D.H. Lawrence, How Beastly the Bourgeois is PDF

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D. H. Lawrence, How Beastly the Bourgeois is This poem directly attacks the upper-class citizens of society, but in particular, it attacks the males of this class. Believing that they are made in God's image, they tyrranize those around them. Taunting others with their money and appearance, they believe that they are better than everyone else. They do not see that all they have to offer is their money and good-looks, and for some people this is far better than good enough. For those who are less shallow and a bit more intelligent, they will know that there is nothing real that this man can provide them with. He cannot provide with love, because he does not care for others. He cannot provide them with friendship because he is unclear on the definition. He cannot provide them with betterment because he has a false conception of what is 'better.' His attitude, his arrogance, and his angst make his as beastly as a monster. He is a monster in human flesh form. Lawrence asserts that the privileged have often never been faced with real challenges in life. This is true in many cases, because there are few who have actually worked hard for what they have. Many of them are heirs and heiresses, simply inheriting their families money over time. Lawrence believes that if any of them were faced with an authentic "hard day," they would be sent in a tail-spin. Like a fungus, the Bourgeois male sucks the life and virtue out of all those more deserving than he is. "Like an old mushroom, all wormy inside, and hollow under a smooth skin and an upright appearance." Lawrence asserts that he is ugly inside and only attractive on the outside, but inside he is hollow.

The speaker of the poem starts right off the bat by calling the bourgeois beastly. He does not mince his words at all and gets right to the point. He especially points out to the males. He says they are presentable. He repeats this for emphasis. And then he says, ‘shall I make you a present of him?’. This right here is a play on the word present. When he asks the question, the speaker means to say that shall I list out his features and characteristics for you. He speaks of the bourgeois outer appearance. He asks if he isn’t handsome, healthy and a fine specimen. On the outside, does not the outer appearance resemble that of a fresh clean Englishman? He further emphasises these qualities by asking if the bourgeois isn’t God’s own image. This here is a hyperbole; same as the whole poem. He says that the male tramps thirty miles a day and asks if we wouldn’t like to be like him. This whole paragraph is complete and pure sarcasm. It is a prelude to the main message of the poem. And because the speaker raises the bourgeois to such a high level in this paragraph, the following paragraphs make that much more of an impact on the reader. ‘Oh, but wait!’ The speaker says. We can tell by this one sentence, accompanied by the knowledge of the title of the poem, that the speaker was

going to contradict whatever he said in the previous paragraph. He says that when the same handsome, healthy bourgeois meets with a new emotion, when he meets with another man’s need, with a moral difficulty or with a demand of new understanding, the male bourgeois goes all soggy just like a wet meringue. Meringue is a type of sweet food and it goes all mushy when its wet. The speaker says that just like that, the male bourgeois too becomes a mess. Unable to cope up with it, he comes a fool, or if he’s of a rather unpleasant type, a bully. He makes quite a display when he becomes like this. In this paragraph, the speaker speaks of the weak-minded personality of the bourgeois. The speaker again repeats the first paragraph for emphasis. The speaker then compares the male to a mushroom. Mushroom is a fungus, which stands erect and sleek. But for it do so, it consumes nutrients out of dead leaves shed from a tree bigger than it. The speaker says that the bourgeois do the same; sucking up to the rich or taking from the weak. But even by doing this they are not fresh. They are stale inside, remaining there too long and hence, all gone inside; just like how the mushroom still stands upright even when all of its insides are eaten away by worms. This is to say that while male bourgeois are healthy and good looking on the outside, inside they are just hollow and plain nasty. They are full of seething feelings. The speaker says these male bourgeois are in thousands all over the ‘damp’ England and that it is a pity that they can’t be kicked over like ‘sickening’ toadstools. Now toadstools are the spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, which are inedible or poisonous. This, combined with the ‘sickening’ adjective, is enough to show what exactly the speaker thinks of the bourgeois. ‘Damp’ is used in relation to England here because toadstools grow more in damp regions. In short, the speaker says that it is a pity that the ‘poisonous’ cannot be killed off. The speaker is pretty brutal in his opinions. Considering the speaker is the poet himself, these opinions can be found to stem from his family experiences. Lawrence had unpleasant experiences as a child in relation to the middle class, in the form of his parents’ fights and many more, and this can be seen as cause for his deep embedded negativity towards this class. Whatever the reason, Lawrence succeeds in writing another controversial piece of verse.

Free Verse: The poem is written in complete free verse. There is no rhyme or rhythm. Repetition: The sentence ‘How beastly the bourgeois is’ which is the title of the poem too, is repeated a number of times in the poem. It goes on to show the poet’s strong feelings towards them. Simile: There are some similes in the poem. The act of the bourgeois going soggy, ‘like a wet meringue’ and of them standing erect and sleek ‘like a mushroom’; these are examples of similes. Hyperbole:

The characteristics of the bourgeois are hugely exaggerated when the poet speaks of them as a whole. They may be true in some cases, but encompassing the whole of their group under one and claiming his opinions to be true in all them is completely an exaggeration. Then there is another hyperbole when he claims the bourgeois’ outer appearance to be ‘God’s own image.’ Alliteration: There is some alliteration every time the poet uses the sentence ‘How beastly the bourgeois is’. And when the speaker speaks of the mushroom: ‘erect and eyeable’. Imagery: There is some pleasing imagery and some ghastly imagery. The pleasing imagery comes in the beginning when the poet describes the outer appearance of the male bourgeois. The ghastly imagery comes when he speaks of the mushroom, standing upright but with worms inside it....