The Fox by D. H. Lawrence. Recommended. One of D. H.

Lawrences fable-li e tales addressing gender roles and relationships , The Fox is developed based on the symbol of a female-centric farm beset by a de mon, a marauding male fox. Owned and run by two women, the small, thin, delicate t hing, Banford, and the man about the place, March, the farm is remar ably unproduct ive. One independent-minded heifer refuses to stay put, and the women, afraid of birth and responsibility, sell the pregnant cow before she can produce a calf. Because Banford and March disbelieved in living for wor alone, it is clear that t heir farming venture, the nature of which requires commitment and hard wor , is fated to fail. Into this setting, where fowls did not flourish, comes a fox, a symbolic male, tha t carries off not only the hens, but Marchs consciousness. As a male intruder in this female world, he new her. The imagery is deliberately sexual; her soul failed her, and, too mesmerized to fire her gun, she saw his white buttoc s twin le. Havi ng encountered the male, she determines to hunt him down. She was possessed by hi m. Months later, March again threatens to shoot the real fox, a young man who comes to the farm from the outside world of men and war. As with the fox, the other m ale, March stared at him spellbound. Again, the symbolism is not meant to be subtl e; Lawrence writes, . . . the boy was to her the fox, and she could not see him otherwise and she need not go after him any more. The fox and the man change March, who in the mans presence becomes pale and wan, an xious not to be seen, a shadow in the shadowalmost li e a fox herself. Throughout t he novel, the man, Henry, has the same effacing effect on her. She is no longer the man of the farm, but a shrin ing, passive, mesmerized female, spea ing in a pla ngent, laconic voice when the real man is around. In her dreams, the fox and the man are powerful sexual images that ta e away her ability to articulate; the fox whis ed his brush across her face, and it seemed this brush was on fire, for it seared and burned her mouth with a great pain . . . [She] lay trembling as if sh e were really seared. As the story continues and Henry and Banford vie for Marchs attention and loyalty , it is easy to see Banford and March as a lesbian couple, incomplete in the way the French writer Colette viewed such relationships. Henry, the man, carries th e gun, hunts, and watches; he is most free when he was quite alone. With Henrys arr ival, Banford becomes more stereotypically female, strong-willed but physically wea , querulous, and manipulative. March is in the middle, the man to one, the w oman to the other. Banford says of Henry, Hes a boy li e you are. March is always i ndistinct to the soft-spo en, courteous Henry, who wishes to dominate her and to bring her into focus. When Henry ills the fox, March dreams of burying Banford wrapped in the fox s ina thought that leaves her with tears streaming down her fa ce. She does not want to let go of either woman or man, or the feminine or mascul ine in herself. Events and choices leave March with nothingness at last; having hunted for the fox and reached for happiness, she is left with a realisation of emptiness that can b e resolved only by being alone with him at her side. To be female is to sleep, a f orm of death, while to be male is to eep awa e, now, consider, judge, and deci de. In The Fox, as in other Lawrence novels, the man-woman relationship is one o f strain between masculine values of dominance and possession and feminine desir e to stay awa e and for autonomy and self-determination. Unpolished, repetitive, obvious in its imagery, and blunt about its messages, Th e Fox is flawed and pales beside Sons and Lovers and Women in Love. As a short s tudy of the ideas surrounding gender, roles, and relationships that predominate in Lawrences fiction, The Fox is worth the attention of both Lawrence student and aficionado. 8 December 2007 Copyright Diane L. Schirf The Fox D. H. Lawrence

