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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/women_in_love_1969_cast.jpg]]
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3->''"To know is to human, and in death we do not know, we are not human. And the joy of this compensates for all the bitterness of knowledge and the sordidness of our humanity." ''
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5''Women in Love'' is a 1920 novel by English author [[Creator/DHLawrence D. H. Lawrence]].
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7It is a sequel to his novel ''The Rainbow'' (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the sisters Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an industrialist. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many opinions that are associated with the author. The emotional relationships thus established are given further depth and tension by an intense psychological and physical attraction between Gerald and Rupert. The novel ranges over the whole of British society before the time of the UsefulNotes/FirstWorldWar and eventually ends high up in the snows of the Tyrolean Alps.
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9Adapted into a [[TheFilmOfTheBook 1969 film]] directed by Creator/KenRussell from a screenplay by Larry Kramer (''Theatre/TheNormalHeart''), starring Creator/AlanBates as Rupert, Creator/OliverReed as Gerald, Creator/GlendaJackson as Gudrun, and Jennie Linden as Ursula. The film received four UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations, with Jackson winning for Best Actress.
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11!!This novel provides examples of:
12* AccidentalMurder: Gerald accidentally shot his brother as a child.
13* AdaptationalDyeJob: Gerald is blonde in the novel. In the film, he has black hair.
14* AlphaBitch: Hermione in the 2011 series.
15* AuthorAvatar: Rupert Birkin. His characterisation and opinions are those of the author.
16* BetaCouple: The couples are foils for each other, with Rupert and Ursula ultimately learning to give themselves to each other, and Gerald and Gudrun having a harder time at it. In addition, each couple's central conflict approximates a gender-flipped version of the other's, with Rupert and Gudrun being the {{Rebellious Spirit}}s.
17* CoupledCouples: The two women are sisters and their boyfriends are HeterosexualLifePartners.
18* CutHimselfShaving: Rupert initially passes off his paperweight-inflicted wound to Ursula as having been caused by a fall.
19* DespairEventHorizon:
20** Rupert comes close to this when he feels that both man and God have abandoned him.
21** [[spoiler:Gerald]] crosses it at the end of the story.
22* DeadpanSnarker: Everyone has moments, but especially Rupert and Gudrun.
23* DestructiveRomance: [[spoiler:Gudrun and Gerald.]]
24* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
25** The section with Gerald forcing his horse to endure a train riding past is written in a way that makes it sound like a rape scene, and it's very unsettling.
26** In the film adaptation, the scene with Rupert and Gerald wrestling in the nude is just this side of being a straight-up sex scene. It even ends with the two characters lying on the floor, panting, one asking the other "Was it good for you?"
27* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Gerald.]]
28* TheFlameOfLife: In the film, just after Gerald and Rupert have their wrestling match, the crackling flames in the background between them symbolize their passion for one another.
29* {{Foil}}: The stuffy and faux-spiritual Hermione to the worldly and open-hearted Ursula. Her possessiveness also makes her a foil to the sisters' mother.
30* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Gudrun is sanguine, Gerald is choleric, Rupert is melancholic, Ursula is phlegmatic.
31* FriendToAllLivingThings: Gudrun has this tendency.
32* GoodBadGirl: Gudrun.
33* HeterosexualLifePartners: Rupert and Gerald.
34* HomoeroticSubtext: Rupert and Gerald. Played up in the 1969 film, especially in the wrestling scene.
35* IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship: Rupert worries about this when acting on his feelings for Ursula.
36* IfICantHaveYou:
37** Hermione attempts to kill Rupert with a paperweight.
38** [[spoiler:Gerald]] begins strangling [[spoiler:Gudrun]] in a jealous rage, but stops of [[spoiler:his]] own accord.
39* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: The sisters' mother gives her husband his freedom. He returns to her.
40* KickTheDog: Gerald forces his horse to stand close to a passing train.
41* LetsJustBeFriends: Rupert tries this with Hermione, and Gudrun with [[spoiler:Gerald]]. Neither is well received.
42* MadDreamer: Gudrun, particularly in the dancing-in-front-of-the-cattle moment.
43* MaleFrontalNudity: The film contains an early example, in which Rupert and Gerald engage in a nude wrestling match in front of a roaring fireplace.
44* ManlyTears: Both men have them in the 2011 miniseries; Gerald on the death of his father, and Rupert when he despairs of his faith in the world in general.
45* TheMasochismTango: [[spoiler:Gudrun and Gerald.]]
46* NotGoodWithRejection: Hermione. Later [[spoiler:Gerald.]]
47* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Ursula delivers one to Rupert, enough to snap him out of it.
48* RebelliousSpirit: Both Rupert and Gudrun are this.
49* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Gerald]] invokes this after [[spoiler:strangling Gudrun almost to death]] in a fit of jealous rage. [[spoiler:He wanders off into the snow to die.]]
50* SettingUpdate: The book was set in the 1910s. The movie is set in 1920.
51* SexyDiscretionShot: Both adaptations involve these, alongside actual sex scenes.
52* SkinnyDipping: All the main characters.
53* TheSnarkKnight: Rupert Birkin.
54* SnowMeansDeath: [[spoiler:Gerald.]]
55* SnowMeansLove: Gerald tries to invoke this with himself, Gudrun, Rupert and Ursula. [[spoiler:It backfires.]]
56* TransparentCloset: Downplayed with Gerald.
57* TheUnfettered: Rupert strives toward this.

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