The concept of natural man in the works of D. H. Lawrence on the example of selected poems from the collection of poetry "Birds, beasts and flowers" (1923)
Authors:   National Research Tomsk State University, Smokotin Vladimir M. , Danilova Anastasia P. ,   The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
Published: December 2024

The present philological research into the philosophy of nature and the concept of natural man in the works of the outstanding representative of romanticism in the English literature of the first half of the 20th century, David H. Lawrence, acquires
special relevance in our time in the process of the growth of ecological conscience and the influence of ecological culture as a result of increase in the negative role of anthropological factors in the course of globalization, which accelerated in late 20th – early 21st centuries. The authors of this article have set the goal of investigating peculiarities of Lawrence’s views of nature and interrelationships of man with nature, his rejection of industrial revolution, which has led to the loss of man’s unbreakable bond with nature and with “the living cosmos”, as well as his views on what must be done to return to the state of natural man of prehistoric times. In accordance with the set goal, the authors of this work sought answers to a number of questions connected with Lawrence’s literary and political activities as a novelist, poet and essayist during his rather short life. The most important of these questions are the following: 1) Where does Lawrence see the main danger of industrial development and use of new technologies for human society, and what way does he suggest for the restoration of “oneness” of man and nature? 2) In what way does Lawrence resolve basic dichotomies in his creative work –
mind/body, social self/natural self, instinct/idea, and life/death? 3) How does the concept of natural man manifest itself in Lawrence’s collection of poems “Birds, Beasts and Flowers”? Lawrence’s literary and political activities, as the present research shows, stand out by his rejection of the western world’s system of values, which was based in his time on the the idea of rationalism, the empirism of ancient Greece and on Christian religion, which gradually ousted pagan customs and practices. The leading theme in Lawrence’s creative work, which runs like a red thread through his literary work, essays and correspondence with contemporaries, is nature and interrelations of man with nature. Industrial revolution, in his opinion, has brought about not only a gradual destruction of nature with its wealth of animal and plant life, but it also led to the loss of organic bond of human beings and nature, which has been in existence since prehistoric epoch. His idealization of primitive life in the lap of nature, untouched by civilization and monetary relations, has earned Lawrence the reputation of a “primitivist”, as a representative of the movement in arts depicting people of the primitive society exhibiting moral and esthetic norms much superior to the system of values of modern civilized society. Thus, according to Lawrence’s utopian vision, people living in industrial civilization must not rely too heavily on technological means, and prioritize actions directed at accumulating material wealth. Instead, they should, as soon as possible, establish a contact with the “dynamic universe” in order to restore one’s senses that have been lost in the process of isolation of humans from nature in the course of urbanization and industrial development.
In Lawrence’s work, a number of dichotomies can be clearly observed, in particular, mind/body, life/death, social self/natural self and the others, which he treats in accordance with his philosophy of nature and his concept of natural man. In the dichotomy
mind/body, Lawrence counterposes mental conscience and intuition, and, in doing this, he gives his preference to intuition. Lawrence saw danger in excessive rationalization of human lives as he believed that ideas and ideals, as derivatives of mind, must not suppress human impulses in an individium’s spontaneous life. His reverence for the body and intuitive life, and his rejection of materialism, science and other mechanical elements of our civilization lie at the basis of his primitivism. When we consider the dichotomy “social self/natural self ”, Lawrence, on the basis of the concept of natural man, expresses his disappointment in the loss of naturalness, individuality caused by the loss of the bond between humans with nature, the living cosmos, and by the replacement of individual conscience with social conscience. In the dichotomy “life/death”, Lawrence emphasizes the presence in a human being of the wish of creation and the wish of dissolution, neither of which can be rejected since both are necessary for selfrealization. Lawrence admires the wonderful phenomenon of life, its beauty and its mystery. His views about the origins of life do not coincide either with contemporary science or with religious cosmogonic ideas. Life, according to Lawrence, precedes matter and is generated by an unknown force of the cosmos. The mystery of life’s origins, according to Lawrence, will never be disclosed. The purpose of life of an individual, as he saw it, was in achieving pure relationships of a human being with the surrounding us living universe.
An important part of the present research into D.H. Lawrence’s work is considering of the collection of poems “Birds, Beasts and Flowers” from the perspective of his conception of natural man. Lawrence’s poetry demonstrates his views on unlimited nature of existence and on the “divine essence” in every living being. His poems depict pure and natural, they tell us about nature, about living beings of the plant and animal world. Indeed, naturalness is the absolute quality of existence, and humans are an inseparable part of nature. The nature of existence and natural man are further developed in the given collection of poems by Lawrence when describing life and death. Out of black and gloomy chaos, where there is no light and no life, the soul of the world – lava – is breaking through. The raging lava gives to the world its existence. Comparing the soul of the world with lava reveals Lawrence’s conviction that life is possible only in passions, in feelings. When describing death as decay and fading, Lawrence emphasizes the naturalness of death. In the existence of death, according to Lawrence, there is life that is breaking through. A soul that is striving for eternal perfection, for the pure ideal – here is the natural, mortal and living man.
As a result of the present investigation it has been found out that the concept of natural man inextricably linked with nature was developed in D.H. Lawrence’s work during the most part of his career both as a poet and a writer and essayist. Technological
progress, in his opinion, leads to the loss by human beings of their ability to feel and experience the environment and be a part of it. Lawrence eulogizes the ability of human beings to cognize the world intuitively, and he emphasizes the mind’s inability to disclose the mysteries of the universe and, first of all, the mystery of the origin of life. Lawrence sees the salvation of humanity from the loss of its bond with the surrounding world in redressing the lasting harms to nature that have been caused by the industrial civilization, and in containing the tempestuous development of technologies. In our time, Lawrence’s views are reflected in the movement of environmentalists, who consistenly advocate the protection of nature by means of control over the anthropological impact on environment, and in the emergence of the philosophy of “deep ecology”, which, unlike anthropocentrism of environmentalists, presupposes a more profound access to interelations of human beings with the world of nature.