In The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence (1915), the author employs strong diction to show that contrary to popular belief, in the late 19th century, women had an advantage over men, because they were looking forwards, seeking out knowledge and worldliness, while the men remained in the past.
The diction employed throughout the entire piece wets a tone for both the men and the omen in this time. When describing the man, words such as "enough", "dull" and "local" were used. When describing the woman, words such as beyond", "active", "desired", "range", "freedom" and "knowledge" were used. This portrays the woman in a more flattering light than the mean, almost, superior to the man.
In the second paragraph when the woman i s first described, the paragraph begins with "But the woman wanted another form of life than this..." (line 15) which belittles how the man is choosing to live, as if the woman wants no part in it. The creates a separation between the two which is made larger as the piece continues.
The vicar is another force driving a separation between man and woman. It represented the woman's hopes and dreams, "both of which she could perceive, but could never attain to..." (line 42-43). The vicar is described as small but powerful, superior to man even those stronger than himself. In the fourth paragraph, it even says the woman "craved" not only what the vicar had achieved for herself, but for her children (line 56-58). Not that the man was left out of this scenario, as if she had given up on him, Lawrence writes "she knew her husband" (line 51) almost saying "she knew he could never achieve this, he could never change".
The woman is characterized as a strong, independent, forward thinking individual. She is sensible enough to know that for her and her husband, their situation will never change. They will never be worldly or have knowledge coursing through them, but she dreams. She also dreams that one day, her children can attain what she has not been able to.
In the end, the factor that separates the man from the woman and the woman from the vicar, is knowledge. "That which makes a man strong even if he be little and frail in body, just as any man is little and frail beside a bull, and yet stronger than the bull, what was it?" (line 58-61). The answer is and will always be knowledge.
Reflection:
After researching D.H. Lawrence, I understood the complexities of the The Rainbow more clearly. Although in my analysis was not as thorough as it could have been, the 5 Steps chapter on prose passages says that the people who read our essays are not looking to punish us. Based off what I pulled from the passage, I would give myself a 5 because my ideas were unorganized and did not have a clear path and my thesis was lacking. I also should have taken the time to read through the piece and picked out at least one or two more literary devices to comment on. Diction is a basic literary device that can be found in every single piece of writing. Basically I chose the easiest device to comment on. In the norming packet when discussed today in class past students chose juxtaposition and paradoxical situations. I need to read the pieces more slowly and clearly in the future in order to be able to pull as much as possible out of the piece. This would therefore broaden the range of topics I could discuss which would be easier to organize in to a clear concise paper, also raising my possible score as long as I not only explain, but relate all ideas back to my original thesis.
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