『쓴트 모어』를 중심으로 본 D. H. 로렌스의 도(道)

The notion of Lao-Tzu’s tao invites inexhaustible interpretations. His statement that ‘it is not the absolute tao if anyone names it tao’ allows so many appropriations of it as demanded by both individual and collective experiences. This essay remarks that Lao-Tzu attempts to generate the concept of tao as the interactive entity of action and non-action, fullness and emptiness. And D. H. Lawrence appropriates tao as a holistic harmony of femininity and masculinity the manifestation of which is often described through sexual organism as in Women in Love, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and many other stories. Lou in St. Mawr leaves her husband Rico who she feels is driven by vanity and the false value of European civilization. She purposes to recover her own self-identity, thus, her true femininity as she settles in a bleak ranch. Her ideal is, however, counterbalanced by a New England woman’s fail to accommodate herself to life in the wilderness area. By juxtaposing the two women’s stories, the author reserves his conclusion and opens a possibility of combining non-action with action, femininity with masculinity as well. After all, Lawrence who regards tao as a monistic harmony between femininity and masculinity seems to concur with Lao-Tzu who teaches the dialogical virtue of tao.