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THEMES OF SONS AND LOVERS

D.H Lawrence is regarded as one of the best and most innovative British authors of the

twentieth century. His third novel, Sons and Lovers, was his first productive novel and

undoubtedly his most influential novel, too. Many of the aspects of the story of the novel are

based on the life of Lawrence, which makes it an autobiographical novel. Unlike his later novels,

Sons and Lovers is comparatively simple in its explanations and acts. The narrative speaks of

growing up of Paul Morel, Gertrude Morel’s second child, and her husband who has drinking

problems Walter Morel, a miner. While Mrs. Morel continues to pursue sense in her relationship

with Paul in her life and emotional satisfaction, Paul is trying to break away from his mother by

establishing ties with other women. The novel contains several themes that indicate Oedipus

complex, passion, bondage, nature, and death.

Oedipus complex demonstrates if a son sexually desires his mother and feels intensely jealous

of the father. Lawrence approaches this theme in two ways: typically, through young William and

Paul’s affection to their mother, and in turn, through the clutching affection of Mrs. Morel for her

sons. William and Paul completely admire their mother. For instance, when they are in the fair,

William wins eggcups for Mrs. Morel with the exact same emotional flourish a lover would win

his girlfriend a gift. Mrs. Morel feels an intense affection for her sons that seems normal, though

ambitious. Consequently, after the children attain puberty and start giving their affection to other

girls, their bond with their mother happens to be more unstable and uncertain. Mrs. Morel cannot

stand William displaying love to other girls. She gets jealous of his affection, especially after

seeing photographs of Lily that seem seductive and young.

To please his mother, William scathes a collection of love letters just to show that he loves her

most. When William passes away at a young age, during her mourning, Paul catches pneumonia.

Afterwards, Mrs. Morel notices that she must have ‘watched the living, not the dead.’1 (Lawrence

162) Losing William makes her love Paul just like she loved William.

‘’Mrs. Morel’s life now rooted itself in Paul.’’ 2(Lawrence 162)

Paul’s attachment to his mother is even tangible from the beginning. He remains home to be with

his mother, taking ideas for his art from her and deliberating the shopping bargains. Throughout

any condition far from his mother makes him feel distressed. As a young person, Paul dreams of

living in a tiny cottage with Mrs. Morel, instead of thinking of establishing a family or

developing a career. Once he has a job interview, he brings his mother with him with ‘’the

excitement of lovers having an adventure together.’’3 (Lawrence 108) Paul cannot get rid of his

obsessive relationship with his mother even though he has romanticism with Miriam and Clara.

Paul talks with his mother about love and says that there is possibly a problem with him and he

cannot love someone. Mrs. Morel claims that he hasn’t found a suitable woman, afterwards Paul

responds he is never going to find a suitable woman as long as she lives. Finally, the last problem

of the Oedipus complex is when Mrs. Morel is on her death bed, suffering, Paul provides her an

overdosed morphic injection to relieve the pain of her. Despite the fact that he wants her to die,

his bondage with his mother continues. He feels as if a piece of his soul is dying with her, too.

Even after her death, the life of Paul still has the echos of her affection towards him.

1
D.H Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, p.162
2
D.H Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, p.162
3
D.H Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, p.108
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He does not want a sacrificing marriage like Miriam or a seductive romance like Clara’s. He

desires somebody like his mother, with a suffocating, jealous and devastating affection, will

firmly claim him.

Throughout every point in Sons and Lovers, every character of the novel handles with the

feeling of passion. Mrs. Morel loves William and Paul with a passion which directs her life by

any other actions. However, both William and Paul fail under the suffocating weight of their

mother’s desire for them to pursue their own passions. No woman ever compares favorably to

their mother, and there cannot be any job that is worthwhile enough to keep their distance from

home. Social projects are worthy enough for their attention only if Mrs. Morel accepts. Since

Paul’s Oedipal relationship with Mrs. Morel has so distorted his concept of passion, he doesn’t

quite comprehend how to love another individual. He desires Clara that can be described as

physical love, however, he remains spiritually linked to Miriam that can be defined as emotional

love, even though he is not pleased by either of the relationships. Passion occasionally

destructively expresses itself, as in the partnership between Mr. And Mrs. Morel. The pair moves

in their complex, violent marriage between hatred and love. Mr. Morel strikes violently at his

wife, as though, during a fight, he throws a drawer at Mrs. Morel, then expresses guilt as he

damages her. Even though Mrs. Morel feels hatred against her husband, she feels concerned

whenever he leaves, she even has a romantic affection to him when he gives her a tea after their

fight. Through his injury, she cares devotedly for him. Paul, emotionally, reflects this unstable

passion by feeling intense affection one moment in relationships with women, such as Mrs.

Morel and Miriam, then resentment the next. Characters also reveal a passion for other things

besides love.
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For instance, Mrs. Morel has a passion for religious values, and Paul discovers that he is

passionate about painting, although he undoubtedly uses artistic expression to describe his

passion for his mother.

Even if they know what they want from their lifetimes, something is pulling back the

characters in the novel. Suffocating affection of Mrs. Morel for William and Paul is the most

apparent aspect of bondage in Sons and Lovers. Instead of giving the boys a feeling of

empowerment to experience life, they are held back by their relationship with Mrs. Morel,

especially from experiencing another spiritual love. None of William’s partners measure up to the

standards of Mrs. Morel, and to relieve her resentment he destroys his lover’s love letters.

