SOURCE: "The Rainbow: Ursula's 'Liberation'," in Contemporary Literature, Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter, 1976, pp. 24-43.

In the following essay, Hinz explores Ursula's character in terms of her developing perception of reality.

Why "liberated" women have found D. H. Lawrence so infuriating must puzzle those male, particularly modern, critics of The Rainbow who have interpreted Ursula's role in the novel as Lawrence's exploration of the value of self-realization, independence, and individualism. What more could a liberationist want than a positive treatment of "woman becoming individual, self-responsible, taking her own initiative"—as the theme of The Rainbow is supposed to be. There is, of course, that problem of the visionary ending of The Rainbow—Ursula's final contended surrender of herself to a "vaster power" and her happy willingness to "hail" the man whom it should send to her—but the ending of The Rainbow has also been criticized as one which is...