Psych:

D. H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" belongs to the category of psychological fiction.

The remarkable development of psychological novel is a notable phenomenon of the
twentieth century literary scene. 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. Hence it can be asserted without
any fear of refutation that Lawrence is the pioneer of psychological fiction. The
psychological theories and concepts enunciated and disseminated by Freud and Jung
revolutionized the world of conventional human thought. They, of course, exerted a
great formative influence on Lawrence. According to these eminent thinkers and
stalwarts of psychology, the human thought is operative at three levels conscious, sub-
conscious and unconscious. The mass of human thought lies dormant in the
subconscious and the unconscious minds; but it sometimes comes out into the surface.
Lawrence as a psychological novelist has sought to externalize the recondite thoughts
which lie hidden in the inner recesses of the sub-conscious and unconscious minds. As
a corollary to this change in the novelist’s aim and objective a shift is to be noticed in
the theme of the modern novel.

Instead of portraying the life and activities of an Augustan hero in a vast and
Aeschylean scale, the psychological novelist concentrates on the subtle shades of the
psyche of his characters. Hence, Lawrence was preoccupied with the inner life of his
characters. He set himself to the task of portraying the psyche or ‘the shimmeriness’
and not the hard facts. Robert Humphrey has appositely stated that the modern
psychological novel is ‘a type of fiction in which the basic emphasis is placed on
exploration of the pre-speech levels of consciousness for the purposes primarily of
revealing the psychic being of the characters’. M. I. Muller also subscribes to the view
that in the modern psychological novel, as that of Lawrence, we notice ‘a withdrawal
from external phenomena in the flickering half-shades of the author’s private world’.
The modern novelists including Lawrence take the readers straight into the
psychological plane of the characters and in so doing they allow the readers to
discern the incessant flow of sensations and impressions which rise up in the minds of
the characters. The psychological novelists including D. H Lawrence have 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. This ‘stream of consciousness’ technique
has made it possible for the novelists of experimenting on time and place. 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. It is not only in distinct memories that the past impinges on the
present, but also in much vaguer and more subtle ways, our mind floating off down
some channel superficially irrelevant, but really having a definite starting off place
from the initial situation, so that in presenting the characters’ reactions to events, the
author will show us states of mind being modified by associations and recollections
deriving from the present situation, but referring to a constantly shifting series of
events in the past”.

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 for giving expressions to the complex thought process of psyche
of his characters. Long before the efflorescence of ‘the stream of consciousness
novels’, Lawrence foreshadowed the style of consciousness novels’, Lawrence
foreshadowed these style of is type novels. Later on James Joyce and Virginia Woolf
perfected it with their mature artistry.

The ‘Oedipus Complex’ constitutes a psychological problem and this forms the
nucleus of

the novels, "Sons and Lovers". The possessive character of Mrs. Morel was great
stumbling block in the life of Paul, the hero of the piece. She was terribly dissatisfied
with her married life and then subsequently. She exerted her influence on the life of
Paul who could not liberate himself from the mother-fixation. Mother’s influence was
so preponderant and so overweening assertive that Paul could not get a balanced
emotional life. He failed to establish a becoming relationship both with Miriam and
Clara. The mother-image was deterrent to the emotional life of Paul who himself was
also a highly sensitive person and in his attachment with mother we notice the warmth
and passion of a lover. This complex psychological problem has been treated or
delineated by Lawrence with the consummate art of a poet and an unfailing
observation and insight of a true psychologist.

Key Points:

 "Sons and Lovers" by D. H. Lawrence is often considered a psychological

novel due to its intense exploration of the characters' inner lives.
 The novel delves into the Oedipal complex, a psychological theory that
suggests a son's unconscious desire for his mother and rivalry with his father.
 Lawrence portrays the protagonist, Paul, as deeply conflicted about his love for
his mother and his relationships with other women.
 The novel also explores themes of repressed emotions, familial relationships,
and the impact of social class on one's identity.
 Lawrence's use of vivid imagery and symbolism further enhances the
psychological depth of the novel.
 "Sons and Lovers" is an important work in the development of the modern
psychological novel and remains a significant piece of literature today.