Likewise, Paul is so consumed by his mother’s love that instead of meeting a wife and

establishing a family, he dreams of staying with his mother forever in a tiny cottage. At the

conclusion of the novel, helping to end the life of his mother by saving her from the agony of

sickness helps Paul to break the bondage of the love of Mrs. Morel. Many intense factors also

hold the men in the novel back. Through the marriage of Morel’s, alcoholism appears as a

bondage. Since Mr. Morel is an alcoholic, he often steals and tells a lot of lies. Mrs. Morel

obviously despises her husband fort he way he behaves his family with drunkenness, however,

she cannot abandon him, partially due to marital bondage. In the meantime, characters are kept

back by their social status bondage, which limits admission to education, career opportunities,

and romantic relationships. Women are especially obstructed by societal norms, for instance with

the wishes of Mrs. Morel and Miriam to seek schooling, needs that are hindered by household

duties and gender stereotypes.

Sons and Lovers also provide a substantial overview of the natural world. One of the most

prominent characteristics of Sons and Lovers is the nature depictions. Lawrence utilizes nature
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and natural environment to reflect the interior worlds of characters in the novel, implying that

people are not distinct from the natural world. He points out that the closer and more compatible

the human-natural environment relationship would be, the better and satisfying human lives. The

further the characters venture from the natural environment, the more their lifestyles become

chaotic and miserable, when systems such as industrialism, mass manufacturing undermine the

ties between people and their environments. Nature, in the novel, is a symbol of elegance,

motivation, expectation, and a bond between humans. The characters in Sons and Lovers are

portrayed as being at their finest while they are embraced by something which the industrial

world has not messed with. For instance, after she has a massive fight with Walter and has been

shut out of the house, calming herself by gazing at the moon and enjoying the surrounding

flowers. This implies that balancing with nature brings happiness inside oneself and, after that

moment of relaxation, she can come back home and convince Mr. Morel to allow her back in,

thus creating an effort to repair the divide between them. Another indication of the presence of

nature in human interaction emerges in the romantic relationships Paul has with Miriam and

Clara. The relationship with Miriam begins in the woods and Clara begins on the riverbank, so

both of them start in nature.

‘’There was a coolness in the wood, a scent of leaves, of honeysuckle, and a twilight. The two

walked in silence…’’ 4(Lawrence 183)

According to these lines, it also influences behavior at times, such as the mutual sense for the

nature of Paul and Miriam was the initial step for their romantic relationship.

Finally, in the novel, the people who reside in the city and work in factories are quite far from

nature. Paul and William, for example, both abandon the mining town and have employment in

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D.H Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, p.183
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the city. William takes up a position in London, while in Nottingham, Paul has a job closer to the

family. Both catch pneumonia due to long hours, pollution and unhealthy working circumstances

in the cities, and William’s demise is inevitably related to his abandonment of nature in favor of a

consumerist and industrial lifestyle. In comparison, Paul retains his link to the natural

environment and the magnificent countryside in which he grew up. For instance, according to

Ede Hamid, Paul is happiest when he is at the farm and he usually visits there, which strengthens

Paul’s love of nature.5 Hence, he recovers from the sickness and may gradually cut back on his

times spent in the city.

Throughout Sons and Lovers, life and death are deeply connected and sorrow has a tangible

and enduring effect on the characters’ lives. The novel is completed in the outcome of the passing

of Lawrence’s mother and his feeling of sorrow forms the actions of the novel. Death is described

as an already present entity in the novel, something that is both frightening and sometimes oddly

seductive. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mining was an incredibly

hazardous occupation. Even though standards have changed slowly, the possibility of accident or

severe injury has ensured that mines have experienced numerous incidents and deaths. That is

why Mrs. Morel frequently fears about the security of her husband while he is at the mines or

does not come back home at the normal time. While she usually thinks he is out drinking, she is

also concerned about what she and the kids will do if he is dead, as he economically helps the

family.

Owing to the frequent presence of death throughout the novel, sorrow often profoundly

influences the development of the lives of the characters. The death of William almost kills his

mother, because her sorrow is destroying her will to live. Mrs. Morel’s sorrow affects the way of

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Ede Hamid, Review: Sons and Lovers (Updated)
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living of Paul. Soon after the passing of William, Paul is pneumonia-struck and is himself near

death. During this sickness, his mother regrets that her sorrow for William led her to ignore Paul

and she should have cared fort he living instead of dead. At last, Paul also indicates self-

destructive inclinations, and feels he wants to die at a few points throughout the novel, such as

once after they fight with Miriam and he splits her, he wishes if he falls off the bike and dies.

After the death of Mrs. Morel, Paul becomes suicidal and thinks he needs to follow his mother.

What is more, the implicit desire of Paul and William to death represents their partnership with

their mother as well.

To sum up, Sons and Lovers contains several themes as Oedipus complex, passion, bondage,

nature, and death. Mrs. Morel and the boys have an obsessive and clutching relationship which

both the boys cannot just overcome. This situation causes several issues such as the romantic

relationships between Paul and William. The passion between their mother is on another level

that this makes their concept of passion distorted. Also, especially Paul is so connected to his

mother with a passion that it leads him to have an unbreakable bondage with her. He does not

even dream of creating a family for himself and wants to live with Mrs. Morel in a tiny cottage.

Another theme is death, which has a great impact on the novel. For instance, Mrs. Morel

constantly fears of losing her husband, and after Willam’s death, she also cannot recover herself

until she becomes aware of loving Paul. Lawrence also used the depictions of nature in the novel

to express the feelings of the characters and indicates the idea of being close to nature makes

them happier.

References

Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Hamid, Ede. ‘’Review: Sons and Lovers (Updated).’’ Medium, The Buku Project, 31 Jan. 2017,

https://medium.com/the-buku-project/review-sons-and-lovers-c15e4f379ad8