On Heroes, Revolutions and the Rebirth of Spirituality: a Carlylean Reading of D.H. Lawrence’s Kangaroo and

Abstract

D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Carlyle both expressed a fascination with the great man or aristocratic figure, as well as a desire for social and political change in England and Europe. While studying these parallels, I will delineate Lawrence’s departure from Carlyle, as he takes his experiments in leadership outside a European – or even Western – sphere, and advocates a revolution both political and spiritual, in response to social conditions marked by economic preoccupations and financial greed, this upheaval being the sole adequate response to the ills of a people damaged by the war and unworthy leadership. Additionally, these concerns, combined with Carlyle’s enquiry into the nature of heroes, will lead me to analyse Lawrence’s difficulty in creating a humanly, politically and spiritually satisfactory heroic figure, revolution and new order.