Sons and LOVERS
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS
PSYCHOLOGICAL NOVEL
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUESCONCEPT OF OEDIPAL COMPLEX
REBELLIOUS FEMALE CHARACTERS
BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY UNIT
FOCUS ON INNER SELF AND CONSCIOUSNESS
ALIENATION OF INDIVIDUAL AND RESULTING LONELINESS
MODERNISTIC TRAITS
Sons and Lovers: An Autobiographical Novel
Sons and Lovers is an autobiographical novel, Lawrence was a tortured soul for the full forty-five years of his life. Being highly
sensitive, he reacted sharply, suffered intensely. His parents never enjoyed conjugal felicity. The home atmosphere was
embittered by their endless bickerings. Repelled, by the coarse brutality of his father, Lawrence developed deep attachment
with his mother. She, too, frustrated in her marriage, leaned heavily on her children, in particular on Lawrence, for emotional
fulfilment and for the realisation of her ambitions. Gradually, there grew an unhealthy inter-dependence between Lawrence and
his mother, that rendered him unfit to establish healthy emotional relationship with other women. Lawrence grew into a self-
conscious neurotic. At the age of sixteen, he had met Jessie Chambers. He liked and loved her. But the dark shadow of his
Oedipal relation with her mother not let him attain emotional fulfilment through Jessie. They hung on to each other for nearly
ten years, but finally broke off. The entire experience had been so painful that in order to work out of his catharsis, Lawrence
had to relive it imaginatively and express it in artistic terms. The result was Sons and Lovers.
Lawrence believes in the law of polarity. If two characters coming in contact with each other in any form of mutual relationship
can achieve ‘polarisation’, they can achieve happiness. There should be no attempt to ‘dominate’ or ‘possess’ the other partner.
For a successful human relationship, the ‘divine otherness’ of the others has to be recognised and respected. Over-dominance
by one results in the loss of identity of the other. And if one’s very identity id threatened, it saps one’s vitality and poisons the
whole relationship. Then there is nothing to salvage it from total destruction. Lawrence does not deny the conflict, nor does he
recommend its cessation. He simply suggests that when two opposites come together, they should endeavour to realise a state,
“where conflict in transcended, a state of still tension, life-sustaining, life-creating, forbidding forever the merging of opposites,
maintaining both in a state of mutual complementary balance”.
In Sons and Lovers, Mrs Morel fails to maintain herself and her husband in a state of ‘mutual complementary balance’. Her
middle class values, very trivial and hollow in themselves, make her contemptuous of her husband. Her love of religion,
philosophy and politics is only an accessory to her ambition of attaining social recognition.
The mutual incompatibility of Mrs Morel and her husband not only destroys the prospects of their personal happiness but also
vitiates the lives even of their children. They come to despise their father and develop an unhealthy attachment with their
mother. Mrs Morel too, frustrated in her married life, makes husband substitutes of her sons. She is jealous of the girls who
come to see William. She makes no attempt to hide her hostility towards Gyp, the girl with whom William gets infatuated in
London. Her open condemnation of Gyp makes William feel guilty of his love. He suffers from an acute mental conflict, but this is
a conflict that cannot be resolved. He has developed such a relation with his mother that it can neither release him nor offer him
any emotional fulfilment. He gets weary of the world and ultimately dies.
Key Points:
"Sons and Lovers" by D. H. Lawrence is often considered a psychological novel due to its intense exploration of the characters'
inner lives.
The novel delves into the Oedipal complex, a psychological theory that suggests a son's unconscious desire for his mother and
rivalry with his father.
Lawrence portrays the protagonist, Paul, as deeply conflicted about his love for his mother and his relationships with other
women.
The novel also explores themes of repressed emotions, familial relationships, and the impact of social class on one's identity.
Lawrence's use of vivid imagery and symbolism further enhances the psychological depth of the novel.
"Sons and Lovers" is an important work in the development of the modern psychological novel and remains a significant piece of
literature today.
Sons and Lovers | Quotes
1.
Each forgot everything save the hatred of the other.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 1
Mr. and Mrs. Morel fight bitterly when he comes home drunk after work. Their relationship swings between violent hatred and
affection, just as Paul's relationship with Miriam swings between love and hate later in the novel.
2.
There was a feeling of misery over all the house.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 2
After a particularly brutal fight in which Mr. Morel hurls a drawer at his wife, misery fills the house. As an outlet for her
desperation Mrs. Morel transfers all the lost affection for her husband onto her sons.
3.
His soul seemed always attentive to her.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4
Even from a young age Paul devotes himself to his mother, and their bond is clear. As Paul matures, his love for his mother
morphs from admiration to romantic affection.
4.
She loved him passionately.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4
Mrs. Morel would do anything for William, and she feels inordinately jealous of his relationships with other young women. She
worries the girls will distract him or take him away from her.
5.
Sleep is still most perfect ... when it is shared with a beloved.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 4
The narrator describes Paul's love for sleeping next to his mother when ill. He finds it warm and secure—two characteristics he
never finds with his lovers. At the end of the novel Paul contemplates suicide after his mother's death so he can return to this
feeling of security.
6.
[They felt] the excitement of lovers having an adventure together.
Narrator, Part 1, Chapter 5
Paul takes his mother with him to Nottingham for his job interview. They treat the trip as a mini vacation, acting more like lovers
than mother and son. This highlights the strongly presented oedipal theme of their relationship.
7.
He hated her, for she seemed in some way to make him despise himself.
Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 7
Paul feels desperate to start a physical relationship with Miriam, but she's too timid. Although they share a deep emotional
bond, Miriam won't give herself fully to Paul, which makes him feel embarrassed of his sexual desires.
8.
Won't you really go any farther?
Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 7
Paul tries to convince Miriam to have sex with him while he's pushing her on a swing. He's directly asking whether he can push
her higher on the swing, but he is symbolically criticizing her for being so chaste.
9.
I talk to her, but I want to come home to you.
Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 8
Mrs. Morel begs Paul not to enter a romance with Miriam because she's terrified he will leave her. Paul insists he loves his
mother more than anyone, and they share a "long, fervent kiss," which further strengthens the novel's oedipal theme.
10.
I don't think I love you as a man ought to love his wife.
Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 9
Paul breaks things off with Miriam in part because his mother doesn't approve of her. Paul claims he doesn't love her like a wife,
but in reality the only woman he's ever loved that way is his mother.
11.
She lay as if she had given herself up to sacrifice.
Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 11
In a last-ditch effort to keep Paul, Miriam agrees to have sex with him. She is "horrified" by the encounter but believes she is
sacrificing her virginity for the greater good: marriage.
12.
Love should give a sense of freedom, not of prison.
Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 13
Paul tries to convince Clara to enter a sexual relationship with him despite the fact that she's already married. He claims they
belong together because they were both stifled by their previous relationships, he with Miriam and her with Baxter Dawes.
13.
He could not be free to go forward with his own life, really love another woman.
Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 13
Paul realizes that his relationship with his mother is suffocating him. He will never be able to love another woman as long as she
is alive.
14.
She's got such a will, it seems as if she would never go—never!
Paul Morel, Part 2, Chapter 14
Now that Paul realizes that his mother is the cause for his romantic unhappiness, part of him wishes her to die so he can be free
from the bondage of her love, no matter how much it pains him.
15.
She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this.
Narrator, Part 2, Chapter 15
After Mrs. Morel dies, Paul is filled with emotion and reflection of their relationship. He knows his mother's love was holding him
back, but he now feels desperately alone without her and even considers suicide so they can be reunited.
