The Virgin and the Gypsy by D. H. Lawrence
“Be braver in your body, or your luck will leave you. . . . Listen for the voice of water.”
Again, a story from D.H. Lawrence, ‘The Virgin and The Gypsy’ also deals with themes such as individuality, social change, patriarchal way of life and sexuality. While it’s settings and characters could also be used in a Jane Austen’s novel, Lawrence’s deep psychological and emotional analysis of situation makes it completely otherwise. It tells the story of a young woman, named Yvette, daughter of a countryside priest in a close knit-society. Her mother left his father for another, younger man, which left his father bitter, depressed and strict. They live with her sister, and traditional-minded grandmother and their aunt. Yvette, the protagonist and her sister feels constantly repressed in this enclosed life. Yet they are cheerful, young and free-spirited women and somehow get by seemingly unscratched from the dark clouds hanging on their family.
One day, sisters meet a gypsy family who fascinated with their way of life; for they did not have the shackles that’s smouldering them- and befriended them. Yvette gets close with a young gypsy man and they become enthralled in each other. She is mesmerized in his image, way of life and freedom; and this awakes her first sexual desires. When his father learns on her new relationships, he bans the two seeing each other. A flash-flood comes afterwards, and Yvette is saved by gypsy man who happened to be nearby, hoping to see Yvette; yet gypsy leaves to not to be seen by her family. Yvette remembers the profound strength and sexuality of gypsy man and reveres him. One day she receives a note from him, that they will see each other again and learns man’s name first time.
Again, this story is all on a sexual awakening and self-perseverance. All figures in the story could be seen as meta-morphs in Freudian sense. Yvette as ego, gypsy man as id and father as social superego. Her father, who also is a “father for society” as a priest, represents the societal morality and it’s repression of individuality. Yet, Yvette’s encounter with gypsies blossoms what she already had within, being one’s self, a woman, free and curious. She lacks the prejudices of her father, ’cause of the society, and reaches towards the object of her desire, her id: The gypsy man. Her mother’s running away with another man from this repression is perhaps also what manifests in Yvette; traditional boundaries of what a man and a woman is and should be, is deeply examined in the story. The story also deals with social alienation, as gypsies or ones dealing with them, are viewed as social outcasts, and Yvette is threatened to become such like she won’t change her ways. Again, another blossom in Lawrence’s many-flowered bouquet, ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy’ remains a story to be read.
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