D. H. Lawrence has displayed a bold originality of his genius and his consummate artistic finesse in Sons and Lovers. With his pioneering artistry, he deviated from the traditional patter of fiction and tried to break fresh grounds.

1. Sonsand Lovers
- D.H.Lawrence
Assistant Professor,
Indo -American College, Cheyyar.
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2. Born : 11 September 1885 Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England
Died : 2 March 1930 (aged 44), France
Occupation : Novelist, poet
Studied at : University of Nottingham
Genre : Modernism
Novels : Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love,
John Thomas and Lady Jane
Short
Stories : Odour of Chrysanthemum, The Virgin and the Gypsy, The
Rocking-Horse Winner
Lawrence’s fear of negative public opinion may have been one reason for his vague use of
language and the obscure treatment of sex in the novel.
David Herbert Lawrence was born in Nottinghamshire, England where
his father was a miner.
His experience growing up in a coal-mining family provided much of the
inspiration for Sons and Lovers.
Lawrence had many affairs with women in his life, including a
longstanding relationship with Jessie Chambers (on whom the
character of Miriam is based), an engagement to Louie Burrows, and
an eventual elopement to Germany with Frieda Weekly.
Sons and Lovers was written in 1913, and contains many autobiographical details.
Many of Lawrence’s novels were very controversial because of their frank
treatment of sex it is evident in Sons and Lovers.

4. Part II
Both repulsed by and drawn to his mother, Paul is afraid to
leave her but wants to go out on his own, and needs to experience love.
Gradually, he falls into a relationship with Miriam, a farmer's
daughter who attends his church. The two take long walks and have
intellectual conversations about books but Paul resists, in part because
his mother disapproves. At Miriam's family's farm, Paul meets Clara
Dawes, a young woman with, apparently, feminist sympathies who has
separated from her husband, Baxter.
After pressuring Miriam into a physical relationship,
which he finds unsatisfying, Paul breaks with her as he grows more
intimate with Clara, who is more passionate physically. But even she
cannot hold him and he returns to his mother. When his mother dies
soon after, he is alone.
Plot summary
Part I
The refined daughter of a ‘good old burgher family,’ Gertrude
Coppard meets a rough-hewn miner, Walter Morel, at a Christmas dance and
falls into a whirlwind romance characterised by physical passion. But soon after
her marriage to Walter, she realises the difficulties of living off his meagre salary
in a rented house. The couple fight and drift apart and Walter retreats to the pub
after work each day. Gradually, Mrs. Morel's affections shift to her sons
beginning with the oldest, William.
As a boy, William is so attached to his mother that he doesn't enjoy
the fair without her. As he grows older, he defends her against his father's
occasional violence. Eventually, he leaves their Nottinghamshire home for a job
in London, where he begins to rise up into the middle class. He is engaged, but he
detests the girl's superficiality. He dies and Mrs. Morel is heartbroken, but when
Paul catches pneumonia she rediscovers her love for her second son.

5. Characters List
Gertrude Morel
Paul Morel
Walter Morel
William Morel
Annie Morel
Arthur Morel
Miriam Leivers
Clara Dawes
Baxter Dawes
Mrs. Radford
Fanny
John Field
Jerry Purdy
Mr. Heaton
Beatrice Wyld
Thomas Jordan
Louisa Lily Denys
Mr. &Mrs. Leivers
Edgar
Geoffrey
Maurice
Agatha

6. 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.
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.
Character Sketch:

7. William Morel
William, Mrs. Morel's ‘knight,’ is her favourite
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 school teacher 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
Lily, William's girlfriend, is materialistic and vain.
Her condescending behaviour around the Morels irritates
William, and she soon forgets about him after his death.
Character Sketch...
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.

