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In the two short stories Tickets, Please and The Horse Dealer’s Daughter, D.H. Laurence does minimize the importance of ration or rational thought as he doesn’t describe the characters who are able to think properly. Instead, they more often than not resort to emotion or strong willpower:
In the short story Tickets, Please, at the very beginning, the absurdity brought about by the war was shown, resulting in the fall of virility but women taking up the qualities of men. The inspector of the tramcar, Thomas was a typical playboy. As he and Annie’s relationship witnessed a developing intimacy, Annie wanted to develop an intelligent interest in him and to have an intelligent response, thus intending to develop their relationship into marital love. Unfortunately, the intelligence didn’t work and Thomas sheered off, having no idea of becoming an “all-round individual” to Annie. Moreover, Thomas’s irrational thought was embodied in that when he was forced to choose one girl from the group after being beaten by them, he eventually chose Annie, who was the one he hated most as their reconciliation couldn’t be possible. Beneath the surface of fulfilling the choice, by choosing Annie, he believed he could have the chance to launch a counterattack. That was more than irrational but evil.
The short story also zeroes in on the irrational female group’s psychology, characterized by their desire to revenge and possess. Their accumulative anger and resentment eventually led to violence that resulted in their ferocious beating of Thomas. As the title of the short story “Ticket, Please” has indicated, their violent actions insinuated that Thomas’s flirtations with women would eventually usher in the punishment or revenge against him. He must pay for it as “ticket” is always linked with “price”. As for Annie, her irrational thought is embodied in that even though she knew from the bottom of her heart that Thomas was a “professional” playboy who couldn’t be relied on, she still wanted to take an intelligent interest in him and eventually marry him and she was thrown into a spasm of despair when she was deserted by Thomas. Moreover, she did also have a contradictory reaction when Thomas left her as “she determined to have her own back” is a pun, not only hoping to win her lover back, but also retaliating against him. This kind of reaction is no ration at all.
The irrational thoughts in the short story The Horse Dealer’s Daughter mainly result from the conflicts between reason and emotion, instinct and intellect as well as flesh and spirit. The short story is set in the bankruptcy of a family’s horse-dealing business in wake of the father’s death which then led to the family disintegration so that at the beginning of the story Mable and her brothers gathered not long before they departed from each other. Satirically, all the brothers at the beginning of the story are depicted with animalistic qualities and they didn’t care about each other, feeling “safe” themselves. As for Mable, she remained aloof all the way through. Therefore, in this sense, D.H. Lawrence bitterly criticized the human relationship damaged by the invasion of industry when even blood relationship or kinship didn’t count at all but was overthrown by selfishness which can’t be rational.
Mable in this short story was a girl whose deportment remained “mindlessly persistent”. She got herself engaged in the task at the grave, by which with a sincere satisfaction, she could feel in immediate contact with the world of her dead mother. “Coming nearer to her fulfillment, her own glorification, approaching her dead mother, who was glorified” became the only irrational pursuit of Mable and she eventually stepped into the pond to commit suicide.
As for the doctor, Jack, he was painfully torn by the conflicts between reason and emotion, his stance of a doctor and his desire of a human being as well as his personal emotion and public opinion. Originally, as related in the short story, “He had never thought of loving her. He had never wanted to love her. When he rescued her, he was a doctor, and she was a patient. He had no single personal thought of her.”, whereas when confronted with a woman in desperate need of love, he tried to revolt from it but under no circumstances was he able to break away. Finally, he “surrendered”. Therefore, we can see that it cannot be rational for the doctor with no intention to love the girl but eventually fell in love with her by means of the “violation of his professional honor”. That was no reason but impulse.
In the short story Tickets, Please, at the very beginning, the absurdity brought about by the war was shown, resulting in the fall of virility but women taking up the qualities of men. The inspector of the tramcar, Thomas was a typical playboy. As he and Annie’s relationship witnessed a developing intimacy, Annie wanted to develop an intelligent interest in him and to have an intelligent response, thus intending to develop their relationship into marital love. Unfortunately, the intelligence didn’t work and Thomas sheered off, having no idea of becoming an “all-round individual” to Annie. Moreover, Thomas’s irrational thought was embodied in that when he was forced to choose one girl from the group after being beaten by them, he eventually chose Annie, who was the one he hated most as their reconciliation couldn’t be possible. Beneath the surface of fulfilling the choice, by choosing Annie, he believed he could have the chance to launch a counterattack. That was more than irrational but evil.
The short story also zeroes in on the irrational female group’s psychology, characterized by their desire to revenge and possess. Their accumulative anger and resentment eventually led to violence that resulted in their ferocious beating of Thomas. As the title of the short story “Ticket, Please” has indicated, their violent actions insinuated that Thomas’s flirtations with women would eventually usher in the punishment or revenge against him. He must pay for it as “ticket” is always linked with “price”. As for Annie, her irrational thought is embodied in that even though she knew from the bottom of her heart that Thomas was a “professional” playboy who couldn’t be relied on, she still wanted to take an intelligent interest in him and eventually marry him and she was thrown into a spasm of despair when she was deserted by Thomas. Moreover, she did also have a contradictory reaction when Thomas left her as “she determined to have her own back” is a pun, not only hoping to win her lover back, but also retaliating against him. This kind of reaction is no ration at all.
The irrational thoughts in the short story The Horse Dealer’s Daughter mainly result from the conflicts between reason and emotion, instinct and intellect as well as flesh and spirit. The short story is set in the bankruptcy of a family’s horse-dealing business in wake of the father’s death which then led to the family disintegration so that at the beginning of the story Mable and her brothers gathered not long before they departed from each other. Satirically, all the brothers at the beginning of the story are depicted with animalistic qualities and they didn’t care about each other, feeling “safe” themselves. As for Mable, she remained aloof all the way through. Therefore, in this sense, D.H. Lawrence bitterly criticized the human relationship damaged by the invasion of industry when even blood relationship or kinship didn’t count at all but was overthrown by selfishness which can’t be rational.
Mable in this short story was a girl whose deportment remained “mindlessly persistent”. She got herself engaged in the task at the grave, by which with a sincere satisfaction, she could feel in immediate contact with the world of her dead mother. “Coming nearer to her fulfillment, her own glorification, approaching her dead mother, who was glorified” became the only irrational pursuit of Mable and she eventually stepped into the pond to commit suicide.
As for the doctor, Jack, he was painfully torn by the conflicts between reason and emotion, his stance of a doctor and his desire of a human being as well as his personal emotion and public opinion. Originally, as related in the short story, “He had never thought of loving her. He had never wanted to love her. When he rescued her, he was a doctor, and she was a patient. He had no single personal thought of her.”, whereas when confronted with a woman in desperate need of love, he tried to revolt from it but under no circumstances was he able to break away. Finally, he “surrendered”. Therefore, we can see that it cannot be rational for the doctor with no intention to love the girl but eventually fell in love with her by means of the “violation of his professional honor”. That was no reason but impulse.