Analytical Essay of Maurice Pervin
“He seemed to know the presence of objects before he touched them. It was a pleasure to him to rock thus through a world of things, carried on the flood in a sort of blood prescience. He did not think much or trouble much. So long as he kept this sheer immediacy of blood-contact with the substantial world he was happy, he wanted no intervention of visual consciousness.” (pg.8)
Had the character Maurice Pervin not been blinded, perhaps stricken with another form of handicap such as deafness, this blood prescience would not have been captured as effectively as is the case of him not having sight. Without being ‘bothered by a great many things’ that the ability of sight allows a human being, Maurice was able to tap into a greater sense of awareness to the things he encountered. He has been granted a new awareness of how to perceive his atmosphere, finding serenity and tranquility of immediate contact in darkness. His blindness is in fact his greatest strength never a weakness, almost supernatural as if to be compared to Superman who possesses superhuman strength. In addition to other attributes that make up Maurice Pervin such as being over-sensitive, passionate, and having feelings that are quick and acute, blindness fits perfectly within this character’s make up. As if to see things for what they truly are on an emotional level was a gift that he already possessed only heightened by his inability to now see with his eyes. D.H. Lawrence builds Maurice up as a very strong and capable man whose fears fall in the same category with most men. He did not fear darkness, which he is forced to live in after his war injury, the emotion and stirring feelings of fear he holds are met by the lack of control he has over things he cannot change. That is his weakness. “Then it would beat inside him like a tangled sea, and he was tortured in the shattered chaos of his own blood. He grew to dread this arrest, this throw-back, this chaos...