by just being married. As the book goes on, in my opinion, the reader is drawn to Ursula more as being the more sensible of the sister as she is controlled by her head and not The topic of marriage also comes up, unsurprisingly, at the wedding reception as it is discussed by the men after the meal. The race between the groom and the bride seems to be ultimately of more importance to them as the conversation keeps on referring back to who won the race. This demeans the significance of the event they have just been witnessed and instead concentrates on a stupid and insignificant competition between the bride and groom as to who gets into the church first. Lawrences persona and spokesman talks about the immortality of the soul and paints his obviously depressing view of marriage, which provokes one of his companions to exclaim in disgust that Birkin is talking as if the groom was going to be executed instead of married. This is not surprising given Birkins disillusionment with society and these events that he is obliged to attend and after our first meeting with him at the church, we expect nothing less than a critical point of view. It seems that Lawrence sees marriage in the same light as a condemned man being taken off to the gallows which gives the reader a clear idea as to how he views marriage: as an institution where once you have been ensnared or even captured, then your fate is set for the rest of your life.Marriage rarely occurs in the wide ranging conversations between Gerald and Birkin, mostly because they are concerned with what they see to be more important such as industrialisation and they conversation, when it turns to the opposite sex, tends to be about love rather than marriage. In Breadalby, the prospect of what Gerald is going to do about Minette brings marriage into their conversation, but it does not last for long. Gerald is reasonably distraught as to what he is going to do about Minette and Birkin is offering sug...
