We prove existence directly through quadratic energy minimization by the parallelogram law. Let . The set contains , and uniform ellipticity gives . Choose a minimizing sequence with . Since , the parallelogram law gives
The differences belong to , so uniform ellipticity and the Poincaré inequality imply
Thus is a Cauchy sequence. Completeness of , applied to , produces with in . The bounded coefficient matrix makes a bounded bilinear form, so . Consequently , and part (i) makes a weak solution.
For uniqueness, the difference of two weak solutions lies in and satisfies . Uniform ellipticity gives almost everywhere, and the Poincaré inequality gives . The argument proves existence and uniqueness without assuming the Lax-Milgram theorem.