Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
In a famous letter written shortly after completing Sons and Lovers, Lawrence describes the novel this way: "a woman of character and refinement goes into the lower class, and has no satisfaction in her own life." Her life comes to revolve around her sons, William, the eldest, and especially Paul, the second son. Lawrence continues: "But when they come to manhood they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives, and holds them. . . . all the sons hate and are jealous of the father." Clearly, this is an example of what became known, after Freud, as an oedipal relationship, but the situation Lawrence describes does not derive from psychoanalytic theory. It derives from his own life. 2 1/2 years before the publication of Sons and Lovers he wrote, "I was born hating my father . . . There has been a kind of bond between me and my mother . . . It has been rather terrible, and has made me, in some respects, abnormal."
Sons and Lovers presents a working class family: the father, Walter Morel, is a coal miner. Uneducated, barely literate, and frequently drunk, he is boorish, dishonest and almost entirely unattractive, although there are a few passages where he is described sympathetically and we see some endearing traits. His wife, Gertrude Morel, is intelligent, educated, from a middle class family, with a strong sense of duty and a will of iron.
Sons and Lovers is autobiographical not only in that the central theme, summarized above, is drawn from Lawrence's own life, but also in that he draws on his experience growing up in a coal mining community, on his knowledge of the surrounding towns and countryside, and his familiarity with the daily life of a miner. Nevertheless, there is no social criticism. We get no attacks on industrialization, no outrage about the despoiling of the landscape, and no deploring the miners' low pay or working conditions. The surrounding country and the life in the mine is a backdrop, not the principal focus, and the same holds for many of the descriptions of family life, which are not presented for their own sakes. Incidents are selected as they relate to developing the theme set out in the letter quoted above. We begin with William's early childhood and growth, then the birth and growing up of Paul. There is also a third son, Arthur, who figures only peripherally in the story.
When William, grown up, moves to London and becomes engaged, there is a struggle. Mrs. Morel disapproves of the woman he has chosen (who is indeed an entirely unappealing character) and urges him to break it off. That struggle is never resolved, because of the untimely death of William from erysipelas, but when Paul becomes romantically involved first with Miriam and then with Clara, the struggle resumes in earnest. Mrs. Morel does not think that either Miriam or Clara is right for Paul. Paul vacillates. We come to realize, however, that hard as it might be for Mrs. Morel if Paul were to marry and leave home, she does not object to his getting married to the right woman; indeed she tells him at one point that every man ought to marry. The real struggle is of Paul within himself: he cannot bear to leave his mother. Paul's inner struggle can only end with the death of Mrs. Morel, and it is unclear, at the end of the book, whether even that event can liberate him.
I had some minor reservations about the novel. I thought some of the transitions were too abrupt, there were some inconsistencies in the descriptions of the Morel family life, and I thought the prose, though adequate and straightforward, was mostly not distinguished. But those are minor points; they did not really get in the way. I enjoyed Sons and Lovers and would definitely recommend it.
Sons and Lovers presents a working class family: the father, Walter Morel, is a coal miner. Uneducated, barely literate, and frequently drunk, he is boorish, dishonest and almost entirely unattractive, although there are a few passages where he is described sympathetically and we see some endearing traits. His wife, Gertrude Morel, is intelligent, educated, from a middle class family, with a strong sense of duty and a will of iron.
Sons and Lovers is autobiographical not only in that the central theme, summarized above, is drawn from Lawrence's own life, but also in that he draws on his experience growing up in a coal mining community, on his knowledge of the surrounding towns and countryside, and his familiarity with the daily life of a miner. Nevertheless, there is no social criticism. We get no attacks on industrialization, no outrage about the despoiling of the landscape, and no deploring the miners' low pay or working conditions. The surrounding country and the life in the mine is a backdrop, not the principal focus, and the same holds for many of the descriptions of family life, which are not presented for their own sakes. Incidents are selected as they relate to developing the theme set out in the letter quoted above. We begin with William's early childhood and growth, then the birth and growing up of Paul. There is also a third son, Arthur, who figures only peripherally in the story.
When William, grown up, moves to London and becomes engaged, there is a struggle. Mrs. Morel disapproves of the woman he has chosen (who is indeed an entirely unappealing character) and urges him to break it off. That struggle is never resolved, because of the untimely death of William from erysipelas, but when Paul becomes romantically involved first with Miriam and then with Clara, the struggle resumes in earnest. Mrs. Morel does not think that either Miriam or Clara is right for Paul. Paul vacillates. We come to realize, however, that hard as it might be for Mrs. Morel if Paul were to marry and leave home, she does not object to his getting married to the right woman; indeed she tells him at one point that every man ought to marry. The real struggle is of Paul within himself: he cannot bear to leave his mother. Paul's inner struggle can only end with the death of Mrs. Morel, and it is unclear, at the end of the book, whether even that event can liberate him.
I had some minor reservations about the novel. I thought some of the transitions were too abrupt, there were some inconsistencies in the descriptions of the Morel family life, and I thought the prose, though adequate and straightforward, was mostly not distinguished. But those are minor points; they did not really get in the way. I enjoyed Sons and Lovers and would definitely recommend it.