38 Ms. Jasmeen Kaur 1 , Dr Shuchi Agrawal 2 VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL) An International Peer Reviewed Journal http://www.joell.in Vol.5 Issue 4 2018 RESEARCH ARTICLE THE FUNCTION OF POWER AND ROLE OF SEXUALITY: D.H. LAWRENCE’S WOMEN IN LOVE Ms. Jasmeen Kaur 1 , Dr Shuchi Agrawal 2 1 (Student, M.A. English, Amity University, NOIDA.) 2 (Associate Professor, Amity University, NOIDA.) ABSTRACT Women in Love is scrutinized as a significant tool by D.H Lawrence through which he was able to explore the relationship between power and sex in the social institution. The interdependency of sex and power force us to question how power is measured in the sexual context. Is it measured by dominance or submission in the sexual relationship irrespective of gender? One can notice the tool of power used by characters in the novel to maintain their sense of superiority over their partners, animals and machines, breaking all stereotypes by discarding the fixed gender role. The exertion of power does not have only pessimistic approach to the subject matter in terms of male dominance but should be analyzed from the another perspective as well. In the patriarchal world women’s sexuality had been suppressed considering a taboo. But D.H Lawrence provides the women with ample of space in his novel unraveling their power over sexuality. He has allowed the female characters to portray themselves out of the darkness to discuss their desire of sex and will to power on the social platform. In order to sustain their individuality, women need to resist against the orthodox train of beliefs by exercising their power over sex and accepting their true passion. Foucault’s The History of Sexuality provides the vivid account of treatment of sex as oppressive element of the society through his theory of ‘repressive hypothesis’. To critique the role of sexuality this paper allow us to redefine the significant terms such as Gender, Sex, Power, Homosexuality and Heterosexuality considering the work of Monique Witting, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Foucault and so on. Keywords: Sexuality, Industrialization, Power, Gender Author(s) retain the copyright of this article Copyright © 2018 VEDA Publications Author(s) agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License .