8. Lawrence's finest achievement:
Sons and Lovers (1913) novel by the English writer D. H. Lawrence,
originally published by B.W. Huebsch Publishers. The Modern Library
placed it ninth on their list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. While
the novel initially received a lukewarm critical reception, along with
allegations of obscenity, it is today regarded as a regarded as Lawrence's
finest achievement.
The third published novel of D. H. Lawrence, taken by many to be his
earliest masterpiece, tells the story of Paul Morel, a young man and budding
artist.
Lawrence began working on the novel in the period of his mother's
illness, and often expresses this sense of his mother's wasted life
through his female protagonist Gertrude Morel.
Lawrence rewrote the work four times until he
was happy with it. Although before publication
the work was usually titled Paul Morel,
Lawrence finally settled on Sons and Lovers.
Letters written around the time of its development clearly
demonstrate the admiration he felt for his mother – viewing
her as a 'clever, ironical, delicately moulded woman' — and
her apparently unfortunate marriage to his coal miner
father, a man of 'sanguine temperament' and instability. He
believed that his mother had married below her class
status.

9. Family
Love
Drugs and Alcohol
Women and Feminity
Men and Masculinity
Art and Culture
Technology and Modernisation
Pride
Themes

10. Oedipus complex
D.H. Lawrence was aware of Freud's theory , Sons and
Lovers famously 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.

11. 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.
Twist to the Oedipus complex
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.
Bondage
Lawrence discusses bondage,
or servitude, in two major
ways: social and romantic.
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.’
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.

12. Treatment of jealousy
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.
Morel, too, is jealous over
his wife's closer
relationships with his sons
and over their successes.
Mrs. Morel is constantly
jealous of her sons'
lovers, and she masks
this jealousy very thinly.
Complementing the
theme of bondage is the
novel's treatment of
jealousy.
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.
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.

13. 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.
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 behaviour towards the daffodil.
Nature and flowers

14. "Sons and Lovers" as a Psychological Novel
Sons and Lovers belongs to the category of psychological fiction.
The psychology of the characters and the typical problems, emanating from a
particular psychological pattern form the staple of a psychological novel.
This psychological novel has been ushered in by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
The psycho-analytical novel, as the very name implies, lays stress on psycho-analysis.
The novelist becomes a psychoanalyst and he brings into focus, the subtle and
intricate psychological cross currents.
The analysis of the psychology of the characters is what constitutes the motif of a
psychoanalytical fiction.
The novelist goes deeper and deeper into the innermost crevice of the
psychology of his characters and he brings out or externalizes the subtle
psychological framework of the characters.
It was undoubtedly the great creative fecundity of D. H. Lawrence, which
was responsible for the intention of psychological novel.
The psychological theories and concepts enunciated
and disseminated by Freud and Jung revolutionized
the world of conventional human thought.

15. Stream of consciousness
The psychological novelist including D. H Lawrence has resorted to
a new technical device has rendered immense help to the novelists
in their bid to lay bare the psyche or the soul of the characters.
The plot is rescued from the
bondage of time. The action does
not proceed forward chronologically.
The novelist very often flouts the norm and propriety with
regard to the logical consistency of time. But this resultant
incoherence or inconsistency of structure has been more
than compensated by the exquisite delineation of subtle
psychology of the characters.
In order to suit the artistic purpose, the novelists
make the action move forward and backward.
In this context, the pertinent observation of David
Daichess merited: “The stream of consciousness
technique is a means of escape from the tyranny
of the time dimension.”
This ‘stream of consciousness’ technique
has made possible for the novelists who
experimenting on time and place.

16. Lawrence’s style:
Lawrence’s bold originality is exemplified by his style,
which is impressionistic. His style is more poetic than the
prosaic style of others. He has used plants of vivid images and
symbols.
Long before the efflorescence of ‘the stream of consciousness novels,
Lawrence foreshadowed the style of consciousness novels; Lawrence
foreshadowed these style of this type novels. Lames Joyce and Virginia
Woolf perfected it with their mature artistry.
Impressionistic experiment
Lawrence was primarily concerned with the
inner mind of his characters.
It was the interior and not the exterior that
attracted him.
He sought to portray the ‘shimmeriness of
life’ and he considered this to be the essence.
He has displayed rare artistic
excellence in vivifying the most
complex and complicated
thoughts of the characters
figuring in his novel.
In order to suit his
purpose, Lawrence
has had resource to a
completely new style,
known as
impressionistic
experiment.
This impressionistic style helped him
greatly to reveal the inner life of his
characters. It helped him to transgress
the bounds of language and therefore
his characters have become capable of
giving vent to their complicated feelings
and emotion.

