Lady Chatterley’s Lover · Chapter
VI explained
Connie reflects on the emptiness of modern life and the deadening of great words like love, joy, and home.
What happens
Connie reflects on the emptiness of modern life and the deadening of great words like love, joy, and home. She contemplates her relationship with Clifford, their joint writing for money, and her desire for a child—but only with a worthy man. She visits the gamekeeper Mellors at his cottage to deliver a message from Clifford.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Social Division
Clifford's tight rebuff against lower-class climbing; Connie's awareness of class barriers.
The Crippled Modern Man
Clifford's psychic wound and depression; the tightness and fear of life in men of Connie's generation.
Marriage and Personal Fulfillment
Connie's sense of emptiness in her marriage; her desire for a child as a separate, serious goal.
Freedom and Individuality
Connie's determination to wait for the right man; her private, serious quest for a child.
Characters to notice
- Constance Chatterley
Reflects on the hollowness of modern life and words; considers having a child but only with a suitable man; goes to Mellors' cottage.
- Clifford Chatterley
Discusses the gamekeeper with Connie; shows tightness and fear of life; falls into vacant depression; sends Connie to the keeper.
- Oliver Mellors
The gamekeeper; Connie visits his cottage to deliver a message; Clifford speculates about his past in India.
- Michaelis
Connie thinks of her affair with him and the money she might have had; dismisses the idea of his children.
- Tommy Dukes
Referenced as calling money 'the bitch-goddess'; Connie considers him as a possible father but rejects the idea.
Key passages
“All the great words, it seemed to Connie, were cancelled for her generation: love, joy, happiness, home, mother, father, husband, all these great, dynamic words were half dead now, and dying from day to day.”
Connie feels that meaningful concepts like love, joy, and home have lost their power for her generation.
Reflects the theme of disillusionment and the death of traditional values.
“She thought of Michaelis, and the money she might have had with him; and even that she didn't want. She preferred the lesser amount which she helped Clifford to make by his writing.”
Connie realizes she does not desire Michaelis's money; she prefers the smaller income she earns with Clifford.
Highlights Connie's complex relationship with money and independence.
“Go ye into the streets and byways of Jerusalem, and see if ye can find a man.”
Connie thinks of the biblical search for a worthy man, applying it to her own quest for a father for her child.
Shows Connie's serious, almost spiritual quest for a suitable partner to father her child.