The creative features and the social significance of Lawrence's writing
Lawrence is one of the greatest English novelists of the 20th century. The major characteristics of his novel is that he combined social criticism with psychological exploration in his novel writing. He was not concerned with technical innovations；his interest lays in the tracing of psychological development of his character and in his energetic criticism of the dehumanizing effect of the capitalist industrialization on human nature.
（1） The theme：In his writings， Lawrence has expressed a strong reaction against the mechanical civilization. In his opinion， the bourgeois industrialization or civilization， which made its realization at the cost of ravishing the land， started the catastrophic uprooting of man from nature and caused the distortion of personality， the corruption of the will， and the dominance of sterile intellect over the authentic inward passions of man.
Under the mechanical control， human beings were turned into inanimated matter， while the inanimated matter should be animated to destroy both man and earth. It is this agonized concern about the dehumanizing effect of mechanical civilization on the sensual tenderness of human nature that haunts Lawrence's writing.
（2） Lawrence's influence to modern and contemporary English literature：He was one of the first novelists to introduce themes of psychology into his works. He made a bold psychological exploration of various human relations， especially those between men and women， with a great frankness. He believed that the healthy way of the individual's psychological development lay in the primacy of the life impulse， or in another term， the sexual impulse. Human sexuality was， to Lawrence， a symbol of Life Force.
By presenting the psychological experience of individual human life and of human relationships， Lawrence has opened up a wide new territory to the novel. Lawrence declared that any repression of the sexual impulse based on social， religious， or moral values of the civilized world would cause severe damages to the harmony of human relationships and the psychic health of the individual's personality.
（3） Lawrence's artistic tendency is mainly realism， which combines dramatic scenes with an authoritative commentary. And the realistic feature is most obviously seen in its detailed portraiture. With the working-class simplicity and directness， Lawrence can summon up all the physical attributes associated with the common daily objects.
(4). In presenting the psychological aspects of his characters， Lawrence makes use of poetic imagination and symbolism in his writing. By using sets of natural images as poetic symbols to embody the emotional states of the characters and to illustrate human situations， Lawrence endows the traditional realism with a fresh psychological meaning. Through a combination of traditional realism and the innovating elements of symbolism and poetic imagination， Lawrence has managed to bring out the subtle ebb and flow of his characters' subconscious life.