17. D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers – Traditional
Novel or Experimental Novel?
The ‘Oedipus Complex’ constitutes a
psychological problem and this forms the
nucleus of the novel, Sons and Lovers.
D. H. Lawrence has displayed a bold
originality of his genius and his consummate
artistic finesse in Sons and Lovers.
With his pioneering artistry, he deviated from the
traditional patter of fiction and tried to break fresh
grounds.
His originality paved the way for the
emergence of a new literary genre, unknown
to nineteenth century literary circle.
His sharp or distinct departure from
the conventional type of fiction is
evident in the theme of this novel and
in the presentation of the theme.
Lawrence gave due emphasis
to the story-telling aspect.
But at the same time he was very much
conscious of his genius who was apt to
strike a new note, hitherto unexplored
and untouched by the so-called
conventional novelists. Lawrence did not
sell himself as a traditional raconteur.
The primary concern of the conventional 19th
century novelists was with the story-telling aspect.
Lawrence has deliberately flouted the
rule concerning the unity of time.
Lawrence had a rare gift
psychological insight
Hence, the novel is more
experimental than traditional and
Lawrence’s genius flashed with
rare originality in Sons and Lovers.

18. D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers Examined the Oedipus complex or Mother-
Fixation theory of Freud – Sons and Lovers is the masterpiece of D.H. Lawrence
which may be said the priest psychoanalytical novel in English.
The most
striking
feature of
Lawrence’s
characters is
the
resemblance
they bear to
their creator.
Thus, the
protagonist
Paul morel in
Sons and
Lovers is
cruelly a
projection of
Lawrence
himself. The
scene of the
novel is set in
the mining
Autobiographical element in the novel
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 modelled 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
depicted as William.
Jessie Chambers, a neighbour with
whom Lawrence developed an
intense friendship, and who would
become Miriam Leiver in the novel.
Lawrence’s future wife, Frieda von Richtofen,
partially inspired the portrait of Clara Dawes.
Both Ernest and his fictional counterpart,
William, were engaged to London
stenographers.

19. Compared to his later works,
however, such as The Rainbow,
Women in Love, and Lady
Chatterley’s Lover, Sons and
Lovers seems quite modest.
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.

20. Oedipus complex: The idea of the Oedipus complex is derived from the legend
of King Oedipus of Thebes in ancient Greece. Oedipus unknowingly killed his
father and married his mother. He begot two sons and two daughters from her.
Freud, a German psychologist, used the term Oedipus complex to signify the
manifestation of the sexual desire of the child for the parent of the opposite sex.
Sigmund Freud, was an Austrian neurologist the father of
psychoanalysis (a clinical method for treating
psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a
psychoanalyst), was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist
and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. Working
initially in close collaboration with Joseph Breuer, Freud
elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex energy-
system, the structural investigation of which is the proper
province of psychology.
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who
founded analytical psychology. His work has been influential
in psychiatry , in anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and
religious studies. He came to the attention of the Viennese founder
of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. The two men conducted a lengthy
correspondence and collaborated on an initially joint vision of human
psychology. He created some of the best known psychological concepts,
including synchronicity, archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious,
the psychological complex, and extraversion and introversion.
Webster’s Dictionary explains the Oedipus complex as “the unconscious tendency
of a child to be attached to the parent of the opposite sex and hostile towards the
other parent: its persistence in adult life results in neurotic disorders.”

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