Bio of David Lawrence & Analysis: Snake
Bio of David Lawrence & Analysis: SnakeDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was born in Eastwood,
Nottinghamshire, England on September 11, 1885. His poem Snake was
written while he was living in Taormina, Sicily in 1920. The poem is
actually derived from an experience there(Groliers). In all, Lawrence
published 11 novels in his lifetime, 5 volumes of plays, 9 volumes of
essays, and several short story collections. Of these, Snake was one
of his most famous poems. The poem can also be related to Lawrence�s
views and experiences relating to his own life.
Lawrence�s childhood was not a pleasant one. His parents did not
get along very well and they were not wealthy. His mothers
frustration with her marriage, his father�s alcoholic degeneration,
and their continual marital strife haunted his childhood and provided
much of the conflict at the heart of Lawrence�s work (Critical,
1948). Lawrence�s mother struggled to do her best for them, in saving
money and encouraging them to take their education seriously. The
children had a rather troubled love for their father, who was
increasingly treated by his wife as a drunkard who would never do
well, and as a consequence he drank more to escape the tensions he
experienced at home. Lydia Lawrence consciously alienated the
children from their father, and told them stories of her earlier
married life the children never forgot, things their father did for
which they never forgave him. Arthur Lawrence, for his part, unhappy
at the lack of respect and love shown him and the way in which his
male privilege as head of the household was constantly being
breached, reacted by drinking and deliberately irritating and
alienating his family. His behavior, and his spending of a portion of
the family income on drink, caused all the major quarrels between the
parents, and divided the children's loves and loyalties (Worthen).
In 1912 he became smitten with �the woman of a lifetime,� his
former language professor�s wife, the Baroness Frieda von Richthofen.
Frieda had been known to have a number of affairs, but the one with
Lawrence was different. He truly loved her, and she eventually
divorced her husband and married Lawrence.
Lawrence also had potent psychological and emotional
undercurrents in his writings, such as The Rainbow, which was
publicly condemned for obscenity. Some of Lawrence�s works were not
appreciated in his own time. Critics, however, soon did grasp
Lawrence�s genuine ability to convey what T.S Eliot called �fitful
and profound insights� into human behavior. Virginia Woolf stated
that �Mr. Lawrence has moments of greatness but he has hours of
something quite different� (Critical, 1950). Lawrence was admired by
his peers, but not all of his works were exemplary. Some of his works
were condemned because of his views on human sexuality among other
things, none of which I feel pertain to Snake, but nonetheless
conveys that he was a controversial writer in his time...
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