Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Oliver Mellors

Mellors doesn't just teach Connie the ways of sweet, sweet lovin'; he teaches her how to be an integrated human being again by regaling her with page-long monologues about the general suckiness of the modern world and the superiority of D. H. Lawrence's—oops, we mean Oliver Mellors's—life philosophy.

Connie adores him: "Another self was alive in her, burning molten and soft in her womb and bowels, and with this self she adored him. She adored him till her knees were weak as she walked. In her womb and bowels she was flowing and alive now and vulnerable, and helpless in adoration of him as the most naïve woman" (10.323). Contrast this to the way that Clifford guides Ivy by teaching her chess, corrupting her by educating her mind. Here, Mellors guides Connie by giving her so many orgasms that she can't help do whatever he says.