Ardhendu De

Ref:
1. Kubilay, F. (n.d.). David Daiches - A Critical History of English Literature,
vol.I. (PDF) David Daiches - a Critical History of English Literature, vol.I | Figen
Kubilay
- Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/36004761/David_Daiches_A_Critical
_History_of_English_Literature_vol_I
2. History of English Literature by EDWARD ALBERT Revised by J. A.
STONE Fifth Edition OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
3. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature

………………..
I. Introduction
David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) is a prestigious English novelist, essayist,
pamphleteer and one of the most gifted and influential figures in the twentieth century
literature. Along with E. M. Foster, James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson, and Virginia Woolf,
he is one of the “makers” of modern English fiction. Sons and Lovers is his first major
novel, which is also a remarkable picture of English working-class life and Lawrence’s
first major study of personal relations. It is considered to be one of the most important
and innovative novels of the twentieth century.1

Sons and Lovers is about the psychological development of a young man, Paul Morel.
He attempts to understand and resolve the powerful ambivalence he feels towards his
mother and the other women in his life and become an independent individual. It is a
great tragedy that the possessive mother makes her sons as her lovers-first the eldest,
then the second. But when her sons come to manhood, they cannot love other women,
because their mother is the strongest power over their lives, and she holds their souls
against any woman who fights for them. The story of this young man, Paul Morel,
witnesses one of the Freudian theories-the Oedipus complex, which is one of the
themes the novel is to illustrate.

This paper is a study of Paul Morel’s psychology in Sons and Lovers on the theoretical
basis of the Freudian Oedipus complex. It will begin with a primary study of the Freudian
theory and then turn to different analysis of several major characters associated with
Paul and their relationships. The literary analysis of this paper will be developed along
with psychoanalytic analysis, which will center on the reasons why Paul is to develop the
Oedipus complex and why he can never detach himself from this attachment. For
example, according to Freudian theory, most boys’ Oedipus complex will gradually pass
off because of their development of castration anxiety. This factor is vital important for
the passing of the complex and it will be discussed at length by means of the analysis of
the influence from Paul’s father, Walter Morel, and their relationship.
II. Brief Introduction to Freudian Theory on the Oedipus
Complex
The most influential psychologist in the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud, founded
psychoanalysis and also established a new system for treating behavior disorders. His
research in psychology brought out many revolutionary and controversial views on
human behavior. One of the views he maintained is that hidden layers in the child’s
mind are animated by sexual and hostile motives concerning its parents. A typical
example is the Oedipus complex, consisting of sexual desire toward the parent of the
opposite sex and jealous hatred of the rival.2

According to Freud, the evolution of the mature love instinct begins as soon as the child
has sufficiently developed a sense of “the otherness”3 of its surroundings to pick out its
mother as the object of its affections. At first this totally instinctive and unconscious
affection begins as the natural result of the child’s dependence upon its mother for
food, warmth and comfort. From the mother the child first learn how to express
affection, and the maternal caresses and the intimate feeling which the child get from its
mother by the easy analogies to love when the child feels a conscious passion for
another individual of the opposite sex. Its mother, in a very real sense of the world, is its
first love.

However, through abnormal circumstances experienced in infancy or early childhood, a

male may develop an excessive love for his mother, usually accompanied by a
corresponding hatred for his father. The passing4 of the Oedipus complex can be
attained if the child develops the “castration anxiety”5 naturally by seeing the sexual
organ of the opposite sex. In a boy’s mind, the genitals of girls’ have been virtually
castrated. He is afraid of having the same fate. Owning to the castration anxiety, both
his sexual desire towards his mother and hostility towards his father will be weakened or
depressed. Finally, the Oedipus complex will gradually pass off. This is the most
important and crucial factor affecting the passing of the Oedipus complex.

Moreover, there are other factors enabling the passing of the Oedipus complex,
including the failure of the fulfillment of the child’s sexual desire towards his mother,
disappointment from the child towards his mother and the child’s physical and
psychological maturity. Although these factors can weaken the Oedipus complex
respectively, yet it is the overall impact from all these factors that eventually eliminate
the Oedipus complex. Thus, in the following analysis of the causes for the non-passing
of Paul Morel’s Oedipus complex, the author of this thesis will take all these points into
consideration.
III. Mother’s Strong and Abnormal Affections
Many factors concerning the Oedipus complex usually refer to the son. However, the
mother takes the same responsibility for the consequence. In Sons and Lovers, without
the strong love lavished by Mrs. Morel, Paul would not have been attached to her that
much. So it is obvious that the strong impact from Mrs. Morel’s affections towards her
son weighs much on the causes for Paul’s Oedipus complex.

We may wonder how it happens that the mother in this story come to lavish all her
affections upon her sons. The right person she should have loved is her husband, while
what she would have given to Paul is the pure and simple maternal love. It is the failure
of her marriage with Walter Morel whom she had hardly loved makes her turn to the
sons. First is the eldest one, William, and then the second, Paul.

