Character Analysis of Paul Morel in Sons and Lovers

Mother Son relationship (Oedipus Complex in Sons and Lovers)

Any literature achieves its philosophy and expression through comprehension of that
literature, its themes and its nature. It is essential to have a clear-headed conception of the
characters of that writing. Any method of character-creation is a convention. If we talk about
novels, to express the unknown or unconscious modes of being, D.H. Lawrence had to
dispense with characters as it is generally conceived. The majority of novelists tend to draw
character form the outside but Lawrence problem was to express emotions, feelings as they
exist. He rejected the literary tradition which assigns to each person a fixed and definite
character. He described characters at the unconscious level, at the depths and in the darkness.
His characters were not so much social men, though they were interested in themselves.
In the light of the novel, Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence written in 1913, we are
going to discuss the character of Paul Morel the second son and the third child of Mr. and
Mrs. Morel. He is the protagonist of the novel and a clear projection of D.H Lawrence himself.
Paul’s Oedipus complex is Lawrence’s own, and Paul’s dislikes of his father is of Lawrence’s
own dislike for his father. Paul’s love for Miriam has similarity of Lawrence’s love for Jessie
Chambers; and Paul’s sexual relationship with Clara is a representation of Lawrence’s own
sexual relationship with Mrs. Alice Dax.
The frightening and agonizing environment of the house of Morel’s; discord and strife
between his parents, lead him to emotional, mental, physical and psychological fatigue and
devastation. As a child, Paul remained deeply attached to his mother. After the death of his
elder brother, William, he become the center of all the hopes of his mother and struggles
throughout the novel to balance his love for her with his relationships with other women. For
most of his young adult years Paul loves his mother more than anyone else. They acted like
lovers, embraced and cared for each other and took brief trips together.
His soul seemed always attentive to her. (Narrator, Part#1, CH#4)
He had a delicate body which was subjected to recurrent attacks of bronchitis. He, then,
wanted his mot6her’s attention; shared the same bed which helped him to recover.
Sleep is still most perfect … when it is shared with a beloved. (Narrator, Part#1, CH#4)
He felt deep affection for her and whenever went out with Annie, brought something
for her. The attention was given to him by his mother when needed and his mother loved him
more than of her any other child and more than her husband.
She loved him passionately. (Narrator, Part#1, CH#4)
He was called out, summoned by the firm of Mr. Jordan as a reaction of his application
for a post. He went for interview with her mother. He was very nervous. His hand writing was
bad. He faced the critical and sarcastically comments over him. When they came back from
Nottingham, treat the trip as a mini vacation, acting more like lovers than mother and son.
[They felt] the excitement of lovers having an adventure together.
(Narrator, Part#1, CH#5)
At job, he was good with his colleagues mostly with girls and popular among them. He
carried out with painting and on an occasion won a prize for his painting. They triumph brought
great joy to him and his mother as well as his father.
At the age of fifteen, Paul fell in love with Miriam who was at that time fourteen.
Afterward, the great intimate and emotional, relation began to rise between them and they fell
in love with each other. There was the temperamental disparity between them, Miriam was a
girl of Puritan sense and not wanted to established a sexual relationship with Paul. Paul, on the
other hand, wanted a sexual relationship but when he noticed the resistance of Miriam, he
started hate her.
He hated her, for she seemed in some way to make him despise himself.
(Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#7)
Paul tried to convince her to have sex with him while he’s pushing her on a swing. He
is directly asking whether he can push her higher on the swing, but he is symbolically criticizing
her for being so chaste.
Won’t you really go any farther? (Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#7)
But afterward, Miriam agreed for sexual relationship with Paul, because she believed
she is sacrificing her virginity for the sake of marriage.
She lay as if she had given herself up to sacrifice. (Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#11)
But afterward, he broke up with Miriam because his mother does not approve her as his
wife but the reality is the only woman, he loved was his mother and because of his intimation,
emotional and lovely attachment with his mother led him as a failure for his social connections
and also it became the cause of his failure for love-affair with Miriam as well.
