Theme of Love in "Sons and Lovers" by D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers depicts the unhappy marriage in between Walter and Gertrude Morel, and their 4 young children. As Mrs. Morel’s connection with her husband begins to disintegrate, she turns her attention to her sons in the hopes of filling the emotional void that her husband no longer can. The imprisoning nature of Mrs. Morel’s adore towards Paul serves to cripple any romantic connection he attempts to keep, eliciting an abnormality in Paul’s character as a outcome of the connection with his mother.

Gertrude and Walter Morel’s unhappy marriage as nicely as an incongruence in between their social classes is problematic because it causes Gertrude to displace her, once passionate, really like for her husband onto her sons. Gertrude Morel, “a rather modest woman, of delicate mould but resolute bearing” (ten), came from a “good old burgher family” (15) exactly where she “loved suggestions, and was deemed extremely intellectual” (17). Conversely, Walter Morel “was opposite” (17) “He was effectively-set-up, erect and quite sensible. He had that rare thing, a wealthy, ringing laugh” (17). Even though Gertrude initially “thought him rather fantastic, by no means having met anyone like him” (18), it is by way of the occurrence of pivotal events, such as Mr. Morel lying about owning their home and not getting paid the furnishings bills to cutting young William’s hair , that we see the Morel’s marriage begin a steady, downward spiral. Macdonald Daly, a critic of the novel, lends some insight into the breakdown of the Morel’s marriage when he explains that “what ruins it decisively is Walter Morel’s inability to provide to Gertrude the bourgeois material standards she has been led to expect their marriage to secure” (82). Mrs. Morel starts to recognize a shift in their relationship when she notices that “her manner had changed towards him” (21), therefore starting a “battle between the husband and wife, a fearful, bloody battle that ended only with the death of one. She fought to make him undertake his personal responsibilities, to make him fulfil his obligations. But he was too distinct from her” (23). Daly further explains that “it is from the failure of this marriage that the huge conflict and heartache at the centre of Sons and Lovers unspool” (82), causing Gertrude to fulfil the inadequacies of Walter by way of yet another supply: her kids.

Though William, the Morel’s eldest son, was the focus of Mrs. Morel’s affection initially, in which “William was a lover to her” (44), it is via Paul that we see the displacement of enjoy from her husband truly manifest itself into the connection between mother and son. As a young boy Mrs. Morel notes how “her treatment of Paul was various from that of the other children” (65), additionally feeling “as if the navel string that had connected [Paul’s] frail small body with hers had not been broken” (51). Robin Ramsay, the course author of the Sons and Lovers unit, explains that “Initially, much of the relationship between Paul and his mother stems from a organic, wholesome, familial intimacy. Only as each and every depends as well a lot on the other does it turn into stifling” (21). Ramsay’s point becomes specially clear when we notice that it is only following William’s death that “Mrs. Morel’s life now rooted itself in Paul” (171). The gradual movement from son to lovers is particularly evident soon after taking a trip to Jordan’s together and “feeling the excitement of lovers having an adventure together” (118), Mrs. Morel was “like a sweetheart” to Paul (117). Paul’s pet names for Mrs. Morel, such as “pigeon” (428), “my love” (434), and “my little” (435), in addition to his intimate behaviour with his mother, “He stroked his mother’s hair, and his mouth was on her throat” (252), depict a connection of lovers rather than one of a maternal nature.

Daly supplies an exciting insight into Mrs. Morel and Paul’s partnership when he discusses the concept of transference, explaining that mothers who are “dissatisfied with their own sexual relationships in marriage, have actively transferred their sexual desires onto their sons. These desires can not be expressed or acted upon because they are incestuous, and incest is a main taboo. The mothers react by sublimating their feelings into other types of need: possessiveness towards, or claims to power over the son” (80). Even so, it is not until Paul becomes interested in embarking upon a romantic connection that we truly see the consequences of Mrs. Morel’s really like for him. Ramsay brings to focus the implications of the mother and son’s connection when he explains that “more and far more, this closeness has sexual overtones and ramifications that have an effect on Paul’s later relationships” (22), with Daly additional adding that Paul’s part towards Mrs. Morel is dual in that “he is both her son and her ‘lover’. But the cost of getting a ‘lover’ to his mother is that it adversely influences his relationships with the other ladies in his life, the far more ‘legitimate’ objects of his sexual desires, Miriam and Clara” (80).

Yet the only “legitimate objects of his sexual desires, Miriam and Clara” can't ever attain fruition simply because “the deepest of [Paul’s] enjoy belonged to his mother” (255), “hers was the strongest tie in his life” (261). It would seem that Miriam and Clara represent various polarities on the spectrum of adore: Paul “loved Miriam with his soul” (319), he “belonged to her” (261), whereas “Clara was certainly passionately in enjoy with him, and he with her, as far as passion went” (395). Despite her son’s happiness, Mrs. Morel is not shy about her reservations of the women he chooses to pursue. When Miriam visited Paul at the Morel residence, “Mrs. Morel sat jealously in her chair” (212), feeling Paul “being drawn away by this girl. And she did not care for Miriam” (196). Ramsay touches on the nature of Paul’s connection with each and every lady and its impact on Mrs. Morel when he explains that “Mrs. Morel can much more readily tolerate someone like Clara than she can Miriam, since Paul’s connection with Clara is primarily physical, whereas Miriam encroaches on those areas of Paul’s life that he also shares with Mrs. Morel” (22). As he ages and his relationships continuously fail to deepen and progress, Paul comes to the realization that “it was as if the pivot and pole of his life, from which he could not escape, was his mother” (261). Perhaps the most important conclusion that Paul arrives at nonetheless, is the condemnation he feels by his mother as a result of their relationship: “Sometimes he hated her, and pulled at her bondage. His life wanted to cost-free itself of her. It was like a circle where life turned back on itself, and got no further. She bore him, loved him, kept him, and his really like turned back into her, so that he could not be totally free to go forward with his personal life, truly love yet another woman” (389).

The consequences of Mrs. Morel and Paul’s relationship are substantial Paul’s attempts at relationships with 1st Miriam and then Clara fail miserably and leave him questioning if he will ever break the hold that his mother has on his soul. Paul’s bond with his mother is so powerful that he is incapable of loving another lady as significantly as he loves his mother a issue that affects his complete life, and as a result, in this way, rendering him an abnormal character.



Performs Cited

Daly, Macdonald. “Relationship and Class in Sons and Lovers.” D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers: A Casebook. Eds. John Worthern and Andrew Harrison. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 77-90. Print.

Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers. 1913. Eds. Helen Baron and Carl Baron. London: Penguin. 2006.

Ramsey, Robin. “Unit 1: Sons and Lovers.” ENGL 424: Modern British Fiction. Kamloops, BC: TRU Open Studying, 2008