In the opening chapter Mrs. Morel, the wife of a cool miner, is expecting her third child,
the boy Paul. Actually, at that time, her life with her husband has already turned out to
be a complete fiasco. He is a drunkard and a bully, a man with whom she “shares neither
intellectual, moral nor religious sympathies”6. Mrs. Morel dreads the coming of the new
baby, because she does not want to give birth to a child who is conceived in a loveless
relation between its parents. “With all her force, with all her soul she would make up to
it for having brought it into the world unloved. She would love it all the more now it was
hers; carry it in her love.”7 Towards Paul she feels, as to none of the other children, that
she is guilty of doing something unjust to him and that he must recompense her for all
that she has missed in her shattered love for her husband.

Alfred Booth Kuttner, a well-known critic, considers the early relations between mother
and child are full of a delicate and poetic charm.8 Paul admires his mother very much
and her presence can always be attractive to him. Often, at the sight of her, “his heart
contracts with love.”(p.67) Everything he does is for her, the flowers he picks as well as
the prizes he wins at school. His mother is his intimate and his confidant. When his
father is confined to the hospital by an accident in the mine, Paul joyfully becomes “the
man in the house.”(p.88) The interaction between mother and son is complete, as if she
lives in him and he in her.

In the end she shared everything with him without knowing… She waited for his
coming home in the evening, and then she unburdened herself of all she had pondered,
or of all that had occurred to her during the day. He sat and listened with his
earnestness. The two shared lives…”(p.114)

As the passage indicates, mother and son are actually one while the father becomes
merely a rival.
Another reason why Mrs. Morel concentrates all her affections on Paul is the death of
her eldest son, William. His death comes as a terrible blow to her, who loves him
passionately. This event makes her lose any interest in life, and remain shut off from the
family. However, only a few months later, Paul comes down with the same disease as his
brother did. Until then, does Mrs. Morel realize that “I should have watched the living,
not the dead.”(p.140) Now, the strong affections from Mrs. Morel used to be shared by
two brothers is being put into one. Being afraid of losing her lover or her son again, Mrs.
Morel turns to be more dominant in the growth of Paul.

Being a woman with tough mind and strong will, Mrs. Morel’s love towards Paul
unconsciously becomes the tyranny over his life. And it is the subtle response to Paul’s
Oedipal affections that leads to the tragedy which almost ruins a young man’s life. Frank
O’Connor, who is an Irish writer and one of the masters of the modern short story, holds
the view that the only thing lacking between the boy and his mother is sexual contact9.
However, Lawrence could not agree with Freudian psychology on this point of incest. He
believed that the normal outcome of the parent-child relationship was the result of
impressions planted in the child’s unconscious mind10. Therefore, in Sons and Lovers,
the Oedipal love turns to be spiritual rather than physical. And this spiritual love
manipulated by the capture of the boy’s soul is more overwhelming than any other
forms Fruedism indicates. “It hurt the boy keenly, this feeling about her that she had
never had her life’s fulfillment; and his own incapability to make it up to her hurt him
with a sense of impotence, yet made him patiently dogged inside. It was his childish
aim…”(p.67) This spiritual attachment to his mother defeats the sexual desire to
physical contact and finally transfers into another form of psychological incest which is
deeply rooted in Paul’s mind. In this sense, though the physical desire of sexual
intercourse cannot be fulfilled, the psychological desire of incest can be satisfied.
Therefore, one factor mentioned at the beginning, which enables the passing of the
Oedipus complex cannot be achieved. And Paul’s heart and soul will always be with his
mother’s even if death tears them apart physically. They will still be lovers.

IV. Other Influences from the Family

In Sons and Lovers, among the other family members around Paul, his father and his
elder brother is very influential on the shaping of his manhood, because they are the
elder ones with the same sex. Actually, they are the models for the boy. Thus their
different influences on Paul’s growth cannot be taken for granted.

A. The great influence from the impotent father:

In most early analysis of the Oedipus complex presented in Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers,
the influence of the father was not as equally discussed as the impact from the mother
in its importance and decisiveness. However, the neglect of the father’s role in the
oedipal relation is vital and is worthy of mention, because the major factor for the
passing of the Oedipus complex-castration anxiety, consists in the involvement of the
father.

