Frieda von Richthofen and her Background

Abstract

Our discussion of The Trespasser has so far been based on the assumption that it should be treated first and foremost as a work of art which Lawrence tried to create from materials supplied by his friend Helen Corke as part of his ambition to become a novelist. Despite his centrality, he, as ‘teller’, strikes one as a withdrawn figure, so intent on trying to recreate the sensations of the two people involved that he becomes the faceless narrator of the events described. When one looks at the work in conjunction with the various documentary materials that have since become available, however, one realizes how deeply involved in the story he himself was. His novella seems to be the account of a happy interlude enjoyed by two people who had discovered their affection for one another; it reads like a story that might have been related to him to make him aware of something that had happened to Helen Corke in the past. It is only as one reads the letters of the time that one sees Lawrence to have been taking a crucial part in the lives of all the people associated with his surroundings.