Lady Chatterley’s Lover follows Constance Reid who is unhappy in her marriage with Clifford Chatterley and begins an affair with Oliver, the gamekeeper at Clifford’s country estate.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover depicts the romantic relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman. It is based on English author D.H. Lawrence’s last novel and is directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Written by David Magee, the drama stars Emma Corrin, Jack O’Connell, Matthew Duckett, Faye Marsay, Ella Hunt, and Joely Richardson.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover Story Summary
Constance Reid (Emma Corrin), also called Connie by her loved ones, gets married to Clifford Chatterley (Matthew Duckett) who is madly in love with her. Clifford’s father, an aristocrat, wants him to give an heir to their estate soon. But Clifford decides he will have children with Constance only when they are both ready.
Just after they get married, Clifford gets called to fight in World War I. On the other hand, Conni writes to her sister, Hilda (Faye Marsay), often about the happenings in her life. In a letter Connie writes to Hilda, she talks about how the war has changed their lives.
Clifford suffers a debilitating wound in his leg because of the war. The wound prevents him from walking and causes intimacy issues between the couple. Connie grows dissatisfied with her marriage with Clifford.
Wragby is the place the couple choose to start their new lives in, and Clifford’s country estate needed tending. So they employ servants to get the place ready and maintain it. Oliver Mellors (Jack O’Connell) is the gamekeeper of the estates. Connie and Clifford try to come to terms with Clifford’s disability as he needs a lot of tending to. He can’t accompany her outdoors and she starts getting lonely.
Disappointed that Connie can’t bear a child with him, Clifford suggests she have a child with another man as she loves children a lot and he wants an heir. He says if she has a child with another man, Clifford and Connie can raise the child together as a couple in Wragby and the void in their lives won’t exist anymore.
Clifford further explains his idea and warns her to not get emotionally involved with the man she has a child with. She doesn’t even have to tell Clifford the name of the man with whom she would get physically involved.
Though, shocked initially by Clifford’s idea, Connie considers it. When Connie struggles with the emptiness she feels, Hilda visits her. Hilda suggests Connie stop being his sole caregiver and advises Clifford to hire Mrs. Bolton as his caregiver. Mrs. Bolton cared for him when he was a child.
Meanwhile, Connie finds herself getting attracted to Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper, and enquires about him from Mrs. Flint who lives nearby. She gets to know that Oliver was married before but now he lives alone in his hut. She starts visiting the hut often to read up a bit and relax when Oliver isn’t at the hut. All this while, the emotional distance between Connie and Clifford keeps growing, pushing her to into an affair with Oliver.
The affair continues as Connie and Oliver start to emotionally bond with each other. Eventually, they fall deeply in love with each other. After a brief period of the affair, Connie gets pregnant, resulting in Mrs. Bolton suspecting Connie’s affair with Oliver as she had seen them spend a lot of time together a lot of times. In Wragby, rumors start floating around about Connie’s pregnancy.
When he hears about his wife’s pregnancy news, Clifford is elated because it would mean getting an heir. Clifford asks Connie if she is pregnant and she denies it and says she is considering the idea of getting a child from another man. She says it’s better if she found a man away from their place such as Venice so that their plan remains a secret. But in reality, Connie doesn’t want Clifford to know about her affair with their gamekeeper.
Clifford asks her to promise she would come back to him and also tells her not to reveal the name of the father, warning that no one else should know either. Connie reveals to Oliver that she is expecting a child. But Oliver gets upset when he finds out about the arrangement between Clifford and Connie. Oliver feels that he was used by Connie for her selfish gains.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover Ending Explained
Connie assures Oliver that she loves him and wants to be with him and converses with him about running away together. When a misunderstanding takes place between Oliver and Clifford when the latter portrays a lack of sympathy for the former because of his class, Connie lashes out at Clifford. She plans on divorcing Clifford but wants him to believe that she tried to make their marriage work.
Oliver also struggles to divorce his wife as she sticks with him for his money. Before Connie leaves for Venice, Hilda visits her and the former tells her sister about Oliver. When Hilda gets to know about Oliver, she warns her not to open her heart to one of Clifford’s servants.
Did Connie And Oliver Unite?
Connie introduces Hilda to Oliver and she judges him harshly. She warns both of them about the consequences of their affair. Both Connie and Oliver don’t want to give up their child to Clifford. Though initially judgemental and harsh, Hilda tries her best to understand Connie’s feelings and the both of them go to their house in London before Connie leaves for Venice.
Meanwhile, in Wragby, Oliver’s wife’s lover, Flossie, visits Oliver and demands half of his military pension on behalf of his wife. But Oliver refuses and sends him away. But Flossie stealthily enters Oliver’s hut when he isn’t there in a bid to find money and finds a copy of a book Connie left there with her name on it.
Flossie then spreads the news of Oliver and Connie’s affair, resulting in the gossip reaching Clifford. Although it was his idea that Connie has a child with another man, Clifford didn’t want a child of a lower-class man and that too, his servant. He absolutely did not want to be the father of the child. Hence, he decides to have a conversation with Oliver and warns him to leave the place and never come back.
When Mrs. Bolton informs Connie about the news, Connie comes back to Wragby to see Oliver and discuss their future. He promises Connie that he will come back to her and find her wherever she is.
After Oliver leaves Wragby, Connie approaches Clifford for divorce, but he refuses to budge. She then reveals to Clifford that she has been unhappy in the marriage for a long time as she realizes how selfish and narrow-minded he really is. She finally leaves him for good this time.
Mrs. Bolton sympathizes with Connie and warns the workers at Wragby not to gossip about Connie and Oliver’s affair as she left everything to be with Oliver and requests them to inform her if they know about his whereabouts.
In Venice, Connie waits for Oliver patiently every day. Finally, Hilda delivers her a letter written by Oliver. In the letter, Oliver writes about how he has got work and made a home for them in Scotland so that they could live happily. He also mentions that he is lucky to have found his purpose in Connie and their to-be-born child.
After Connie reads the letter, she reaches Scotland and reunites with Oliver to begin a new life with him, away from the classist society they once were a part of.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is now streaming on Netflix.
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