Sick Coller - Analysis

The title of the story I am going to comment on is “A Sick Collier”. This story is written by D. H. Lawrence a famous English writer. The main theme is a miner’s daily life. The story is about a young married couple. Husband is a collier and wife is a cook. They are very different but still happy. After the accident in the mine Willy went crazy and tried to kill his wife.

The narration of the story presented from the 3-ed person. The author doesn’t evaluate the situation he gives the story as is and we can make our own conclusions. That makes the narration rather objective.

The protagonist is Willy Horsepool the man whose description we are given throughout the story. The author describes him explicitly and implicitly as well, giving a lot of dialogues of him.

<...> He was in build what they call a tight little fellow; short, dark, with a warm colour, and that upright set of the head and chest, that flaunting way in movement recalling a mating bird, which denotes a body taut and compact with life. <…>

From the first words of his speech we can say that this is an illiterate and rude man.

"Set th' table for my breakfast, an' put my pit-things afront o' th' fire. I s'll be gettin' up at ha'ef pas' five. Tha nedna shift thysen not till when ter likes."

But on reading the text we notice that this man changes right in the middle of it. There’s a description of a strong muscular and willful man in the beginning. And a description of a weak, tortured with the dreadful pain, helpless, scared man. It was made to create a contrast in the story.

<…> It was some time before she could undress him and wash him. <…>

<…> he sat gazing out on the street as usual, a bullet-headed young man, still vigorous-looking, but with a peculiar expression of hunted fear in his face. <…>

<…> she felt afraid of him again.<…>

There’s no intimate dialogues between them, no gentle words, the only fact that the reader got to know is that

“They were nevertheless very happy.”

Though it’s very difficult to understand without the phrase given above. Out of the dialogues we can see that she is afraid of him. That all the decisions in their house is taken by him only. Giving her description the author uses only light colors and this reveals the huge distance between them. They are so different. And a huge contrast is used to show it. There’re colors that are symbols here: white – purity, black – death.

She was startled when he came in, a short, sturdy figure, with a face indescribably black and streaked. She