How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He was at his ease in the narrow "great world", that is, landed aristocracy society, but he was shy and nervous of all that other big world which consists of the vast hordes of the middle and lower classes, and foreigners. (1.27)
Like a highly specialized animal, Clifford is useless out of his natural habitat. Unfortunately for him, his natural habitat is way smaller than the rest of the world, which makes him kind of useless.
Quote #2
There was no communication between Wragby Hall and Tevershall village, none […] Gulf impassable, and a quiet sort of resentment on either side" (2.7)
When Connie becomes Lady Chatterley, she kind of expects to become the lady of the manor, handing out her leftovers and hand-me-downs to the poor miners of Tevershall. Surprise: the poor miners aren't especially interested in being condescended to.
Quote #3
And he had thought the kicking days were over. Alas, they weren't... They never would be. For he, in a sense, asked to be kicked. He pined to be where he didn't belong...among the English upper classes. (3.11)
There's nothing as pathetic as a social climber, or at least that's what Clifford's friends seem to think. Michaelis is rich and successful, but he can't quite make it into the upper class. Although, if it's populated by people like Clifford, we can't really see why he'd even want to.
Quote #4
The masters! In a dispute between masters and men, she was always for the men. But when there was no question of contest, she was pining to be superior, to be one of the upper class. The upper classes fascinated her, appealing to her peculiar English passion for superiority. (7.115)
Mrs. Bolton is from the lower classes, but she's obsessed with the aristocracy. (You just know she's got William-and-Kate memorabilia stashed away in her tea cabinet.) That's why she gets such a kick out of working for Clifford; it's a little peek into the world of the upper class.
Quote #5
"Oh, I've no patience with these romances. They're the ruin of all order. It's a thousand pities they ever happened." Connie was inclined to agree. What was the good of discontented people who fitted in nowhere? (8.104-05)
Connie might not be as extreme as Clifford, but she's still kind of a snob who doesn't want people getting above their station—at least until she meets Mellors. She'll let him get wherever he wants.
Quote #6
Connie thought, how extremely like all the rest of the classes the lower classes sounded. Just the same thing over again, Tevershall or Mayfair or Kensington. There was only one class nowadays: moneyboys. The moneyboy and the moneygirl, the only difference was how much you'd got, and how much you wanted. (9.54)
You'd think money would widen class differences, but Connie thinks it actually narrows them. From Tevershall (the mines) to Kensington (a fancy district in London), everyone's obsessed with money.
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.
Quote #10
Yet, she saw at once, he could go anywhere. He had a native breeding which was really much nicer than the cut-to-pattern class thing. (18.42)
Mellors: you can take him anywhere. He's got something even better than class status, which is natural breeding. This is a relief—Lawrence isn't proposing anything radical like tearing down social boundaries. He's actually reinforcing them by making them "natural." In Lawrence's world, you can't even learn to be classy; you're either born that way or you're not.