Toward a Conclusion

Abstract

In moving to a conclusion I aim to recast my main line of argument in chronological order—as a way of summing up, clarifying, and also revisiting the concerns of the earlier chapters. I propose to pick up the thread of the argument by posing one final question about Lady Chatterley’s Lover, namely: How is Lawrence’s tentative ending of the novel a reflection of his religious view of art and the artist? I am going to look at the implications of one answer to this question by reference to some of the work of Frank Kermode and Paul Ricoeur and will use that discussion to retrace and recast my main argument. For both of these formidable thinkers meaning emerges from endings, and I hope to benefit from their analyses as I pursue an ending of my own.