Familial Love- Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers- D.H Lawrence

Yes! Another Lawrence book! I'll be honest though, I haven''t read this one, I'm halfway through it though, and so far, so good. It is loosely based around the Oedipus Complex- and I love when different subjects integrate, in this case, psychology and English, but anyway, happy revising :-) 

Summary

Sons and Lovers initially starts off with the unhappy marriage of Walter and Gertrude Morel, and their four children. Mrs Morel starts to fall out with her husband, and begins to turn her attention towards their four children, of which her elder one, William, dies. She then fills her emotional void of her lack of attention from her husband and death of her son to her other son, Paul. The almost imprisoning nature of Mrs Morel's love towards Paul becomes a cripple, to any romantic relationship that he attempts to maintain, thus eliciting an abnormality in Paul's character as a result of the relationship he has with his mother. 

Theme and Analysis

A lot of the book is based around the Oedipus Complex, as I had said before, so it is awkward finding a specific theme for this book, but one thing that we have to understand now, is that Paul is not romantically linked to his mother. He is just very attached to her. Very. Attached. To the point where no woman can actually compare to how incredible he finds her. Trust me though, they are not romantically linked. Themes: 

-Familial love: Come on. That's pretty obvious. 

Important bits you can memorise: 

Family in 'Sons and Lovers'- There is this unhealthy attachment that Mrs. Morel has to her sons, and the entire Morel's family united resentment for their father. Lawrence uses this book to basically pop our happy balloons about the importance of family bonds or unconditional love. 

Quotes about this: "While the baby was still tiny, the father's temper had become so irritable that it was not to be trusted. The child had only to give a little trouble when the man began to bully. A little more, and the hard hands of the collier hit the baby." It is from very early on in the story that we notice Walter's anger, which would end up destroying him. The fact that he cannot be patient with his own baby shows what an absolute ass he was. I'm not sorry. Also there is, "The deepest of his love belonged to his mother" This kid just flat out admits it. And again, "The two shared lives... his soul seemed always sensitive to her" This may be borderline creepy, considering it is the mother talking about her son. Then again, we're dealing with Freud, can you expect any less?

Love in 'Sons and Lovers'- There is a combination of love and hate in this book. The idea being that people cannot feel love without feeling enmity at the same time. It's a pretty interesting thought actually, because love is a feeling which fulfils out desires to connect with other people, but those connections can only happen when barriers are broken down between us and other people. It is the barriers which makes us individuals. 

Quotes about this: "Whereupon he got up and went out of the house, returning presently and crossing the kitchen with averted face, hurrying upstairs. As Mrs Morel saw him slink quickly through the inner doorway holding his bundle, she laughed to herself: but her heart was bitter because she had loved him" I'll be honest with you, this quote is pretty sinister. It was said after Walter had made an empty threat to leave Mrs Morel forever, but then comes back. All the Mrs can do is laugh, but the reality of the situation is that it is super sad, as she realises she no longer loves her husband, and has become bitter thinking of how far their relationship has fallen. 

Sex in 'Sons and Lovers'- I'm going to skip this intro bit, because the quotes seem to be pretty self explanatory. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Quotes about this: "He never forgot seeing her as she lay on the bed, where he was unfastening his collar. First he saw only her beauty, and was blind with it. She had the most beautiful body he had ever imagined," Yep. It gets better, "He sunk his mouth on her throat, where he felt her heavy pulse beat under his lips" You get the hint. 

Overall Analysis

Throughout the entire book, Lawrence talks about Paul's relationships with Clara and Miriam in romantic terms, and there isn't really anything weird about it. The weird part is where Lawrence uses the same romantic terms to describe Paul#s relationship with his mother. "The mother and son walked down Station Street, feeling the excitement of lover having an adventure together." Its almost as if Lawrence is going out of his way to suggest that there is some sort of unconscious sexual deal going on between mother and son. We read later, that Paul loves sitting between his mother and his beautiful "friend", Miriam, at church, "uniting his two loves under the spell of the place of worship." The direct comparison between Miriam and his mother shows how much influence Lawrence may have had over the Oedipus Complex. There is almost this idea that the characters won't admit it to themselves.Which just leaves us in a state of confusion. 

The fact that it is written in third person allows Lawrence to make us a little more sympathetic towards characters such as Walter, that everyone else hates. 

He uses a lot of similes in his book, for example, "as if all the fire had swum down there" 

Overall, I'd recommend reading it, but its all about the familial love, if you want to ace this exam- read read read!