couples: the world all in couples, each couple in its own little house,
watching its own little interests, and stewing in its own little
privacy--it's the most repulsive thing on earth.'
'I quite agree,' said Gerald. 'There's something inferior about it. But
as I say, what's the alternative.'
'One should avoid this HOME instinct. It's not an instinct, it's a
habit of cowardliness. One should never have a HOME.'
'I agree really,' said Gerald. 'But there's no alternative.'
'We've got to find one. I do believe in a permanent union between a man
and a woman. Chopping about is merely an exhaustive process. But a
permanent relation between a man and a woman isn't the last word--it
certainly isn't.'
'Quite,' said Gerald.
'In fact,' said Birkin, 'because the relation between man and woman is
made the supreme and exclusive relationship, that's where all the
tightness and meanness and insufficiency comes in.'
'Yes, I believe you,' said Gerald.
'You've got to take down the love-and-marriage ideal from its pedestal.
We want something broader. I believe in the ADDITIONAL perfect
relationship between man and man--additional to marriage.'
'I can never see how they can be the same,' said Gerald.
'Not the same--but equally important, equally creative, equally sacred,
if you like.'
'I know,' said Gerald, 'you believe something like that. Only I can't
FEEL it, you see.' He put his hand on Birkin's arm, with a sort of
deprecating affection. And he smiled as if triumphantly.
He was ready to be doomed. Marriage was like a doom to him. He was
willing to condemn himself in marriage, to become like a convict
condemned to the mines of the underworld, living no life in the sun,
but having a dreadful subterranean activity. He was willing to accept
this. And marriage was the seal of his condemnation. He was willing to
be sealed thus in the underworld, like a soul damned but living forever
in damnation. But he would not make any pure relationship with any
other soul. He could not. Marriage was not the committing of himself
into a relationship with Gudrun. It was a committing of himself in
acceptance of the established world, he would accept the established
order, in which he did not livingly believe, and then he would retreat
to the underworld for his life. This he would do.
The other way was to accept Rupert's offer of alliance, to enter into
the bond of pure trust and love with the other man, and then
subsequently with the woman. If he pledged himself with the man he
would later be able to pledge himself with the woman: not merely in
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