56 pages • 1 hour read
Lady Chatterley's Lover
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Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Although Clifford is preoccupied with his interests in coal and industry, he is still very emotionally dependent on Connie. This leaves Connie frustrated and exhausted. She asks Clifford if he still supports the idea of her having a child with another man, and he confirms that he is, as long as the child does not affect her love for him.
Connie continues to regularly visit the pheasant hut. Mellors provides her with her own key, and never seems to be there when she visits the hut. As time passes, Connie is moved by seeing the pheasant hens brooding their eggs, and then caring for their chicks. She reflects on how she does not have her own child. One day, Mellors comes to the hut while she is looking at the chicks and notices that she is crying. He is moved and aroused by the sight of her emotion, and reaches out to caress her. Then Mellors leads Connie back to his hut, where they have sex for the first time. She is very passive during this encounter.
Afterwards, Mellors leaves the cottage and goes outside. Connie follows him. They talk about whether they regret their encounter, and both agree that they do not. Mellors, however, warns that things will become complicated; he also admits that he thought he was done with sexual desire and entanglements, but that it was inevitable that he would eventually experience desire again. Mellors walks with Connie part of the way home, and they agree that they want to meet again.
After they part ways, Mellors reflects regretfully on the modern world. He feels tenderness for Connie, but fears that the current state of the world has made it impossible for the two of them to experience their desire in an organic and unconstrained way. Meanwhile, Connie goes home and has dinner with one of Clifford’s business partners. Afterwards, she thinks about her encounter with Mellors and decides that he does not feel any specific or personal attachment to her, but is simply a kind and passionate man who enjoys being with women.
The next day, Connie goes back to the hut, even though Clifford finds it unusual that she is going out on a rainy day. She waits for Mellors for a long time, and eventually he arrives. They have sex again, but the encounter is more rushed and less enjoyable for Connie; she hurries home immediately afterwards. She does not return to the hut for a few days, and focuses instead on her life and social circle. She visits a woman named Mrs. Flint, who rents a cottage on the estate; Mrs. Flint has a young baby, and Connie feels affection for the baby.
As she is walking home from her visit, she runs into Mellors. He expresses desire for her, and even though Connie is worried about getting home, they slip into a secluded clearing in the woods and have sex again. This time, both Connie and Mellors achieve orgasm at the same time; she asks him about this afterwards, and he says that this is rare, noting that “it’s good when it’s like that. Most folks live their lives through and they never know it” (141).
Connie hurries back to Wragby Hall, where both Clifford and Mrs. Bolton can tell that something is unusual. Clifford assumes that Connie was moved by spending time with a baby, but Mrs. Bolton guesses immediately that Connie has a lover. The evening is tense and uncomfortable, as Connie, Clifford, and Mrs. Bolton are all preoccupied with their own thoughts and memories. Meanwhile, Mellors is also restless and unable to sleep. He worries that the relationship with Connie is only going to make him unhappy. Eventually, he gets up and walks to Wragby Hall, where he stands outside looking up at the house. By chance, Mrs. Bolton is inside, looking out the window, and catches sight of Mellors. She realizes that he must be Connie’s lover.
Chapter 11 Summary
While Mrs. Bolton and Connie are sorting through some family heirlooms together, Connie mentions that she might have a child someday. She lies and tells Mrs. Bolton that Clifford’s injuries and paralysis do not impact his ability to engage in sex. In fact, since focusing on his industrial projects, Clifford has mentioned a few times that he thinks he might eventually become capable of sex and impregnating his wife, but there is no real evidence to suggest this. Mrs. Bolton expresses enthusiasm for the idea of a Chatterley child, but privately assumes that Connie is going to get pregnant as a result of her affair, and will pass off the child as having been fathered by Clifford. After this conversation, Mrs. Bolton tells several people in the village that Clifford is still capable of fathering a child; when these rumors reach Clifford, he feels proud and happy. He is no longer clearly distinguishing whether a child Connie gives birth to would be his or not.
Connie mentions to Clifford that her father is going to be spending the summer in Italy and has invited her to go along with him. Clifford does not want her to go away for the whole summer, but agrees to her spending a few weeks abroad. He mentions that he will not go with her, implying that Connie would have an ideal window to have an affair and conceive a child. Connie is relieved to think that, if she gets pregnant, Clifford will believe that it was due to an affair she had in Italy.
After the conversation, life goes on and Connie continues to find herself disturbed by the progress of industrialization and modernization in Tevershall and the surrounding area. Connie thinks with dread of what lies ahead as England continues to modernize and loses touch with its history and traditions. She also asks Mrs. Bolton about her deceased husband, and is moved to learn that Mrs. Bolton has never stopped loving or missing him.
