My Personal Reading of
“The Fox”
written by D.H. Lawrence
Beatrice Del Sal
IV^ A
A.S. 2009/2010
Title Meaning and Content
“The Fox” – Title Analysis
Denotative Analysis
Characters
Characters
Main
Banford
March
Secondary
Henry
THE FOX
Captain
Berryman
Banford’s
mother and
father
Characterization
 March
 Banford
 Henry
Narrative Techniques
 Kind of Narrator
 Styles
Setting
Setting:
 During the First World War
 In the country
 Near “The White Horse” ,
which is cut into the chalk of
Uffington Hill, near Wantage,
Berkshire, west of London.
In the army
Atmosphere:
It is very warm and close
because the protagonists live in
a small village, but at the same
time it is upset by the cruelty of
the FWW, that makes the people
poor and desperate without any
positive perspective.
The Message
Extended Metaphore
Freedom of Speech
TITLE MEANING
“The Fox” is the title of this short story.
A fox is a wild animal like a dog with reddish –
brown fur, a pointed face and a thick tail. In
addition, the title might be metaphorical: that
means that it might have different layers of
meaning. The second meaning of this noun is
used to say when someone is good and clever at
deceiving people. The second definition best
represents the real meaning of this title.
DENOTATIVE ANALYSIS
The story is set during the First World War in a little homestead in the west of London.
Banford and March are two women about thirty years old. They try to make an
autonomous life. They make a living taking a farm together, intending to work it all by
themselves: they look after poultry, cows and beast.
But something brakes the balance they had created: a man. His name is Henry and he is
about twenty years old. He falls in love with March but she is not really attracted by him:
she is worried and that stops her to go away from the farm with him. Another reason is
Banford because she doesn’t like Henry: he is a predator in her opinion. One day Henry
asks March to marry him and she accepts the propose. In a second moment he comes
back to the army and March writes him a letter where she tells him that she doesn’t want
to marry him because of Banford. So he goes another time to Bailey Farm and he plans
to murder Banford making a tree falling down. At the end March and Henry get married
but she isn’t happy with him.
Names
Names are created on purpose.
March is the name with which the narrator refers to one of the two
protagonists. Recalling the 3rd month of the year it might hint at a lively
and reactive nature. In addition March refers to the verb “to march” and
it immediately recalls the idea of an army. Thus recalling the idea of war
soldier that is the context in which events take place. Besides at the
time soldiers were men and therefore March, as a choice, turns out a
significant meaning to the narrative purposes of the short story.
Further more if one considers what to march really means one gets the
idea of a very well organized way of walking: walking with energy,
following somebody’s instructions and orders, keeping in time: a perfect
example of March’s personality
.
Banford is the second name with which the narrator refers to the
second protagonist. This name is formed by two words: the verb “to
ban” that is used to say that something must not be done, seen and
used, and the noun “ford” that is a place where a river is not deep, so
you can walk across it. These definitions represent Banford’s
personality: she always gives orders but nobody respects her.
CHARACTERIZATION
The characterization of the three protagonists is built up in the same
way. The categories used by the narrator are:
 physical description
 social status
 economical status
 personality
 behaviour
 psychological description
 manners
 health
 appearance
 movements
 skills
 stances
KIND OF NARRATOR
The narrator is a third - person omniscient narrator.
The omniscient third-person narrator is the story’s equivalent of God and moves
the characters about for his own purposes. The omniscient third-person narrator
knows everything: every event, every thought of every character, the meaning of
everything. Nothing in the story escapes his purview.
The third-person omniscient narrator can only be “wrong” “outside” of the story, in
the reader’s judgment. The reader can disagree with the narrator, but within the
story itself, omniscient narration is infallible. It depicts the “actual” events and
“true” motives of the characters.
The omniscient narrator allows the reader to understand that the point of view is
omniscient, too. The narrator knows all that you have to know about the
characters, externally and internally:
The third-person narrator describes what characters are feeling and thinking;
The third-person narrator describes what characters do;
The narrator may shift focus from the close view to the larger perspective.
The narrator may comment on events and characters, thus explaining their
significance to the reader.
The narrator may offer multiple perspectives on the same event.
From these considerations, you can understand that the reader is locked into
narrator’s opinion and he is not able to have his personal idea.
STYLE
The styles adopted by the narrator are:
 free direct speech
 direct speech
 indirect speech
 free indirect speech
 Further more the narrator uses the techniques of
showing and telling. The first one is adopted in
direct speech, the latter when there aren’t
dialogues and when the narrator tells the story
and uses the other styles.