The Novel Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence - Essay Example

Sons and Lovers Assignment 1: Topic 2 Introduction “Sons and Lovers” is considered as one of the early masterpieces by D.H. Lawrence. Published in the year 1913, the novel portrays the agony, suffering and struggle of a young man and a budding artist named Paul Morel whose eternal struggle and desire to break-free from the shackles of life, composes his trajectory. Critics have claimed the novel to be autobiographical in myriad occasions. Also they perceived that the experience of the novel would definitely relate the readers to the life of the young D. H. Lawrence as an aspiring artist. The detailed introspection of the novel would enable its readers to find lots of scope and space for thematic expression and characterisation. The character of Paul Morel, the protagonist of the novel is a huge platform where, Lawrence profoundly expressed conventional and unconventional traits of human nature side by side. In “The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence” one can find the expression of abnormalities expressed in the character portrayal of Paul Morel due to his abnormal behaviour with his mother. The relationship and the unsaid and unknown bond that Paul and his mother shares in the novel, “Sons and Lovers” is both filial and maternal which are quite unlikely in the natural and normal relationships. The essay intends to explore and express the subtle unconventionalities and intricacies with which the character of Paul Morel is framed. The novel “Sons and Lovers” is a culmination of fiction with shades of autobiography and for the sake of fiction; hues of unconventionalities are incorporated into the character of the protagonist, Paul Morel. Paul Morel: A Character beyond the Normal Parameters of Conventionalities Paul Morel is the protagonist of the masterpiece, bearing the title “Sons and lovers” and there is no harm to state that the entire novel actually centres round the trajectory of his life and his relationship with other characters in the novel with which he shares different relationships. In other words, the novel is a story of Paul’s quest as a young artist and his crest and falls throughout. After following the trajectory of Paul Morel, from his infancy to his early twenties, the readers would launch into a vey unordinary situation where Paul’s relation with his mother is at a platform where it seems to get unceased with his devotion towards his mother. Paul’s quest as a young artist and his love, care and devotion for his mother are inseparable. He confides everything in her. Paul paints to please his mother, sacrifices his long drawn platonic love for Miriam and nurses his mother as he dies. This trait in his character is quite out of place. To trace this unnatural behaviour one needs to delve deep onto the seed of the problem which is captivated within the pages of the novel as an event that is pre-cognitive in nature. In other words, the unnatural aspect of this mother-son relationship starts before the birth of Paul. Paul’s mother, Gertrude Morel lives a very unhappy marriage with Walter Morel, who is Paul’s father. As a result of this unhappy union, Gertrude redirects all her time, energy and passion towards her children. She is almost obsessed with them and at the very outset of the novel; the readers encounter such obsession with her first son, William. Sudden death of William makes her more possessed with her children and slowly she focuses all her attention towards Paul. She almost lives through him as Gertrude feels as a natural intellectual that society limits the scope and opportunities for women. Paul’s bad relationship with his father and extreme dependence on his mother led him to an obsessed relationship with his mother. Paul had come across two women in his life. His first love is Miriam Leiver who stays at a distance from the farm where Paul stayed with his mother. They had a long relationship but based on the concepts of platonic ideals of love. Miriam is too sacrificial in nature. Lawrence almost portrays Miriam as an incarnation of Virgin Mary as regards to her virginity. Her failure to claim her love for Paul ultimately makes her relationship unsuccessful. Since his childhood, Paul has been possessed by his mother who claimed every bit of her son’s existence and such attitude was completely missing in the character of Miriam which compelled Paul to get away from her. After the break-off with Miriam, Paul started spending much of his time with Clara Dawes, who was older than Paul and was married to an estranged husband named, Baxter Dawes. If Miriam represents spirituality in the novel then Clara stands for the carnality. Clara is casted with bodily passion and soulful factors are almost missing in her character. She is an incarnation of bodily pleasure and her sensuality attracts Paul along with her elusiveness and mysteriousness. In this case, Paul felt that she always “belonged” to her husband and her elusiveness effaces eventually. His relationship with Miriam did not succeed on the other hand because Paul felt that she never “belonged” to him. At a greater perspective both these relationships did not succeed because Paul’s life was casted by an unending quest for the reflection and replacement of her mother in these women after her death. Eventually both these women could not satisfy the quest in Paul and he disdained both the women in his life. The relationship of Paul with his mother is crafted in the Freudian concept of Oedipus complex where man seeks the reflection of mother and wife in a single woman and both the paradoxes merges unknowingly in their subconscious mind. Conclusion Trajectory of Paul’s life is thus casted by an unending quest as a young painter and lover. Driven away by the search for perfection in his life which he seeks only through the portrait of his mother, Paul is left all alone on the shore of his life unsuccessful to find the real love. Paul’s character is quite unconventional in terms of his relationship with his mother and this particular aspect of Paul doesn’t relate closely with the life of Lawrence either. But the readers have to remember that Lawrence, Joyce, Virginia Woolf gave a new dimension to the English Novel with the initiation of the novice and innovative concept of psychological realism which found its expression through myriad human or sexual relationships. Deviating from the Victorian predecessors who presented the social realism through their work, Lawrence explored and navigated through a new genre of writing that thrived on psychological realism. This found its profound expression through the novel “Sons and Lovers” in general and character of Paul Morel precisely. The unconventionalities of Paul’s character include facets intricately presented in all of us .And these traits get expressed through our subconscious or unconscious behaviours often. In Paul, it gets explicit and this explicit expression is the deliberate presentation of the author to portray the fact that natural and unnatural traits of human nature can dwell together and character of Paul is the macrocosmic representation of this phenomenon. Bibliography Lawrence, David H. Sons and Lovers. Plain Label Books, 1951. Read More