D H Lawrence’s The White Stocking depicted jealousy and a subtle infidelity. As we read the beginning of the story, it was full of happy emotions because Mrs. Whiston got up early and excited upon the arrival of the postman. Later on, we learned that the setting happened in Valentine’s Day. However, a sudden dramatic irony came in when the first happy Mrs. Whiston was beaten by her husband, Teddilinks, out of jealousy.
The climax brought us Mrs. Whiston being beaten and revealing another male character—Sam Adams, who is seen as someone pursuing Elsie (Mrs. Whiston) even though she’s married.
Applying the codes of puzzles (hermeneutic code), connotative code and symbolic code which is presented by Roland Barthes as part of the five literary codes in fiction which became one of the bases for structuralists.
Using hermeneutic code in the story provides the readers curiosity as to why Elsie is excited to see the postman and especially to the package even though, at first, she admitted to her husband, Teddilinks, that she did not know the sender of the package. We, as readers, will also grow curious to know why Elsie has some sort of romantic attraction to Sam Adams but admits that she had no feelings to Sam. However, reading further will resolve the curiosity presented by hermeneutic code. This happens when Elsie finally admitted that the package, which contains a white stocking, came from Sam. And when D H Lawrence provided us the second part of the story, which looks like a flashback, to introduce the imbedded relationship of the three: Teddilinks, Elsie and Sam. Hence, the story stretched out itself to cater the answers to the curiosities it built.
Furthermore, applying connotative code to the story will help the readers to identify the themes developed around the characters. For instance, when Sam Adams are introduced, we can now understand as to why Teddilinks is very protective towards her wife. Sam Adams’s characterization is a bachelor who is notorious vis-à-vis the fondness of girls.
Lastly, the symbolic code strengthens that the theme which became the meaning of the work also revolves around flirting, jealousy and subtle infidelity. There are symbolic situations presented in the story where it serves as the catalysts as the story progress. As an example, the Christmas party hosted by Sam Adams shows how Sam flirted with Elsie and vice-versa. Here, Teddilinks became triggered as he witnessed how the two flirted especially how his wife enjoyed it. Thus, from there, we can see that Sam started to pursue Elsie by annually sending packages—pearl earrings and the white stocking.
In summary, as long as structuralists are concerned, we can identify various relationships or structured between and among the characters. These relationships affect the tension, conflict or the suspense as the story unfolds and stretches back. Thus, these structures seen from the characters and the character-plot make the story dramatic in appeal but full of curiosity of the actions and reactions of each character.
Tags: The White Stocking, D.H. Lawrence, literature, short story analysis, themes and symbolism, modern relevance, LifeThinker.
