D. H. Lawrence and SimCity: “The Man Who Loved Islands” as the Failed Player

Abstract

This paper attempts to understand Cathcart’s tragic death in Lawrence’s “The Man Who Loved Islands” as a failed gameplay, connecting Lawrence’s work with a video game called SimCity. SimCity in general is a city-building video game. The game player as a mayor needs to create and develop her or his own Simcity from a patch of green land. Likewise, Cathcart desperately wants to create his own Simcity. On the first island, he fails to create his Simcity because it is his first time. He does not know how to manage the complex interpersonal and financial aspects of running a Simcity. On his second play, Cathcart seems to win because he has learned about how to deal with those situations. However, his romantic relationship with Flora makes Cathcart a Sim and Flora the Master, and so Cathcart loses the ability to create his utopia if he cannot be the master. Cathcart pares down his potential Simcity even further by choosing an uninhabited island; Cathcart hopes to successfully create a utopia with as little interference as possible. However, the severe snow that Cathcart encounters three times not only destroys his Simcity, but it also kills him. In this respect, Cathcart’s death should be understood as his losing the game.