Week 1 Lecture 1 Sons and Lovers

Though D. H. Lawrence's third published novel, Sons and Lovers(1913) is largely

autobiographical. The novel, which began as "Paul Morel," was sparked by the
death of Lawrence's mother, Lydia. Lawrence reexamined his childhood, his
relationship with his mother, and her psychological effect on his sexuality.

The roots of Sons and Lovers are clearly located in Lawrence's life. His childhood
coal-mining town of Eastwood was changed, with a sardonic twist, to
Bestwood. Walter Morel was modeled on Lawrence's hard-drinking, irresponsible
collier father, Arthur. Lydia became Gertrude Morel, the intellectually stifled,
unhappy mother who lives through her sons. The death by erysipelas of one of
Lawrence's elder brothers, Ernest, and Lydia's grief and eventual obsession with
Lawrence, seems hardly changed in the novel. (Both Ernest and his fictional
counterpart, William, were engaged to London stenographers named Louisa
"Gipsy" Denys.)

Filling out the cast of important characters was Jessie Chambers, a neighbor with
whom Lawrence developed an intense friendship, and who would become Miriam
Leiver in the novel. His mother and family disapproved of their relationship, which
always seemed on the brink of romance. Nevertheless, Chambers was Lawrence's
greatest literary supporter in his early years, and he frequently showed her drafts of
what he was working on, including Sons and Lovers (she disliked her depiction,
and it led to the dissolution of their relationship). Lawrence's future wife, Frieda
von Richtofen Weekly, partially inspired the portrait of Clara Dawes, the older,
sensual woman with whom Paul has an affair. To be fair, Lawrence met Frieda
only in 1912 at Nottingham University College, and he started "Paul Morel" in
1910.

Considered Lawrence's first masterpiece, most critics of the day praised Sons and
Lovers for its authentic treatment of industrial life and sexuality. There is evidence
that Lawrence was aware of Sigmund Freud's early theories on sexuality, and Sons
and Lovers deeply explores and revises of one of Freud's major theories, the
Oedipus complex. (Lawrence would go on to write more works on psychoanalysis
in the 1920s.) Still, the book received some criticism from those who felt the
author had gone too far in his description of Paul's confused sexuality. Compared
to his later works, however, such as The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady
Chatterley's Lover, Sons and Lovers seem quite modest.

Sons and Lovers Summary

Gertrude Morel has an unhappy marriage to coal-miner Walter Morel in the
English town of Bestwood. She is most devoted to her eldest son, William. Her
second, sensitive son, Paul, grows up and works in a factory while painting on the
side. William dies of a skin disease, and Mrs. Morel plunges into grief.
Rededicating her life to Paul revives her, and the two become inseparable.

Paul, now a young man, spends a great deal of time with Miriam Leiver, a chaste,
religious girl who lives on a nearby farm. Their Platonic relationship is intense and
romantic, but they never approach physical intimacy. Mrs. Morel bitterly dislikes
Miriam, feeling she is trying to take her son away from her. Paul grows attracted
to Clara Dawes, an older, sensual woman separated from her husband. Finally,
Paul and Miriam have sex, but he soon loses interest in her, unwilling to be bound
to her in marriage or love.

Paul and Clara have sex and a romance blossoms, but her estranged
husband, Baxter Dawes, savagely beats Paul one night. Mrs. Morel develops a
tumor and, after a long struggle, dies. Paul arranges the reunion of Clara and
Dawes, whom he has befriended since their fight. Paul and Morel move out of the
house to separate locations. Paul feels lost, unable to paint any more. Miriam
makes a last appeal to him for romance, but he rejects her. He feels suicidal one
night, but changes his mind and resolves not to "give into the darkness."
 Sons and Lovers Character List
Paul Morel
Paul is the protagonist of the novel, and we follow his life from infancy to his early
twenties. He is sensitive, temperamental, artistic (a painter), and unceasingly
devoted to his mother. They are inseparable; he confides everything in her, works
and paints to please her, and nurses her as she dies. Paul has ultimately
unsuccessful romances with Miriam Leiver and Clara Dawes, always alternating
between great love and hatred for each of them. His relationship fails with Miriam
because she is too sacrificial and virginal to claim him as hers, whereas it fails with
Clara because, it seems, she has never given up on her estranged husband.
However, the major reason behind Paul's break-ups is the long shadow of his
mother; no woman can ever equal her in his eyes, and he can never free himself
from her possession.

