SOURCE: "The Marriage of Opposites in The Rainbow," in D. H. Lawrence: Centenary Essays, edited by Mara Kalnins, Bristol Classical Press, 1986, pp. 21-39.

In the following essay, Kinkead-Weekes examines the thematic movement of opposing forces toward conflict and possible synthesis in The Rainbow.

The opening chapter of The Rainbow is, rather pointedly, divided into two: a first section beginning with a timeless world; a second section beginning with a date. This suggests two very different ways of looking at the novel. From one angle, the opening pages show us human life and consciousness in basic forms, against a background untroubled by historical process and social chance. We begin, not with individual personalities, but with archetypal Men and Women, in a timeless Nature. If we then ask what it is that is basic in the life and consciousness of the Brangwens, framing their land on the border of Derbyshire...