The Rainbow
Perhaps the most obvious symbol is that of the titular rainbow that Ursula sees at the conclusion of the novel. After a period of isolation and disillusionment, the rainbow, which follows a storm, represents hope and renewal. Although Ursula is shocked to discover that Anton has married another woman, the rainbow serves as evidence of “new growth, rising to the light and the wind and the clean rain of heaven” (459). With reference to “heaven,” the rainbow also indicates the presence of divinity and thus fills Ursula with hope and allows her to overlook the “brittle corruption of houses and factories” that have ruined the landscape she so loves.
Water
As in Christian theology, water is a prominent symbol in The Rainbow. Characters often walk beside water, get caught in the rain, or go swimming. In this sense, water is a cleansing presence that can wash away impurities, or, like a baptism, can initiate a new beginning. For example, Ursula’s relationship with Winifred first develops when Winfried takes Ursula’s class swimming, and the two women share an intimate moment in the water. Later, Winifred and Ursula undress and walk down to a pond where “Ursula lay still in her mistress” while the two are doused in rain (316). As though in a baptism, the water marks a new chapter in Ursula’s life.
Yet as with the biblical flood that was said to destroy all life on Earth except for that which was on Noah’s Ark, the water in The Rainbow can also be violent and vengeful. This is seen in the flood that ravages the Marsh. Tom, returning home to the farm after a night of heavy drinking, is drowned as though in punishment for his immoral behavior.
The Wedding Ring
When he is courting Lydia, Tom notices that she still wears the wedding ring given to her by her deceased husband. He views it as a “closed circle” that “stood for her life in which he could have no part” (39). While they eventually marry, it is true that this “closed circle” remains and that Tom and Lydia can never truly get close to one another. After Tom’s death, Lydia wears the wedding ring from both of her husbands. So, although a wedding ring formally binds Lydia and Tom together, another wedding ring marks a point of distance and separation between them.
Cathedral
Cathedrals appear with notable frequency in the novel. Will, in particular, is an avid admirer of both how they look and what they represent. To him, they are the place where humankind and the divine meet. Early in his marriage to Anna, he aspires to take her to all the major cathedrals in England. They visit Lincoln Cathedral, where the overwhelming beauty prompts Will to have transcendent experience; however, after Anna mocks a set of wood carvings in the church, he comes to see the church as nothing more than “a shapely heap of dead matter” (190).
As this scene illustrates, Lawrence uses cathedrals and churches to represent the desperate attempts of the faithful to find connection with God. In his worldview, one is more likely to find connection with the divine through the nature represented by the rainbow than through the “shapely heap of dead matter” (190).
The Cane
While working as a teacher, Ursula struggles to maintain control of her classroom. The boys in the classroom refuse to respect her and misbehave relentlessly. Likewise, her boss, Mr. Harby, criticizes her teaching abilities and she fears he will fire her. The class’s behavior worsens as the year progresses and her students follow behind her and mock her in the streets. Finally, one day she erupts in anger and beats a boy mercilessly with a cane.
While she had hoped to be a compassionate and fun teacher, her use of the cane symbolizes the rage that Ursula had built up after being disrespected for so long. Indeed, in a “man’s world” where the authority of women like her was not respected, she must resort to violent means to regain control of her class. While Ursula pays “a great price out of her own soul” to treat her students like this, it proves successful in subduing them. Therefore, the cane also represents the unfortunate fact that strict discipline was necessary for Ursula to assert herself.
The Natural World
The symbol of water and the rainbow are just two elements in the larger motif of the natural world which is present throughout the novel. Lawrence is a brilliantly descriptive nature writer and his characters routinely marvel at the world— even the universe—around them. For example, near the beginning of the novel when Tom is courting Lydia he stares up at the stars and is overwhelmed by the feeling of being “small and submissive to the great ordering” (40).
For Lawrence, nature is a divine realm that has existed since long before humankind—a force that should make us aware of our relative tininess and limitations of understanding in face of the vastness of the universe. For Lawrence, one has a higher chance of having a truly transcendent experience by the seaside than in a cathedral. This is precisely why Lawrence is so troubled by the fact that instead of honoring the supremacy of the natural world, we are instead compromising it through the practices of industrial capitalism that he documents in the novel.
