Once again, the first layer of drama affects the second layer of subconscious. His theory of control – that you got what you wanted with vain rebelliousness – has been proven right. And so he becomes yet more vain and rebellious. He’s accepted into the tribe. In a deeply symbolic moment, Sherif Ali, the man who shot his guide, burns his western clothes and dresses him in ‘the robes of a Sherif’. When Lawrence leads the Arabs on a successful assault on the Turkish stronghold, his vanity soars even more. And yet, beneath the level of the surface drama, things have started cracking.
