“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” ― Philip Pullman

New Trimester, New Beginning.

PART 1 - THE ESSAY

In "The Rainbow," D. H. Lawrence uses repetition, personification, and parallelism to contrast the dominant, open life of a man with the inward, shielded life of a Brangwen man, to characterize the woman as an onlooker of the harsh, unfair reality of her man's life, that she is confined to herself, fueling her quest for knowledge.

"It was enough that the man had the world working at his command, and "it was enough" that he was credited for the world's work. Lawrence repeats "it was enough" to not only emphasize the frustration the woman (wife to a Brangwen farmer) feels towards the lack of respect her husband's work receives in the grand scheme of things, but how "it was enough" for her husband, himself. The woman "craved to know" and "craved to achieve" a higher being, "that which makes a man strong," and as the woman craves for the prosperity of her family, as well as the prosperity of knowledge for herself, among non-Brangwen men (in the outside world), she craved to no longer to be confined to her world to her Brangwen men, solely by marriage.

To further differentiate between the man and a Brangwen man, Lawrence personifies the nature to show how the world works for the man, whether as a Brangwen man works for the world, and the woman must live the same life, as she is forced through "blood-intimacy," and cannot pursue her quest for knowledge. For a Brangwen man, "the earth heaved and opened its furrow to them," "the wind blew to dry the wet wheat;" but "the teeming life of creation poured unresolved into their veins." For the man, turning on "the pulsing heat of creation...enlarge their own scope and range freedom." Lawrence says the woman must stand "to see the far-off world of cities and governments...the magic land to her," to show that the woman feels helpless in a situation she is married into - helpless in being able to help her husband see more than just his farm, and helpless in pursuing her quest for knowledge - and that can never obtain entrance into the outside world, so long as her Brangwen husband is detained to his world, and his world is undermined

The use of parallelism contrasts the man's life with the Brangwen man & woman's life. The woman "faced outward" to see the man turn his back on her husband, who has creation coursing through his veins, whereas the Brangwen man himself "faced inwards" to creation, yet - frustratingly to the woman - satisfied with that life. The man "looked out" to the back at sky and harvest and beast and land," whether as the woman "looked out" towards "the activity of man in the world at large," and she "strained her eyes to see what man had done in fighting outwards." Lawrence portrays the woman as a helpless observer of her husband's success/failure, and lack of motivation - a shadow of either situation. She cannot help but be the only one who notices that her husband's soul "was master of the other man's," and she can only watch and ponder of life outside of her husband's.

Larence's literary device choices show how a woman long for the outside world - full of sights, experiences, opportunities, and most importantly, knowledge - that she cannot have, so long as her Brangwen husband is confined to his life she is married into; the same life the Brangwen man sees as just "satisfactory."