Lady Chatterley’s Lover highlights partial truths about D H Lawrence’s novel and conceals realities that might seem unpalatable

Karachi: When D H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was published in the 1920s, the novel drew considerable ire for brazenly defying social conventions. At its core, the novel revolves around an illicit relationship between an upper-class married woman and a working-class man who is on her husband’s payroll. Readers were predictably outraged that the novelist had ventured into risqué terrain and created a bold portrait of female sexuality at a time when the subject wasn’t openly discussed in the mainstream. As a result, Lady Chatterley’s Lover was heavily vilified, censored and even banned.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover turns an intimate gaze on Constance, referred to as Connie, an aristocratic woman who marries Clifford Chatterley, a baronet and war veteran who is paralysed below the waist in World War I. Besieged by the loneliness that accrues from a loveless marriage, she begins a passionate affair with Clifford’s gamekeeper Olive Mellors, a man who carries his own emotional demons after the war. Transgressions of such a grave magnitude would have been chastised at the time, but Lawrence doesn’t use his canvas to reproach Connie and Oliver’s conduct. Instead, the narrative becomes a moving meditation on the difference between admiring a man’s intelligence and falling head-over-heels in love with him.

Over the decades, copious film and television adaptations of Lady Chatterley’s Lover have been produced that capitalise on the novel’s scandalous reputation. Netflix’s decision to jump on the bandwagon and churn out its own adaptation might be construed as an attempt to enliven, if not altogether reimagine, the classic.

However, this adaptation caters to a different audience than what Lawrence had to reckon with. Modern-day viewers aren’t as conservative as they used to be. It is difficult to envisage a story about infidelity and an inter-class romance appealing to people who aren’t easily outraged when social norms are flouted and explicit content appears on their screens. Narratives about extra-marital affairs may not be perceived as wildly transgressive by a more open-minded viewership.

The shift in the sentiments of viewers is of essence when it comes to assessing the response to the new adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Lawrence’s novel has often been understood through a reductionist lens that doesn’t do justice to the author’s intentions. The novel stands out as a biting critique of Britain’s rigid class structure and the rapid industrialisation of the country’s rural hinterlands. These facets of the novels have usually been glossed over by readers and filmmakers who have dramatised the novel. Instead, the focus remains on Lady Chatterley’s torrid affair with the gamekeeper.

It is, therefore, justifiable that sceptics would be wary of the Netflix adaptation. Viewers are likely to be even more concerned after the streaming service relegated Jane Austen’s Persuasion, a mature commentary on the dynamics of social class in 19th-century Britain, into a stereotypical chick-flick devoid of substance.

The film’s detractors have good reason to be concerned. Netflix’s reimagining of Lawrence’s novel makes a tepid attempt to balance the romantic elements of the story with the strong socialist undertones. Viewers familiar with the novel’s genesis will understand that the story is rooted in Lawrence’s cynicism over the complacent attitude toward class in Britain.

After the Great War, the government had called for cuts in the salaries of miners and the decision had triggered numerous protests. The decision was taken to secure the profits of the elite as coal seams had been severely depleted. At the same time, mechanisation was being suggested as a suitable antidote to the crisis as it would boost the rate of production. Under these circumstances, Lawrence foresaw a class war brewing in England. Lady Chatterley’s Lover channelled his concerns about a possible clash in society.

The Netflix adaptation views these issues through a rather myopic lens. The realities of rural industrialisation comes through as the backdrop of the story, albeit in a subdued sense. The public and private domains seem to exist in isolation and only intersect in a superficial manner. At times, events of a relatively personal nature that unfold in the Chatterley’s palatial manor find an equivalent in developments within the public domain. For instance, Clifford’s willingness to mechanise the mines enables Connie to recognise his indifference toward the plight of the miners. Apart from these occasional references to the troubled mood of the times, the socio-political milieu often takes a backseat to the romance that brews between Oliver and Connie.

Lawrence’s novel also engages deeply with nature — a motif that isn’t explored in great depth in the Netflix adaptation. In fact, Lady Chatterley’s Lover relied heavily on the contrast between nature’s exquisite beauty and the ruinous effects of industrialisation on the environment to provide a counterpoint to the characters’ inner turmoil. While the film makes a tangential reference to Connie’s admiration for nature, it struggles to make effective use of this motif.

It is tough for a film adaptation to do justice to a book. In an essay titled ‘The Cinema’, acclaimed novelist Virginia Woolf likened films to parasitic endeavours that need to develop a life of their own. The 2022 adaptation essentially comes through as a love story rather than a striking indictment of class struggles.

It is refreshing to see that the Netflix adaptation doesn’t fall victim to a scandalous portrayal of the affair. Characters aren’t chastised for the choices they make. Instead, they come through as well-intentioned figures on a quest for happiness and individual regeneration. Lawrence has also been censured for providing a masculinist view of Connie and Oliver’s relationship and the Netflix adaptation seeks to rectify this perception. Depictions of sex are far from gratuitous and become a doorway to explore female sexuality in a bygone era.

Viewers who are discovering Lady Chatterley’s Lover for the first time through this Netflix adaptation might enjoy the film for its compelling performances, dramatic twists and depiction on what loneliness can do to our hearts and minds. Those of us who subscribe to the claim that a film cannot use the novel it is based on as a crutch, might also be fairly generous in their assessment of the Netflix adaptation. Nevertheless, it would be somewhat dishonest to consider the film a period drama if it struggles to evoke the turbulence of the era it seeks to depict on screen. Netflix’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover highlights partial truths about Lawrence’s novel and conceals realities that might seem unpalatable.