Summary
Summary of Women in Love
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Love raises questions about freedom
Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, and the men who enter their lives, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich, are searching for more than romance. Their relationships raise questions about whether people can become close without losing themselves, and whether marriage can leave room for freedom.
The coal mines, country houses and changing English class system surround these private struggles. Talk matters as much as action: the four argue, hurt one another and test their beliefs through the way they love. Their search belongs to a world unsettled by fear and anger.
Key idea 2
Two sisters question marriage
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Key idea 3
Hermione tries to hold Birkin
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Key idea 4
Closeness must leave room for freedom
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Key idea 5
Gerald brings control to the mines
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Key idea 6
Desire becomes a struggle for power
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Key idea 7
Birkin seeks another kind of closeness
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Key idea 8
Scenes reveal more than words explain
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Key idea 9
Each relationship tests what love means
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love novels of ideas, close studies of relationships, and English fiction of the early twentieth century. It also suits anyone curious about Lawrence and his questions about love, freedom and power.
What this book is
Women in Love is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, published in 1920. He wrote it during the First World War, between about 1913 and 1917, in a time of fear and anger when many people felt that the old England was finished. It follows two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, and the two men who enter their lives, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich. It is the sequel to Lawrence's earlier novel The Rainbow, though you can read it on its own.
The book is not a simple love story. Its four main people talk, argue, fight and change each other, and the talk is as important as the action. They ask hard questions. What is love for? Can a man and a woman be close without one swallowing the other? Can a person stay free inside a marriage? Is friendship between men as deep a bond as love between a man and a woman? Around them stand the coal mines, the country houses and the changing English class system.
What you get from this summary is the shape of the whole book. You will meet the sisters and their circle, follow the main turns of the story, and see what Lawrence is arguing beneath the plot. We stop before the ending. Let us begin with the two sisters and the small mining town where the novel opens.
In this summary
- 1Two sisters wait in a mining townFree
- 2Birkin and Gerald are opposite kinds of men
- 3Hermione shows the danger of a mind without body
- 4Ursula and Birkin fight their way toward each other
- 5Gerald brings machine order to the mines
- 6Gudrun and Gerald turn desire into a contest
- 7Birkin wants a bond between men as well
- 8The novel asks how to love and stay free
- 9How Lawrence tells the story
Key point 1 of 9
Two sisters wait in a mining town
The novel opens in Beldover, a coal town in the English Midlands. Ursula Brangwen teaches at a local school. Her sister Gudrun has come home after studying art in London and works as a painter and sculptor. They sit together talking about marriage, and they are not sure they want it. Gudrun wonders if marriage is only the last experience a woman has to try.
That opening conversation sets the tone. The sisters are clever, restless and honest with each other. They have seen something of the wider world, and now they find themselves back in a small place that seems too narrow for them. Lawrence gives them different natures from the start. Ursula is warm, direct and hungry for something real. Gudrun is cooler, more watchful and more careful of how she looks to others.
The sisters go to a wedding in the neighbourhood. It is the marriage of Laura Crich, a daughter of the richest mine owner in the district, and the guests gather at the family home, Shortlands. From the church the sisters notice two men. One is Gerald Crich, tall, fair and self-possessed, the eldest son of the family. The other is Rupert Birkin, thin, restless and odd, a man who seems to stand slightly apart from everything around him.
Ursula has met Birkin before, in her school, where he works as an inspector. She is drawn to him and also annoyed by him. Gudrun has her eyes on Gerald almost at once, and she feels a strange, sharp thrill when she sees him. Neither sister can yet say what these feelings mean.
This first part matters because it plants the pairs that the whole book will test. Two women and two men, each drawn to the other, each unsure whether to trust that pull. The wedding is a social ritual, full of rules and display, and Lawrence sets it against the sisters' wish for something truer than ritual.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What kind of love does Birkin seek with Ursula?
Right. “He wants two people who are separate and free, joined like two stars held in balance.”Not quite. “He wants two people who are separate and free, joined like two stars held in balance.”
What makes Gudrun and Gerald's attraction troubling?
Right. “Each wants to be admired and neither wants to give way.”Not quite. “Each wants to be admired and neither wants to give way.”
Why does Birkin seek a deep bond with Gerald?
Right. “He believes that love between a man and a woman is not enough for a full life.”Not quite. “He believes that love between a man and a woman is not enough for a full life.”
Who’s who
- Ursula Brangwen
- A schoolteacher and Gudrun's sister, Ursula seeks an independent life and becomes drawn to Rupert Birkin.
- Gudrun Brangwen
- Ursula's sister Gudrun is a proud painter and sculptor whose attraction to Gerald tests her independence.
- Rupert Birkin
- A restless school inspector, Birkin questions conventional love through his relationships with Ursula, Hermione, and Gerald.
- Gerald Crich
- Thomas Crich's commanding son, Gerald manages the family mines and attracts Gudrun while maintaining a friendship with Birkin.
- Hermione Roddice
- A wealthy hostess at Breadalby, Hermione has an emotionally strained attachment to Birkin and prizes intellectual conversation.
- Thomas Crich
- Gerald's father Thomas is a charitable mine owner whose paternal approach contrasts with his son's industrial discipline.
- Winifred Crich
- Gerald's younger sister Winifred is an artistic child who keeps pets and takes drawing lessons from Gudrun.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 186,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 12 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Women in Love
What is Women in Love about?
It follows two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, and two men, Birkin and Gerald Crich, as they search for love in an industrial English town. Their talks and quarrels ask how to love without losing freedom.
Is Women in Love a sequel to The Rainbow?
Yes. Lawrence wrote it as a follow-up, and Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen appear in both books. The Rainbow tells of earlier Brangwen generations, but you can read Women in Love on its own without difficulty.
When was Women in Love written and published?
Lawrence wrote it mostly between about 1913 and 1917, during the First World War, and it was published in 1920. The war's shadow and the sense of a society in decline run through the book.
Is Women in Love hard to read?
No. The story is easy to follow: two sisters and two men meet at a wedding in a mining town, and each scene is a clear moment, like a quarrel, a wrestling match or a horse at a railway crossing. The four people are vivid and easy to tell apart.
What is the main message of Women in Love?
There is no single message, but Lawrence argues that real love must involve body, mind and freedom, and that a society ruled by money and machines starves feeling. He lets his characters test these claims.
