Two Short Stories by D.H. Lawrence: The Prussian Officer and The Fox; read and reviewed by N.H.V.V.

The officer in the story The Prussian Officer focuses on certain physical characteristics, such as the ruddiness of his servant's face, which mainly represents his youthfulness and physical vigor, which the officer feels he himself is losing in his life. His contempt for the young man reaches a frenzy, so that everything he does infuriates him and reaches a certain pitch, so that he cannot restrain himself from kicking the young soldier in the thigh. The same kind of obsession is felt by the character, Banford in The Fox for the physicality of the young man, Henry who has persuaded the woman, March, with whom she lives, to marry him, thus threatening to break up their relationship. Some of Henry's expressions literally make her sick. She so abhors him. When March ultimately refuses him, he decides to get rid of Banford, after returning to the farm, where the two women have been trying to chop down a tree, and ask him to help them, Henry manages to fell the tree in such a way that it falls on Banford, breaking her neck and killing her. Why do I believe acts of cruelty like this are possible? There's something in me that desires to see the act of cruelty executed. When I'm reading something, I feel I can't stop it happening and there's a certain pleasure in being complicit in an act I am not going to be judged for or punished for. But in Lawrence's stories there is no justice; they don't end in a way that is satisfying.  Copyright 2011 by Nicholas Van Vactor, All Rights Reserved.