The Representation of the Snake in D.H. Lawrence's ''Snake'' and Abou Al Kasim Al Shabby's ''The Philosophy of the Sacred Snake''

Perhaps more than any other symbol, the snake is one of the most common and multifaceted. In spite of the evil that the image of the snake summons in our minds and the fear it provokes in our hearts, the snake symbolizes a number of contradictory elements in different cultures. Although the negative aspects that the snake stands for have been widely used, the snake symbolizes also some other positive aspects such as power, healing, and immortality.

From the earliest records of civilization it is clear that the snake played a significant cultural role, as an enigmatic creature with supernatural powers, alternatively seen (even in the same community) as benevolent creator and protector of wisdom and eternal life, or perpetrator of evil and agent of death. Serpents are mythologically associated with the origin of the world and creation, with veneration of ancestors, bestowal of wisdom and power and as a symbol of mother earth and eternity.

                                                                                                     (Retief      553)                                                                                                                                                     

In both Greek and Roman cultures, the snake stands for medical excellence and healing from poison and so the Greek god of medicine Asclepius – the name that was modified by the Romans to be Aesculapius – has been depicted as a snake; a similar depiction linking the snake to medicine is still used in the medical field. Because a snake can cause death to its prey or let him stay alive, snakes, in ancient Greece as well as in Ancient Egypt, are said to be the intermediary between life and death, the earthly life and the underworld, and because they shed their skin during their life cycle, snakes stand for immortality ''a serpent biting its tail was a common Egyptian emblem for eternity'' (Skinner 44). The pharaoh's crown thus carried the image of the snake goddess of Lower Egypt ''Wadjet'' (Skinner 45) as a guardian and a protector of the king. In addition to the good aspects that the snake symbolizes in ancient Egypt, a number of devils and evil spirits took the form of snakes. Apophis ''the serpent of darkness'' was probably the most prominent (Skinner 45).

That the opposites are not always in conflict is a fact that is emphasized by the dual nature of the snake, which brings together such paradoxes as life and death, poison and cure, good and evil in one entity. Much more emphasis is given to this fact through the biblical story of Moses and the serpent in which the snake stands for both God's benevolent deeds and devil's malicious deeds. The Lord asked Moses and his brother Aaron to go to the Pharaoh to ask him to let the people of Israel go out of Egypt but the Pharaoh refused and asked them to prove their prophecy by a miracle and so they cast down their pole which turned into a snake. Angrily, the Pharaoh, in order to overcome them and refute their evidence, commanded all the sorcerers to come to show people their arts of magic. Obediently, they cast down their poles which also turned into snakes but Aaron's pole swallowed their poles (The Bible, Exodus 7: 8-12). The story is also mentioned in some verses from The Holy Qur'n.   ''He said, “What if I bring you something convincing?” He said, “Bring it, if you are being truthful.” So he cast his staff; and it was a serpent, plain to see'' (The Qur'an, Ash – Shu'ara 30-32). ''Now throw down what is in your right hand—it will swallow what they have crafted. What they have crafted is only a magician’s trickery. But the magician will not succeed, no matter what he does.”(The Qur'an, Taha 69). ''Then Moses threw his staff, and behold, it began swallowing their trickery'' (The Qur'an, Ash – Shu'ara 45). Away from the dual nature of the snake as presented in the Bible, The snake is depicted in these chapters from The Holy Qur'an as a fearful creature; God asks Moses to throw his cane down in order to cast terror in the heart of Pharaoh and his followers. The detested image of the snake is also affirmed by some sayings from Sunna. The prophet Mohammed asks Muslims to kill the snake because it is a devil ''in Al Madina, there are a number of jinn; if you see any of them, give it a chance to leave thrice then kill it; it is a devil'' (Moslem 2236); elsewhere he says ''kill the black two in prayer, the snake and the scorpion'' (Ibn Maga 1245). The snake is also known as a kind of God's punishment for disobedience; according to the Islamic beliefs it appears in the graves of those who do not pray. The presence of the snake as an evil loathed creature is still recurrent in some important situations from the Islamic history; among these situations – although it is not proved to be true – is that of Abu Bakr Al Sdeek who was stung by a snake when he was with the Prophet Mohammed in Heraa grotto.     

In the Bible, the story of Moses' bronze snake is mentioned. On their way out of Egypt, the people of Israel witnessed a lot of hardships; they found no water and no food and so they wrathfully spoke against The Lord and Moses, blaming them as they were the main cause of their inevitable death. As a punishment, God sent them some blazing serpents and many of them were bitten. They went to Moses to repent asking him to pray to God to forgive them and dismiss the serpents. When Moses prayed to God, God asked him to make a flaming snake and put it on a cane and those who were bitten by the snakes would be good if they saw Moses' bronze snake (The Bible, Numbers21: 4-9).

The popularity, however,  of the image of the snake as the embodiment of evil and fright comes perhaps from its accordance with the initial image of the snake in the Bible in which the snake seduces Eve to eat from the forbidden tree, the sin that has affected humanity (The Bible, Genesis 3: 1-6). Jacques Derrida asserts that the book of Genesis is the main source that depicts animals as passive silent creatures and consequently animals are misrepresented in cultural heritage. For a full understanding of the other beings, how it is different from us as humans, and the shape of the relationship between animals and humans, it is important, Derrida stresses, to rethink the status of animals as distinct from their depiction in the book of Genesis.  Derrida finds that poetry is the most suitable sphere to handle the relation between human and nonhuman species since poetry always stands by the side of the other speaking on behalf of him (Barcz 168-69).

This study, therefore, aims to answer such questions as what do Lawrence and Abou Al Kasim Al Shabby's snakes represent? What are the main differences between their snakes? Do their different cultures affect their views? What are the main devices both of them employ to support their viewpoints?

In a revolution against the most familiar image of the snake as a loathsome awful reptile, D. H. Lawrence in his poem ''Snake'' (349-51) chooses to present the rare image of the good snake.  To fully grasp Lawrence's poetry on animals, one must look at his philosophical views on nature. Lawrence rejected the forces of society and believed instead in the forces of nature and in the distinct life of all living organisms. Unlike the human world's perversity, the natural world of flowers, birds, and animals is marked by its purity, spontaneity, and naturalness. Lawrence consequently had longing to delve into ''the blood, the flesh of man, of animals, of flowers'' and to make such ''union with this life force, this dark, unseen flow was a means of justifying human life and breaking down walls of human isolation'' (Williams 79). In his works Lawrence celebrated this living world, stressing that man should be in touch with nature in order to be in touch with its Creator. In her book Stalking the Subject: Modernism and the Animal, Carrie Rohman states that animals are peculiar beings that reject mechanical responses and embrace inherent secrets; Lawrence sought to make humans adopt such traits (101).

From the very beginning of Lawrence's poem, the snake is depicted as an innocent, harmless creature. As the poem goes on, the snake is deified and given heavenly glory and royal splendor as well. The poem depicts an encounter between the speaker and a snake. On a hot day in Sicily, the poet in his pajamas goes to his water trough to fill his pitcher and suddenly finds the snake there for the same purpose. He waits in complete respect for this thirsty creature that came first.

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, 
To drink there.