How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
His bicycle seemed to fall beneath him, and he loved it. Recklessness is almost a man's revenge on a woman. He feels he is not valued, so he will risk destroying himself to deprive her altogether. (8.210)
It's very rare for Lawrence's narrator to make an omniscient statement about male behavior in this novel, but that's exactly what happens here. On a total whim, Paul decides that he wants to punish Miriam for not doing or saying exactly what he wanted. So he hops on his broken bike and goes flying off down a hill just to make her worry. Clearly, he's willing to risk significant harm just for the sake of showing Miriam that she can't control him in any way. What a dummy.
Quote #8
Why did she make him feel as if he were uncertain of himself, insecure, an indefinite thing, as if he had not sufficient sheathing to prevent the night and the space breaking into him? How he hated her! And then, what a rush of tenderness and humility! (8.237)
Paul can't stand the way that Miriam always holds him to a certain moral code. Like all men in this book, Paul seeks the freedom to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. As a man, he thinks he was born to be wild.
Quote #9
"What do you make such a fuss for?" cried Paul, all in suffering because of her extreme emotion. "Why can't you be ordinary with him?" (7.151)
Here, Paul reacts strongly against Miriam's need to rob her little brother of his independence. But it's clear that he's actually playing out his own anxieties about Miriam's clinginess. She's really needy when it comes to this love business.