula extends the invite to Winifred, hoping to set her up with Tom. Ursula accepts the invitation and she and Tom grow attracted to one another. Together, they discuss the bleakness of the coal-mining town, with Tom arguing that “the pit owns every man” (323). Ursula feels disgusted with her uncle and his participation in the “demon-like colliery” (324).
Tom proposes to Winifred and the two are married.
Analysis:
Lawrence's choice to represent three generations of the Brangwen family is symbolic in itself, for the number three plays an important role in the Christian faith. For example, three magi—or "wise men"—visited Jesus after his birth, Jesus was resurrected three days after his death, and the concept of the Trinity represents the unification of the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.
Ursula thus represents the completion of the Brangwen trinity. Again, the last generation seems to leave an imprint on the next, as Ursula is independent like her mother and shares the religious faith of her father. Yet Ursula is also deeply unsatisfied with her family. She despises living "amidst storms of babies" and resents her mother for accepting a domestic life (246). Ursula is determined to secure freedom for herself, though this is not an easy task for a woman in the early 20th century.
When Ursula meets Anton, it seems as though he may allow her to access a larger life. Lawrence stresses that he comes from a good family and is liked by Brangwens. Perhaps most importantly, unlike Will, he is not a Brangwen. As with Lydia and Tom, and Anna and Will, Lawrence writes beautifully of their courtship. While Ursula has previously "wanted Jesus to love her deliciously" she has now found a living man to take that place (267).
The world that Ursula and Anton forge their lives in is noticeably different from the one their parents and grandparents have experienced. Notably, Anton has a "motor-car" and he and Anna go for long rides. The idyllic world of Marsh Farm has evolved into a more modern, industrial place. At the start, this is exciting for Ursula and she is thrilled and excited by the novelty of the car. Soon, however, this excitement will wane into what critic James Wood calls "the increasing alienation of modernity" (xxiii).
The stakes of modernity are made clear when Anton is shipped off to fight in the Boer War. In so doing, he signals his commitment to a greater cause—nationalism and imperialism. While the Brangwen men had long privileged their independence and autonomy, Anton is more than willing to serve as one amongst many. Here, Lawrence gestures towards an increased value in collectivity as opposed to self-reliance that emerges in modernity. Yet while Ursula desires a life different from that from which she came, Anton's willingness to surrender himself for the British empire is the very indication that he and Ursula will not work out together. As James Wood puts it, "she finds Skrebensky 'inert' and 'persistent', and not enough of an individual" (xix).
In his absence, Ursula does not delay finding love with another. In what was considered a particularly scandalous section of the novel, Ursula and her teacher, Winifred, begin their passionate romance. What is so revolutionary and refreshing about this part of the novel, is that Lawrence does not sensationalize the relationship or suggest that it is in any way abnormal. Ursula and Winifred love each other—and fall out of love—the same as any heterosexual couple in the novel. Oscar Wilde had been imprisoned for his homosexuality just two decades prior, and homosexuality was still considered "the love that dares not speak its name." His honest and compassionate depiction of queer love in The Rainbow in a time of great hostility was a true act of courage. On a biographical note, Lawrence himself engaged in homosexual relationships throughout his life.
