Women in Love: Character Mind Map & Summary
D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love: the two couples, the key characters, famous chapters, a quick summary and the exam facts.
The Character Mind Map
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Ursula Brangwen
A schoolteacher and the elder Brangwen sister, now older than in The Rainbow. She falls in love with Rupert Birkin, who is searching for a new kind of marriage, a balanced union of two free people. After much struggle they marry and leave their jobs to travel.
Ending: marries Birkin🌱 Couple One: Life
Ursula & BirkinRupert BirkinA school inspector
Role: Lawrence’s self-portrait. He hates the dead industrial world and wants a “star-equilibrium” with Ursula and also an eternal bond with Gerald.
Having you, I can live all my life without anybody else, any other sheer intimacy. But to make it complete, really happy, I wanted eternal union with a man too.
Hermione RoddiceBirkin’s former lover
Role: A rich, intellectual woman whose love is all will. In fury she strikes Birkin with a lapis lazuli paperweight.
❄️ Couple Two: Death
Gudrun & GeraldGudrun BrangwenUrsula’s sister, an artist
Role: Cold and ironic; she starts an affair with Gerald but leaves him for the sculptor Loerke.
Gerald CrichThe heir to the coal mines
Role: Runs the mines like a machine. Rejected by Gudrun, he freezes to death in the snow of the Alps.
LoerkeA German sculptor
Role: A cynical artist in the Tyrol who wins Gudrun from Gerald.
Memory Hook: Two Couples
One couple moves towards new life, the other towards death.
Famous Chapters
What exams usually ask about.
Quick Summary
The plot in five lines.
Stage 1Beldover
- The sisters discuss marriage; they watch a wedding at the church and meet Birkin and Gerald.
Stage 2Breadalby & the Water-Party
- Hermione attacks Birkin; at the Crich party Diana drowns; Gerald and Gudrun come together.
Stage 3Ursula and Birkin
- After quarrels and the “Moony” scene they reach understanding, marry and leave their jobs.
Stage 4The Alps
- The couples holiday in the Tyrol. Gudrun turns to Loerke; Ursula and Birkin leave.
Stage 5Death in the Snow
- Gerald half-strangles Gudrun, walks into the snow and dies. Birkin mourns him.
Must-Know Exam Facts
Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.
Publication
Printed privately in New York, 1920; London, 1921.
Origins
The Rainbow and Women in Love began as a single novel, “The Sisters“.
Real Models
Hermione is based on Lady Ottoline Morrell; Birkin is close to Lawrence himself.
Style
Symbolic scenes, repetition and deep exploration of unconscious feeling.
Key Themes
Love and marriage, industrialism, the death of a civilisation, and friendship between men.
100+ Key Works of English Literature
All the character mind maps in one printed book.
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