situations that closely suggest what Freud called the Oedipus complex, Lawrence had written the book before he came to Freud’s work and before he mentioned Freud in his letters. Therefore, when we talk of the book’s oedipal quality and analyse Lawrence’s assessment of gender identity through Freudian psychology, this obviously presents its own problems. That is not to say such a quality does not exist in the book. It does; but Lawrence did not write with the criteria of Freud’s Oedipus complex in mind