Clara Dawes Character Analysis

Clara Dawes is the wife of Baxter Dawes, the daughter of Mrs. Radford, and Paul Morel’s lover. Clara is estranged from her husband Baxter, whom she married young and found that she could not get on with. She is a friend of Miriam (who introduces her to Paul) and she lives with her mother. Clara is a suffragette and is bitter and resentful about the way her marriage has worked out. Paul believes that she is a “man hater” but, as he gets to know her, feels that she is deeply sensuous and “needs a man” to feel loved and that her single life makes her depressed. Clara treats Paul’s claims contemptuously and insists that Baxter was cruel to her and that this is the reason she left him. Paul and Clara have an extremely passionate and physical relationship, although they do not have much in common intellectually. Clara is a strong, active woman, but is very reserved and finds it hard to fit in with the factory girls when Paul gets her a job at Jordan’s. She gets on well with Mrs. Morel, however, who prefers down to earth Clara to the saintly Miriam. She gains confidence through her affair with Paul, but will not divorce her husband, whom she still feels sorry for. Clara is independent and single minded because she is willing to live separately from her husband despite the social disapproval this causes. By the end of the novel, Clara is sick of Paul’s dithering between her and Miriam and feels that he is unmanly because he has played with her and failed to commit to their relationship. She gets her pride back after her failed marriage and, in her new confident, independent state, is able to reconcile with Baxter, who has been humbled and who now intends to treat her with respect.