(Hesperus) Henry has just returned from the trenches of World War I. He comes bac to the f arm where he lived as a youth. Two women now live there --- March and Banford -- trying to raise chic ens. It is 1918. It is cold and wet. England is poor, and there is little food. When Henry first sees them, Miss March is dressed "li e a young man." Her eyes a re large, and dar . Henry is smitten with her. Not so her friend Banford. She, t hinner, with her glasses, sees Henry as nothing more than a "beastly laborer." When he proposes to March (after two days on the farm) Banford is appalled. " Sh e doesn t now what she s letting herself in for, said Banford in her plaintive , drifting, insulting voice." There has been a fox destroying the chic ens. Henry stays up one night, sees the fox crawling towards the hen-house, ills it with his rifle. The next morning, they go to see it, "hung up by the heels in the shed:" March said nothing, but stood with her foot trailing aside, one hip out; her fac e was pale and her eyes big and blac , watching the dead animal that was suspend ed upside down. White and soft as snow his belly; white and soft as snow. She pa ssed her hand softly down it. And his wonderful blac -glinted brush was full and frictional, wonderful. She passed her hand down this also, and quivered. Time a fter time she too the full fur of that thic tail between her hand and passed h er hand slowly downwards. Wonderful sharp thic splendor of a tail! And he was d ead! She pursed her lips, and her eyes went blac and vacant. Then she too the head in her hand. Henry returns to his military unit. March writes to say she cannot marry him, th at she cannot give up caring for Banford. He returns immediately to the farm. Th ey are preparing to cut down a tree. Banford is standing nearby. Henry ta es the ax in his hands, feeling himself "filled with power," And his heart held perfectly still, in the terrible pure will that she should no t move. The tree topples down on top of her, illing her at once. Well, there s the story, and a fat lot of good it is going to do you. Because th is one is pregnant with feeling, underground passion, and my precis doesn t begi n to s etch in the unspo ens, and the unexpressed, the fine tension of it. Where does the boy get his power? Why does he create a puzzled love in March, and onl y loathing in her friend? What does the fox have to do with it, anyway? And are March and Banford lovers? There are hints about this last: Lawrence repeatedly refers to Miss March s quee r loo . When Miss Banford spea s, March listens "in her distant, manly way." Ban ford is said to loo li e "a queer little witch." When March finally marries Hen ry, "He would have all his own life as a young man and a male, and she would hav e all her own life as a woman and a female. She would not be a man anymore." Doris Lessing, in her introduction, says this story is not about woman love. "Th ey shared a bed, but women often did then. They were solicitous and careful of e ach other...." It was wartime, and men were gone. "Many a female couple issed a nd cuddled because of that great absence." Yet much of the power --- and feeling of dread --- come from the hints that Henr y and the witch-woman are jealous over a competing love for March. Banford canno t conceal her distaste for Henry. And after he receives the letter of rejection, Deep in himself he felt li e roaring and howling and gnashing his teeth and brea ing things... One thorn ran led, stuc in his mind. Banford. In his mind, in hi s soul, in his whole being, one thorn ran ling to insanity. And he would have to get it out. He would have to get the thorn of Banford out of his life if he die d for it. Thorns... and rabbits.. and foxes. Is March "the March hare" --- the crazed rabb it, according to English fol lore, that in the month of March goes mad with rutt ing? When Henry returns to the farm, she sees him and her eyes turn "wide and va cant," her upper lip lifted from her teeth in that helpless, fascinated rabbit-loo . Th e moment she saw his glowing red face it was all over with her. She was as helpl

