54
EUGENE GOODHEART
Karamazov story by the kiss that Ivan receives from Alyosha, is a
kiss of acquiescence in the rightness of the Grand Inquisitor's argu–
ment. "Ivan had made a rediscovery of a truth that had been lost
since the eighteenth century." The truth, which puts the lie to tht"
enlightenment belief in the perfectibility of
all
men, is that the
burden of freedom can be endured only by the gifted, unhappy
few who must assume the burden for all mankind. Lawrence very
shrewdly observes that the Grand Inquisitor's argument is close to
the Christian idea of a single man supremely endowed, assuming
the burden for all of mankind. But we are kept from seeing the
resemblance by the dramatic situation, the "cynical Satanical" pose
that the Grand Inquisitor is made to affect. He is supposedly in
league with the Devil, and the fact that "the wise (humane) old
man" has put on the garb of the terrible Inquisitor of the auto-da-fe
distracts us from the wisdom and the humanity of his argument.
Lawernce turns the Grand Inquisitor's argument into a justifica–
tion of his mistrust of what Nietzsche called the herd and of the
necessity of protecting the freedom and power of the few from the
presumption that all men are capable of perfection.
So let the specially gifted few make the decision between
good and evil and establish the life values against the money
values. And let the many accept the decision, with gratitude,
and bow down to the few, in the hierarchy.
It is, of course, a curious fact that Lawrence sides with the
Grand Inquisitor against Christ. There is throughout Lawrence's
work a fear that the doctrine of spontaneity and freedom will be
perverted by those for whom freedom is an excuse for self-indulgence
and the coercion of others. Lawrence's willingness to send Dostoev–
sky's Christ away is a salutary warning to his readers of the danger
that his own work embodies. His misanthropy, paradoxically, keeps
him from wanting his doctrine to become the property of all men.
Lawrence's "political period" immediately preceding
The Man Who
Died
was very instructive in this respect. The hero of
Kangaroo,
for
instance, learns that he must repudiate political connections that
will violate his singleness. There is a qualifying humility in Lawrence
(a consequence of his religious character perhaps) which keeps
him from sharing Blake's and Nietzsche's belief
in
the power of men
