Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew up... with her parents and sister Hilda. Her parents were activists and took her and her sister to the Hague and Berlin to large Socialist conventions where everyone spoke their mind – a novel thought for the early 1900s.
Living... in Wragby Hall in the smoky Midlands of England. She came there when she married Clifford at 23. Although Clifford is a baronet and goes by Sir Clifford, they live in a dilapidated home.
Profession... caretaker for her husband Clifford, who was injured in the war shortly after their marriage. Big and strong as he is, he is helpless. Paralyzed from the waist down, he can wheel himself around in his wheelchair, and he has a chair with a small motor attachment so he can drive himself slowly around the garden. For everything else, he is absolutely dependent on her; he needs her every moment.
Interests... finding happiness. A doctor who examined her said that she is spending her life without renewing it and needs to be amused. He warned that she can't keep spending her vitality without making any. "Depression! Avoid depression!" were his doctor's orders. She took his words to heart.
Relationship Status... married. She and Clifford are attached to one another, but not in a romantic way. As she explains, "He is much too hurt in himself, the great shock of his maiming, to be easy and flippant. He is a hurt thing."
Challenge... dealing with her passionate affair with Oliver Mellors, her husband's gamekeeper. She says she would like to have all the rest of the world disappear and live with him, but she can't because they are both married.
Personality... sophisticated, melancholy, and a bit uptight. Though her personality is a work in progress. As she spends time with Oliver, she develops another side of herself that is warmer and freer.