ess as if she had been bound. The Fox runs less than ninety pages, but those pages are crammed with love-tensi on, animal images (cats, deer, rabbits, geese, the fox, "beasts"), an underpinni ng of deep sensuality that cannot be articulated by the characters, but cannot b e avoided by the reader. Here we have Lawrence at his craftiest --- not the flow ers-in-the-pubic-hair nonsense of Lady Chatterly s Lover --- but a world of unsp o en passions that ta e one over, give one no relief, hinting at "spells," witch ery, blac magic. There are a myriad of subtle tensions between Henry and March and March and Banf ord and Banford and Henry. He comes in li e a fox (March comments on his "snout of a nose.") When she loo s at him, she is "spellbound." When Banford lies dead, Henry thin s of "the wild goose he has shot." And when March and Henry are marr ied, will she be happy? But the end of the rainbow is a bottomless gulf down which you can fall forever without arriving, and the blue distance is a void pit which can swallow you and all your efforts into its emptiness, and still be no emptier.... Poor March, she had set off so wonderfully, towards the blue goal. And the further and further she had gone, the more fearful had become the realization of emptiness. An agony , and insanity at last. The Fox revels in sensual contrast to the soppy novels of Edwardian England. Thi s is not gentlemanly courting. Rather, two women and a man are loc ed in a comba t which will, for one of them, be mortal. It is love and war, a war to the death : the witch who loves the manly woman who loves the boy who hates the witch. Rou nd and round it goes, with the sensual, furred fox, "the fox in the hen-house" a s the catalyst. And even after the witch is dead and the March hare has been topped by the fox, there is a hint of madness to come: "An agony," says Lawrence, "an insanity at l ast." --- R. van der Poole The Death of the Fox in The Fox by D.H. Lawrence In D.H. Lawrences story The Fox, there are many different aspects and passages that can be discussed. The one that stri es me the most is when Henry ills the fox. Its me, says Henry; Ive shot the fox. (612) It signifies Henrys big conquest. It is a sign that he has succeeded to possess March. From the very beginning of the story, the fox is described as a demon at the Bai ley Farm. The fox carried off the hens under the very noses of March and Banford ( 582) who ta e care of the farm. It seems li e the fox is successful in avoiding March and Banford and the fox really exasperated them both (582). However, one eve ning, March sees the fox and he sees her. She was spell-bound--she new he new h er. So he loo ed into her eyes, and her soul failed her (583). March get this str ange feeling and she is confused. She does not shoot him. Instead, she put her gu n to her shoulder and follows him. March wal s after him and in her heart she was determined to find him (583). It eeps happening to March, again and again. It s... The Fox, written by D.H. Lawrence chronicles the life of two women at the beginn ing of the 1920s: Banford and March. Banford is a small, delicate and physically wea woman with spectacles and it did not loo as if she would marry. In contrast there was March, who was more robust and would be the man about the place. The two s pinsters owned a farm and wor ed it alone. It could be argued that they were li e an old couple, used to each others company and undoubtedly set in their ways. T he novella progresses a stage further when a young man, called Henry encroaches into their habitual state of affairs and unfortunately things did not turn out we ll. March and Banford have a unique friendship. Though the pair are so diverse in ph ysical appearance and presence they have an inimitable sense of understanding an

d companionship. They live a life of seclusion and are content with their state of affairs, managing the farm. Their relationship is somewhat unusual, in the se nse that they are two women, nearing thirty, both of whom have unsatisfied tenden cies; yet up to the point of Henrys intervention appear to have no relationship p rospects with the opposite sex. The reader is given the impression that without the interference of Henry in the novella, March and Banford would have persisted in their mundane lives. The arrival of Henry undoubtedly alters the balance of the womens relationship. I nitially Banford is terrified, afraid of who this visitor is and she recoiled in fear at the sound of his footsteps. In comparison March stood listening and with th e reassurance of a gun in her hand answered the door with authority (hoping to h ide her fear) in her voice. Yet as the pair listen to Henry, they are overcome b y his softly-vibrating voice and Banford ta es charge, seeing something boyish in t he round head with i ts rather long sweaty hair. March on the other hand saw something in Henry that m ade her fell uneasy. To March he was the fox. She was very happy now, waiting on him. she was no more afraid of him than if he were her own younger brother. Banford She did not want to be noticed. Above all, she did not want him to loo at her. March Lawrence demonstrates the impact Henry has on the relationship between Banford a nd March by firstly contrasting the way in which each of them copes with the sit uation. As the plot develops we see how Henrys behaviour alters between the two w omen. He is quite aware of the opportunities available to him and seeing somethi ng vulnerable and wea in March focuses his attention to her. With his soft, mod ulating voice she was easy prey. Banford has become conscious of this wea ness i n March and nows that their relationship will inevitably falter and disperse if Henry continues to plague them. March and Banford have become a lot more hostil e and antagonistic towards each other as Henrys presence at the farm has lengthen ed. Go along, considered rude, ejaculated March. Who considers it rude? Why you do, Nellie, in anybody else, said Banford, bridling a little behind her sp ectacles, and feeling her food stic in her throat. Henry is aware that regardless of the trivial arguments erupting between March a nd Banford, their relationship is unique and if March is going to leave and beco me his wife Banford must no longer play a part, whatsoever. Death is the only so lution. No one saw her flung outwards and laid, a little twitching heap, at the foot of t he fence. No one except the boy. And he watched with intense bright eyes, as he would watch a wild goose he had shot. Was it winged, or dead? Dead! Henry D e e g H Lawrence has a unique ability to combine the simpl lexis of everyday speech with vivid imagery and immense description to ma e Th Fox a complex tale, full of twists and turns. Ultimately, it is both intriguin and entertaining, not allowing the reader a moments rest.

