“The Rainbow” is a novel written in 1915 by a modernist D. H. Lawrence.
During the period of modernism, symbolism had an important influence on it. It is characteristic for modernist writers that characters in the novels are unresponsive. In the novel, D.H. Lawrence depicts a life, where people meet different kind of emotions and feelings. He shows the relationships in three generations of an English family. Actually, emotions that dominate over the Brangwens family members are the main indicators of their characters. It is interesting, that Lawrence portrays people through their emotions. Moreover, it is also typical for the modernist author that he is not going into details.
The author of the novel has included the main symbol – “the rainbow” already in the title. The rainbow itself is closely connected with the whole story. In the end, the symbol occurs together with one of the most powerful characters - Ursula Brangwan: “she saw in the rainbow the earth's new architecture, the old, brittle corruption of houses and factories swept away, the world built up in a living fabric of Truth, fitting to the over-arching heaven.” …
