Lawrence felt that Hardy's Sue Bridehead was 'no woman' because 'that which was female in her she wanted to consume within the male force ... in the fire of understanding, of giving utterance. Whereas an ordinary woman knows that she contains all understanding, that she is the unutterable which man must forever continue to try to utter.' No woman would assent to that last sentence unless she wanted to end up a white goddess, or an ordinary white elephant. (The Kings of Siam used to give a white elephant to hated courtiers, who would then promptly ruin themselves on its costly maintenance.) Yet John Goode notes in Women Writing that Lawrence is here unwittingly acute about something central to sexist ideology: that 'woman is an image to be uttered' - uttered, that is, by other people.

LRB 21 February 1980 | PDF Download