Lady Chatterley’s Gamekeeper

There is nothing in D. H. Lawrence’s novel about catching poachers, controlling predators, and most of the gamekeeper’s work. Focusing on Connie and Mellors’ relationship, Lawrence does not describe the keeper’s professional chores. But the most crucial scene in the novel, which takes place when Connie and Mellors handle the pheasant chicks that he is raising, arouses our curiosity about what Mellors actually does when he is not having sexual relations with Connie. Since we no longer have the knowledge of gamekeepers that Lawrence’s readers had in the 1920s, a thorough account of Mellors’ duties—which roots him to the land, provides essential background, and deepens our understanding of the gamekeeper’s character—explains Connie’s attraction to him and enhances the meaning of the novel.