Lawrence and Nietzsche: A Study in Influence

The intellectual kinship between D H Lawrence and the nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has been widely recognised but there has been no general agreement about the precise nature and extent of the relationship between them.

They shared a cultural climate and an intellectual agenda but this is not sufficient to account for the resemblances between the Nietzschean system and what Lawrence sometimes called his own pseudo-philosophy.

The most important resemblances are identified and illustrated by Colin Milton who concludes that Nietzsche’s influence on Lawrence was profound, but precisely because of this it is only rarely evident in direct references or obvious borrowings. Instead it tends to appear in that more subtle and pervasive fashion which we might expect when ideas have been thoroughly assimilated and creatively used.

The German philosopher did indeed affect Lawrence’s whole vision and with it the character of the fictional world he created. Colin Milton illumines the work of both men and also the world at the end of the Christian era which they both strove to understand.