The Fox is a 1967 American drama film directed by Mar Rydell. The screenplay by Lewis John Carlino and Howard Koch is based on the 1923novella of the same titl e by D. H. Lawrence. The film mar ed Rydell s feature film directorial debut. Contents

[edit]Plot Jill Banford and Ellen March struggle to support themselves by raising chic ens on an isolated farm in rural Canada. Dependent Jill tends to household chores an d finances while the self-sufficient Ellen deals with heavier wor , such as chop ping wood, repairing fences, and stal ing the fox that eeps raiding their coops , although she is hesitant about illing it. Jill seems content with their seclu ded existence, but the frustrated Ellen is less enchanted by the solitude. In the dead of winter, merchant seaman Paul Grenfel arrives in search of his gra ndfather, the now-deceased former owner of the farm. With nowhere else to go whi le on leave, he persuades the women to allow him to stay with them in exchange f or helping with the wor . Tension among the three slowly escalates when his atte ntions to Ellen arouse Jill s resentment and jealousy. Eventually Paul trac s and ills the fox. Just before his departure, he ma es lo ve to Ellen and as s her to leave with him, but she confesses she would feel gui lty about abandoning Jill. After Paul returns to his ship, the women resume thei r regular routine. Paul returns unexpectedly while the two are chopping down a d ying oa . He offers to complete the job and warns Jill to move away from the tre e s potential path as it falls, but she refuses to listen and is illed when it crashes on her. Ellen sells the farm and she and Paul set off to start a new lif e together. [edit]Production In adapting Lawrence s novella for the screen, Lewis John Carlino and Howard Koc h opted to change the setting from 1918 England to contemporary Canada in an eff ort to ma e the plot more relevant for late-1960s audiences.[2] The film was shot on location in and around Kleinburg, Ontario. The song "That Night," with music by Lalo Schifrin and lyrics by Norman Gimbel, is performed by Sally Stevens. The film was released soon after the dissolution of the Motion Picture Associati on of America Production Code and includes scenes of nudity,masturbation, sexual activity involving Paul and Ellen, and physical relations between two females. Rated R at the time of its original release, it was re-edited and rated PG in 19 73.[3] [edit]Cast Sandy Dennis ..... Jill Banford Anne Heywood ..... Ellen March Keir Dullea ..... Paul Renfield [edit]Soundtrac The Fox

Released 1968 Recorded January 1968 Hollywood, California Genre Film score

Soundtrac

album by Lalo Schifrin

o o

[hide] 1 Plot 2 Production 3 Cast 4 Soundtrac 4.1 Trac listing 4.2 Personnel 5 Critical reception 6 Awards and nominations 7 References 8 External lin s