Chapter 12 Summary
Connie goes to Mellors’s cottage. She tells him that she is going to Italy the following month, and asks him not to forget about her. She explains to him that Clifford knows she might get pregnant, and clarifies to Mellors that she does not intend to actually have an affair while in Italy. Mellors reflects that Clifford would not like knowing that he, Mellors, is the father of Connie’s child; he also asks Connie if she pursued the affair in hopes of getting pregnant. She denies this, and says that she wants to touch him the way he has touched her; however, she postpones his invitation to have sex, and goes home.
Later that same day, Connie returns to the cottage to see Mellors. They go to the hut together and have sex, but Connie cannot fully relax or enjoy herself. Afterwards, Mellors tells her that he knows she did not enjoy the sex, and Connie becomes very distressed. While he is comforting her, they both become aroused again, and have sex several more times. During these encounters, Connie experiences great pleasure, and the two of them feel very close to one another. Afterwards, Connie asks if he loves her, and he tells her that he loves the physical intimacy they share: “[I]t heals it all up, that I can go into thee. I love thee that opened to me. I love thee that I came into thee like that” (187). The two of them part ways affectionately, and Connie goes home.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
The sexual relationship between Connie and Mellors does not begin until almost the midpoint of the novel, but it marks a pivotal change in how she understands herself and the world around her. The two of them begin a sexual relationship in a symbolically rich setting and context. Connie begins spending more time with Mellors in the early days of the spring, as snow is melting, the earth is thawing, and flowers and plants are blooming. By the time they consummate their relationship, spring has advanced and the natural world is lush and beautiful: “[I]t was spring, and the bluebells were coming in the wood, and the leaf-buds on the hazels were opening like the splatter of green rain” (118). Lawrence uses pathetic fallacy (in which the external world mirrors the internal state of one or more characters) to reveal that Connie is gradually coming back to life as she experiences desire—and also to hint at the fertility and new life that will emerge from her relationship with Mellors.
The gradual courtship between Connie and Mellors, and then the affair, take place either outside or in rustic spaces, such as the hut where Mellors keeps the pheasants. Connie is attracted to the pheasants and their chicks because she is moved by the sight of mothers and offspring, and they speak to her own longing to birth and nurture a child. The natural world is not subject to norms and taboos, such as expectations around marriage, monogamy, and adultery; in this world, plants and animals reproduce freely and easily. Within this space, Connie and Mellors can freely pursue their desires without fear or inhibition.
Lawrence writes descriptions of the sexual activity between Connie and Mellors that often use lyrical and poetic language. While the novel has been criticized for its explicit descriptions of sex and was censored for decades after its publication, the actual portrayals of sex are often abstract and presented via symbolism and analogy. For example, when Connie achieves orgasm during an encounter with Mellors, Lawrence describes how “it seemed she was like the sea, nothing but dark waves rising and heaving, heaving with a great swell […] till suddenly, in a soft, shuddering convulsion, the quick of all her plasm was touched, she knew herself touched, the consummation was upon her, and she was gone” (184).
Lawrence frequently connects the experience of sexuality to the natural world, using comparisons to water, wind, and fire, suggesting that sexual pleasure is natural and good, and moreover, a way for human beings to connect to their authentic selves in an increasingly alienated modern world. Lawrence also exclusively describes sex from Connie’s point of view, implying that women can enjoy sex just as much as men and deserve to experience pleasure during these encounters. Mellors is always very aware and observant of Connie’s enjoyment, hinting at an equitable partnership between the two of them.
Despite the strong sexual compatibility between the pair, the circumstances of their relationship and the class difference between the two of them do create tension. Mellors in particular is very aware that they will face obstacles and objections, and maintains an attitude of resigned fatalism; he tells Connie that things would be easier “if only there weren’t so many other people in the world” (123). When Connie reveals to him that she is partially hoping to get pregnant, he retorts that, “if you’ve made use of me, […] it’s not the first time I’ve been made use of; and I don’t suppose it’s ever been as pleasant as this time; though of course one can’t feel tremendously dignified about it” (179). Mellors refers to the class distinction between them (at times, he sarcastically addresses Connie as “my Ladyship”) and alludes to how the aristocracy makes use of the bodily labor of the working classes all the time.
Connie, perhaps naively, does not see herself as exploiting Mellors, and of the two, she is much quicker to speak about her emotions and affection. While Mellors is somewhat reserved and elusive about his feelings for her, Connie quickly begins to feel an emotional bond that arises from the pleasure she experiences while having sex with Mellors. While Connie is unable to maintain affection for her husband in the absence of sexuality, she also seems unable to avoid developing affection for Mellors as the two of them continue to have sex.
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