Gertrude Morel
Mrs. Morel is unhappily married to Walter Morel, and she redirects her attention to
her children, her only passion in life. She is first obsessed with William, but his
death leaves her empty and redirects her energies toward Paul. She bitterly
disapproves of all the women these two sons encounter, masking her jealousy with
other excuses. A natural intellectual, she also feels society has limited her
opportunities as a woman, another reason she lives through Paul.

Miriam Leiver
Miriam is a virginal, religious girl who lives on a farm near the Morels, and she is
Paul's first love. However, their relationship takes ages to move beyond the
Platonic and into the romantic. She loves Paul deeply, but he never wants to marry
her and "belong" to her, in his words. Rather, he sees her more as a sacrificial,
spiritual soul mate and less as a sensual, romantic lover. Mrs. Morel, who feels
threatened by Miriam's intellectuality, always reinforces his disdain for Miriam.
Clara Dawes
Clara is an older women estranged from her husband, Baxter Dawes. Unlike the
intellectual Miriam, Clara seems to represent the body. Her sensuality attracts Paul,
as does her elusiveness and mysteriousness. However, she loses this elusiveness as
their affair continues, and Paul feels she has always "belonged" to her husband.

Walter Morel
Morel, the coal-mining head of the family, was once a humorous, lively man, but
over time he has become a cruel, selfish alcoholic. His family, especially Mrs.
Morel, despises him, and Paul frequently entertains fantasies of his father's dying.

William Morel
William, Mrs. Morel's "knight," is her favorite son. But when he moves away, she
disapproves of his new lifestyle and new girlfriends, especially Lily. His death
plunges Mrs. Morel into grief.

Baxter Dawes Dawes, a burly, handsome man, is estranged from his wife,
Clara Dawes, because of his infidelity. He resents Paul for taking Clara, but over
time the men become friends.

Annie Morel Annie is the Morel's only daughter. She is a schoolteacher who
leaves home fairly early.

Arthur Morel Arthur, the youngest Morel son, is exceptionally handsome, but
also immature. He rashly enters the military, and it takes a while until he gets out.
He marries Beatrice.

Louisa Lily Denys Western Lily, William's girlfriend, is materialistic and

vain. Her condescending behavior around the Morels irritates William, and she
soon forgets about him after his death.
The Leivers The Leivers own a nearby farm that Paul and Mrs. Morel visit.
They have three sons‹Edgar being the eldest‹and two daughters, including
Miriam.

Edgar Leivers The eldest Leiver son, Edgar and Paul become friends.
Agatha Leivers The elder sister of Miriam, Agatha is a school-teacher who
fights with Miriam for Paul's attention.

Beatrice A friend of the Morel's who stops by and insults Miriam and flirts with
Paul. She eventually marries Arthur.

Mrs. Radford Clara's mother, with whom she lives. Clara is embarrassed by
her.

Thomas Jordan A curt, old man, Jordan employs Paul at his warehouse of
surgical appliances.

Pappleworth Paul's supervisor at Jordan's.

Fanny A lively hunchback who works at Jordan's.
Polly Worker at Jordan's whom Paul regularly has dinner with.
Connie An attractive, redheaded worker at Jordan's.
Louie Facetious worker at Jordan's.
Emma Old, condescending worker at Jordan's.
Mr. Heaton Clergyman who visits Mrs. Morel and becomes Paul's godfather.
Dr. Ansel Mrs. Morel's doctor.
Jerry Purdy Friend of Morel's.
John Field Childhood friend of Mrs. Morel's.
 Sons and Lovers Themes
Oedipus complex
Perhaps Sigmund Freud's most celebrated theory of sexuality, the Oedipus
complex takes its name from the title character of the Greek play Oedipus Rex. In
the story, Oedipus is prophesied to murder his father and have sex with his mother
(and he does, though unwittingly). Freud argued that these repressed desires are
present in most young boys. (The female version is called the Electra complex.)

D.H. Lawrence was aware of Freud's theory, and Sons and Loversfamously uses
the Oedipus complex as its base for exploring Paul's relationship with his mother.
Paul is hopelessly devoted to his mother, and that love often borders on romantic
desire. Lawrence writes many scenes between the two that go beyond the bounds
of conventional mother-son love. Completing the Oedipal equation, Paul
murderously hates his father and often fantasizes about his death.

