“Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen sat one morning in the window-bay of their father’s house in Beldover, working and talking.”

This is the opening line of the novel. It introduces the primary female characters, Ursula and Gudrun, and establishes the initial setting of Beldover. This quote also references the previous novel The Rainbow, which features Ursula’s life before the beginning of the events in Women in Love.

“‘Mother,’ called Diana, a handsome girl a little older than Winifred, ‘I may have wine, mayn’t I?’”

Here, the reader meets Diana Crich, who dies in Chapter 14. She is a minor character, only given this one line at the wedding reception in Shortlands. However, her death emotionally impacts all of the main characters, especially her brother, Gerald.

“One man isn’t better than another, not because they are equal, but because they are intrinsically other, that there is no term of comparison.”

Rupert argues that humans are fundamentally distinct from one another rather than the same, and for that reason, equality should be taken for granted. The “other” is a concept that appears in literary theory for someone who is considered an outsider. The insider/outsider binary influences the characters’ relationships throughout the novel.