Lady Chatterley's Lover Society and Class Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"And don't fall into errors: in your sense of the word, they are not men. They are animals you don't understand, and never could. Don't thrust your illusions on other people. The masses were always the same, and will always be the same. Nero's slaves were extremely little different from our colliers or the Ford motor-car workmen. I mean Nero's mine slaves and his field slaves. It is the masses: they are the unchangeable."(13.62)

Clifford's opinions wouldn't be out of place on a pre-Civil War plantation. He compares the working classes to animals, and then to Roman slaves, and then to wage slaves working on the Ford factory line. Gosh, he must be popular with his employees.

Quote #8

"I may be on their side in a political crisis, but being on their side makes me know how impossible it is to mix one's life with theirs. Not out of snobbery, but just because the whole rhythm is different." (16.185)

Hilda, Connie's sister, is all for the working classes in theory, but she doesn't want to have them over for dinner. If you ask us, this is even worse than Clifford's outright snobbery.

Quote #9

And she now dreaded the thought that anybody would know about herself and the keeper. How unspeakably humiliating! She was weary, afraid, and felt a craving for utter respectability […]. She was afraid, terrified of society and its unclean bite. She almost wished she could get rid of the child again, and be quite clear. In short, she fell into a state of funk. (17.83)

Connie doesn't want to see her name splashed all over Page Six, and you can't really blame her, since society is quick to turn on people it used to like. Just ask Lindsay Lohan.