I don’t think I love you as a man ought to love his wife. (Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#9)
After broke up with Miriam, Paul was fond of Clara Baxter, a married woman, lived
far from her husband. Paul tried to convince her for a sexual relationship with him. He claimed
that belonged together because they both were stifled by their previous relationships. Clara let
Paul to have a sexual relationship with her.
Love should give a sense of freedom, not of prison. (Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#13)
But his relation was also discovered as a failure because of different thoughts. Clara
though that Paul is so mean and only want a sexual relationship and for the reason he preferred
and directed to her husband back. On the other hand, Paul thought that Clara is more physical
than spiritual which is opposite of Miriam attribution and thought that Miriam loved him most
and deserve him better than Clara and directed back again to Miriam.
 Paul’s excessive love for his mother is described by critics as a manifestation of
Oedipus Complex in him. Their love for each other is based on the natural attraction between
the opposite sexes. At bottom, it is a sexual attraction, though both are entirely unconscious of
any sexual element in their love. Basically, it a suppressed incestuous desire on both sides.
Both were excessively attached with each other, and they remained attached throughout the
life-time or Mrs. Morel. This is the reason that he could not remain with Miriam because of her
mother’s opposition for Miriam. Mrs. Morel begged Paul not to enter a romance with Miriam
because she is terrified, he will leave her. Paul insisted he loved his mother more than anyone,
and they shared a “long, fervent kiss,” which showed the Oedipus Complex in the novel.
I talk to her, but I want to come to you. (Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#8)
Unconsciously he regarded hi mother as his sweetheart and she regarded him as her
sweetheart. She was for him a substitute for a wife; and he was to her a substitute for her
husband. But we cannot comparison the mother with wife and son with husband too far in the
novel.
Once he told his mother his incapacity to retain women’s love for him. He told to her
that girls loved him passionately and madly but only for some time. Mrs. Morel answered him
that he had not yet met a right girl. But he knew the drawbacks in him but could not define
those. He found, Miriam and Clara, both girls in adequate to his sexual and spiritual need; but
he himself was inadequate in some way. Miriam hated him at the time when found the aroused
love feeling for him; Clara started hated him though fully responding to him sexually. Both
found some ugly things in him; at first, when he broke up with Miriam, she told him that she
was behaving like a child of four; Clara found him mean, paltry and insignificant than her
husband Baxter and found her husband better than Paul.
Even after the death of his mother, he was inspired and injected by the thoughts of his
mother; and torn between his mother and his mistress. After the death of his mother, his love
and sex life were interrupted and restricted by the lovely feeling, emotion and attachments with
his mother.
Paul is an introvert and is a young man of artistic nature. He was a kind thinker but is
not busy thinking all the time. He is happy with his external life activities, but whenever he is
in the house alone, he gets lots in his thoughts. He thinks about the excessive spirituality of
Meriam and his love-affair with Miriam. He thinks that why he cannot adjust himself with
Meriam’s nature. He thinks about the hatred of his mother for Miriam. His mother’s
antagonism toward Miriam lead him to hate his mother.
She’s got such a will; it seems as if she would never go – never!
(Paul Morel, Part#2, CH#14)
Now Paul realized that his mother is the cause for his romantic unhappiness, he wishes
her to die so he can be with her love, no matter how much it pains him. There was a love
triangle between Paul, Miriam and Mother.
She was the only thing that held him up, himself, aimed all this. (Narrator, Part#2, CH#15)
After the death of his mother, 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. But he made his mind after; continuing to live
can make his mother also continuing living in this world.
 To conclude we can say that Lawrence has projected the character of Paul
comprehensively. Lawrence showed the emphasis of female dominancy over the children
mostly on boys throughout the novel. Lawrence showed the social, psychological, mental,
sexual and spiritual aspects of characters mostly Paul and his mother exclusively. The
achievement of Lawrence, as a novelist, in Sons and Lovers, showed his mental artistic
approach on the characters to express their emotions, feelings, as they exist far beneath the
surface of gestures.