Length 32:08 Label Warner Bros. WS 1738 Producer Jimmy Hilliard Lalo Schifrin chronology Sol Madrid (1967) The Fox (1968) There s a Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin On (1968) The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Lalo Schifrin and the sou ndtrac album was released on the Warner Bros. label in 1968.[4] [edit]Trac listing All compositions by Lalo Schifrin except as indicated 1. "Theme from the Fox" - 2:26 2. "Frost Trees" - 2:19 3. "Soft Clay" - 1:58 4. "Ellen s Image" - 3:27 5. "Dead Leaf" - 2:50 6. "Foxhole" - 2:11 7. "That Night" (Schifrin, Norman Gimbel) - 2:39 8. "Foxtail" - 2:11 9. "Paul s Memories" - 2:04 10. "Roll It Over" (Schifrin, Gimbell) - 2:17 11. "Trembling" - 2:40 12. "Lonely Road" - 2:04 13. "Dripping Icicles" - 3:02 [edit]Personnel Lalo Schifrin - arranger, conductor Vincent DeRosa, Richard Perissi - French horn Sheridon Sto es, Louise Dissman - flute John Neufeld - clarinet William Criss - oboe William Herzberg - bassoon Artie Kane, Caesar Giovannini - piano Tommy Tedesco - guitar Ken Watson, Joe Porcaro, Emil Richards - percussion Erno Neufeld, Marvin Limonic - violin Myra Kestenbaum - viola Raphael Kramer - cello Dorothy Remsen - harp Sally Stevens (trac 7), Anne Heywood (trac 10) - vocals Lloyd Basham - orchestra manager [edit]Critical reception Renata Adler of The New Yor Times called the film "a good and interesting movie " and continued, "The pace and the quality of the color, muted and unnatural, wi th many scenes photographed in shadows of various inds, convey a brooding sense of something not quite right with everyone, rather li e the tone of Reflections in a Golden Eye."[5] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a quiet, powerful masterpi ece" and added, "Do not go to see The Fox because of its subject matter, and do not stay away for that reason. The scenes which disturbed Chicago s reactionary censors are filmed with quiet taste and an intuitive nowledge of human nature. And they are only a small part of a wholly natural film. Indeed, it is the natur al ease of the film that is so appealing . . . The delicately constructed atmosp here of cold and snow, of early sunsets and chill lingering in the corners, esta blishes the tone . . . Miss Dennis has a difficult role [that] . . . could have

become ridiculous, but [she] manages it well. Dullea is also stronger than he ha s been in other recent performances. Since David and Lisa, he has been trapped i nto playing a series of insecure, wea characters; this time, as the dominant pe rsonality, he is altogether successful. And he meets his match in Miss Heywood." [6] TV Guide called it "an uneven adaptation of D.H. Lawrence s novella" and rated i t three out of four stars.[7] [edit]Awards and nominations Because it was made in Canada, the film qualified for Best Foreign Film in the E nglish Language at the 25th Golden Globe Awards. It also was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Director, and Anne Heywood was nominated Best Actress in a M otion Picture Drama. Lalo Schifrin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score and the Grammy Award for the Best Original Score from a Motion Picture or Televi sion Show. [edit]References THE FOX is based on the famous novella of the same title by D.H. Lawrence (188519 30). Li e the original, this adaptation is set in rural England in 1918, where t wo young women in an unconventional relationship are struggling to exist on an i solated farm. They are having trouble with their crops, their hens wont lay, wint er is upon them and a fox has been pillaging their henhouse. A handsome young so ldier appears who seems to provide a temporary solution to their problems. In ex change for food and shelter, he offers to shoot the fox and to assist them in ot her ways on the farm. The women invite him to stay with them a few days, a decis ion that has devastating consequences. D.H. Lawrence was nown for his love of symbols, and his novella THE FOX is a pr ize example of this. In the novella as well as in this adaptation, the title THE FOX applies both to the animal that has been raiding the henhouse and to the so ldier who enters the farmhouse. The young man slowly wor s his way into the hous ehold. His engaging personality and erotic charms stir up emotions and divide the two female friends. What does he want? Both of the women? One of them? Their farm? Can their relationship survive this predatory force from the outside? The y must decide whether to follow their minds or their passions.