Lady Chatterley's Lover, Chapter 4 summary

Chapter 4 of 19 · 17 min to read the chapter

In Chapter 4, Connie expects her affair with Michaelis to end and listens as Clifford’s friends debate sex, marriage, intellectual life, and politics at Wragby. Their arguments expose competing ideas about possession and bodily needs, while Connie enjoys their thinking but finds their minds cold and their discussions incomplete.

What happens

Connie remains devoted to Clifford but finds that neither he nor her intermittent affair with Michaelis meets her needs.
Hammond defends marital privacy, Charles May argues for sexual freedom, and Tommy Dukes links jealousy with ownership and ambition.
Clifford says sex strengthens intimacy, while Connie silently supports a conversation that depends partly on her presence.
On Sunday evening, Dukes argues that intellectual life feeds spite and separates people from bodily knowledge.
The men debate Bolshevism, machinery, and hatred, and Dukes challenges both political systems and conventional love.
Connie finally mentions that good women exist, but Dukes says he cannot desire women he actually meets.