Paul assuages his guilty, incestuous feelings by transferring them elsewhere, and
the greatest receivers are Miriam and Clara (note that transference is another
Freudian term). However, Paul cannot love either woman nearly as much as he
does his mother, though he does not always realize that this is an impediment to his
romantic life. The older, independent Clara, especially, is a failed maternal
substitute for Paul. In this setup, Baxter Dawes can be seen as an imposing father
figure; his savage beating of Paul, then, can be viewed as Paul's unconsciously
desired punishment for his guilt. Paul's eagerness to befriend Dawes once he is ill
(which makes him something like the murdered father) further reveals his guilt
over the situation.

But Lawrence adds a twist to the Oedipus complex: Mrs. Morel is saddled with it
as well. She desires both William and Paul in near-romantic ways, and she despises
all their girlfriends. She, too, engages in transference, projecting her dissatisfaction
with her marriage onto her smothering love for her sons. At the end of the novel,
Paul takes a major step in releasing himself from his Oedipus complex. He
intentionally overdoses his dying mother with morphia, an act that reduces her
suffering but also subverts his Oedipal fate, since he does not kill his father, but his
mother.
Bondage
Lawrence discusses bondage, or servitude, in two major ways: social and romantic.
Socially, Mrs. Morel feels bound by her status as a woman and by industrialism.
She complains of feeling "'buried alive,'" a logical lament for someone married to a
miner, and even the children feel they are in a "tight place of anxiety." Though she
joins a women's group, she must remain a housewife for life, and thus is jealous of
Miriam, who is able to utilize her intellect in more opportunities. Ironically, Paul
feels free in his job at the factory, enjoying the work and the company of the
working-class women, though one gets the sense that he would still rather be
painting.

Romantic bondage is given far more emphasis in the novel. Paul (and William, to a
somewhat lesser extent) feels bound to his mother, and cannot imagine ever
abandoning her or even marrying anyone else. He is preoccupied with the notion of
lovers "belonging" to each other, and his true desire, revealed at the end, is for a
woman to claim him forcefully as her own. He feels the sacrificial Miriam fails in
this regard and that Clara always belonged to Baxter Dawes. It is clear that no
woman could ever match the intensity and steadfastness of his mother's claim.

Complementing the theme of bondage is the novel's treatment of jealousy. Mrs.

Morel is constantly jealous of her sons' lovers, and she masks this jealousy very
thinly. Morel, too, is jealous over his wife's closer relationships with his sons and
over their successes. Paul frequently rouses jealousy in Miriam with his flirtations
with Agatha Leiver and Beatrice, and Dawes is violently jealous of Paul's romance
with Clara.

Contradictions and oppositions

Lawrence demonstrates how contradictions emerge so easily in human nature,
especially with love and hate. Paul vacillates between hatred and love for all the
women in his life, including his mother at times. Often he loves and hates at the
same time, especially with Miriam. Mrs. Morel, too, has some reserve of love for
her husband even when she hates him, although this love dissipates over time.

Lawrence also uses the opposition of the body and mind to expose the
contradictory nature of desire; frequently, characters pair up with someone who is
quite unlike them. Mrs. Morel initially likes the hearty, vigorous Morel because he
is so far removed from her dainty, refined, intellectual nature. Paul's attraction to
Miriam, his spiritual soul mate, is less intense than his desire for the sensual,
physical Clara.

The decay of the body also influences the spiritual relationships. When Mrs. Morel
dies, Morel grows more sensitive, though he still refuses to look at her body.
Dawes's illness, too, removes his threat to Paul, who befriends his ailing rival.

Nature and flowers

Sons and Lovers has a great deal of description of the natural environment. Often,
the weather and environment reflect the characters' emotions through the literary
technique of pathetic fallacy. The description is frequently eroticized, both to
indicate sexual energy and to slip pass the censors in Lawrence's repressive time.

Lawrence's characters also experience moments of transcendence while alone in

nature, much as the Romantics did. More frequently, characters bond deeply while
in nature. Lawrence uses flowers throughout the novel to symbolize these deep
connections. However, flowers are sometimes agents of division, as when Paul is
repulsed by Miriam's fawning behavior towards the daffodil.