Why the novel matters by D.H. Lawrence

Introduction- the essay why the novel matter has been written by D.H.Lawrence.it was published posthumously in 1936 in an essay collection titled Phoenix

In the essay Lawrence speaks about the importance of the novel and tries to establish the superiority of the novelist above other professions. In an attempt to illustrate the importance of the novel Lawrence explains the importance of life and the living man.

D.H. Lawrence’s statement about his belief in the novel as a means of instructing or guiding men and women to live life to the completed. So that also reveals Lawrence's philosophy of life   Lawrence announced (proclaimed) in his essay being a novelist “ I consider myself superior to the saint the scientist the philosopher and the poet,” who are all the great master of different bits of men alive but never get the whole hog. Lawrence's mood of arguments is simple but extremely effective. He indicates that the novel is the most flexible and creative of literary form.

Lawrence begins the essay by ridiculing the superstitious belief that the body and the soul or mind are two separate existence. He believes that whatever is me alive is me. Lawrence said that he was only a soul or a body, mind intelligent or a brain, or a bit of himself. The whole is greater than the part so for a living man the whole part is important. He says that this is what scientists and philosophers fail to understand. According to Lawrence's novel show, life and its character are nothing but man alive. this is something which can be understood by the novelist because the novel is a bright book of life There for the novelist is better than the scientist and philosopher.

He quotes an example of an Italian Saint Francis of who tortured his body, believes that the soul was of ultimate importance. However, when he was dying he apologized to his body for tortured on his body.

According to Lawrence, the novelist possesses a complex understanding of the man alive more fully than a person, a philosopher, or a scientist. The person speaks about the soul in heaven. But a novelist talks about paradise in the plum of our hand or at the end of our nose which are alive because during his lifetime understanding by what happens to afterlife, so the novelist is not concerned about life after death.

The philosopher speaks about infinite knowledge possessed by a pure spirit. But for the novelist, there is no knowledge beyond what the living body can preserve. For philosopher nothing but the thing is important, but Lawrence says the thought is not alive, its like a radio signals floating in the air which are meaningless until they reach the receiver - a radio device that makes out the signal into a meaningful message. similarly, when thoughts are received by a man alive they become meaningful. It is only because the man alive receives them they become alive.

 Thus the living the body is more important than the message conveyed by the thoughts. According to Lawrence nothing is more important than life. Living things is more valuable than a dead object. A living dog is better than a dead lion but a living lion is better than a living dog. Lawrence says that scientists and philosophers find it too difficult to accept the value of living. For the scientist, a man is a heart, a liver, a kidney,  a gland, or a tissue. But for the novelist the whole living man is important.

This is because of a novel deals in nothing but man alive. In this regard, Lawrence calls the Bible “a great confuse novel”.  It is not about one man alive but a long list of men alive. Even God is another man is alive.

According to Lawrence the entire Bible, homer, Shakespeare is an example of the supreme old the novel they affect the whole man alive not a part of a man as does the scientist.

According to Lawrence, the nature of the novel is dynamic, its character which reflects the importance of constant and if something is forced to remain constant it loses its value and power along with the passing of times. A man today is different from what he is today. A man loves women because of the constant change in her. Loving an unchanging person is like loving a lifeless object. Lawrence says that one can learn about the importance of change from a novel. In a novel, the character does nothing but live. But if they began to act according to a fixed pattern, always remain good or bad then lose its value and power.

Lawrence however, says that it is difficult to define what is living. Different man has a different idea about what they mean by living in life. Some go to seek God while others seek money, wine, and women and others seek votes and political reforms. In this Lawrence says that the novel is a guide that helps to differentiate between a man alive and a man who is a dead man in life. A man alive shoots his enemy but in life throws bombs at people who are neither his friend nor his foe.

Finally, Lawrence says that the most important thing is to be a whole man alive, and the novel providing guidance in this matter. The novel is the best to guide which helps us to live, without getting ourselves unnecessary disturb by the theory of right or wrong. Since what is right in one case becomes wrong in another. In the novel, we say a man dying because of his goodness another person dying because of his weakness.

Lawrence extended fictional practice by breaking convention established by the Victorian novelist. Thus Lawrence asserts that the novel is a book that can teach the life of a whole man alive and that is why the novel matter.