Kuttner explains the father’s influence to the child as saying that: besides its mother’s,
the influence of the father that other major constellation of our childhood is also felt.
Though not so gracious, he too is mighty, mightier than the mother, since he dominates
her. His presence brings about a striking change in the attitude of the child, according
to its sex. The boy, seeing that the mother loves the father, strives to be like him. He
takes his father as an ideal and sets about to imitate his masculine qualities.11 However,
it is a different case with Paul Morel, because his father, Walter Morel is someone
unwanted in the family. He is a man with many disadvantages-“poverty, inadequate
education and limited class expectation, work that is physically exhausting while
mentally undemanding, cramped housing and political impotence”12. He is a symbol of
the working class, while Mrs. Morel was brought up in a middle-class family. So the
conflict grounded in the difference of social status put Morel in an unnatural position in
the family. However, the mother seems to have occupied an exceptional position in the
family, and she evidently dominated the household. Her disappointment towards Morel,
a man who clearly does not live up to her ideal of manhood certainly has influenced the
children’s impressions of their father. She even communicates her judgment to the
children. For instance, in scenes when the children learn from her to mock their father’s
manner, to belittle his work at the mine, to sneer at his lack of formal education and in
general to degrade his manhood, we can see that all the family members dislike him
and turn everything against him. “Walter Morel exiled from the intellectual life of the
family.”13 The home is dominated by the mother’s values and the father has no place
there except when working about his chores.

Paul’s relationship with his father, or rather say lack of relationship, make it impossible
for the boy to imitate his father. In Paul’s mind, his hostility towards his father can be
more expressed by his discrimination and hatred.

One example in the early chapters, when Paul was reluctantly suggested by his mother
to tell his father the prize he won in a competition, best shows his discrimination upon
his father.

“I’ve won a prize in a competition, Dad,” he said.

“Have you, my boy? What sort of competition?”

“Oh, nothing-about famous women.”

“And how much is the prize, then, as you’ve got?”

“It’s a book.”

“Oh, indeed!”

“About birds.”

“Hm-hm!”

And that was all. Conversation was impossible between the father and any other
member of the family. He was an outsider. He had denied the God in him.”(p.64)

Paul’s responses to his father’s questions are brief and unhelpful. In Paul’s eyes, his
father can only think of prizes and reward in financial terms; culture, inquiry and the
value of knowledge are alien to him. He is a man with shabby insights to the things
which the other family members value much.

Paul’s hatred towards his father is quite obvious. Once he witnesses a violent quarrel
between his father and his brother William. They are so furious that nearly started a
fight, with fists ready and knees crouched. “Another word, and the men would have
begun to fight. Paul hoped they would.”(p.p.59-60) “Paul hated his father. As a boy he
had a fervent private religion. ‘Make him stop drinking,’ he prayed every night. ‘Lord, let
my father die,’ he prayed very often. ‘Let him not be killed at a pit,’ he prayed when,
after tea, the father did not come home from work.”(p.61) Had Paul been old enough
then, he would have beaten his father in the face. Showing no respect to Morel, Paul
feels that his father’s figure is weak to him though he is physically strong. There are few
ideal masculine qualities in Morel. So Paul is not afraid of his father as he might feel
himself much stronger than Morel. Unlike other boys, Paul cannot develop his anxiety of
being castrated by his father for loving his mother too much. And his ignorance of the
father’s dominance in the family is met and enhanced by Mrs. Morel’s depreciation of
Morel’s manhood. Hence Kuttner points out that in Paul’s case, the abnormal fixation
upon the mother is most obviously conditioned by the father, whose unnatural position
in the family is responsible for the distortion of the normal attitude of the child towards
its parents.14 The father ideal simply does not exist for Paul; where there should have
been an attractive standard of masculinity to imitate, he can only fear and despise.

The major factor for the passing of the Oedipus complex-castration anxiety cannot take
place in Paul’s case; thus he is destine to be ruined by his attachment to his mother. Or
rather we say that Paul’s abnormal dependence upon the mother is perpetuated
because there is no counter-influence to detach it from her.
B. Paul’s imitation of his brother William:
William is the first victim of the Oedipus complex in the family. However, his death at his
early age makes him detach his fixation upon his mother. Mrs. Morel is very proud of
William, because she thinks that she has made him into a middle-class gentleman
successfully through years of education and nurture. William shares the same feeling as
Paul does in doing everything for his mother. When he won a first prize in a race, he
“only ran for her. He flew home with his anvil, breathless, with a ‘Look, mother!’ That was
the first real tribute to herself. She took it like a queen.”(p.53)

William is a good person who enjoys everybody’s appreciation. And “he never
drank”(p.54), which shows a sharp contrast with his father. So the other children in the
family love him dearly, particularly Paul. He sets William as a great model for himself,
because he knows clearly that his mother loves William very much. And what Paul wants
is to be like his brother-quite successful in his work and be loved by others. What
masculine qualities cannot be found in his father can be found in his brother now.
William becomes someone Paul can imitate. He wants to be another William to his
mother and he tries very hard.

Another similarity which William and Paul share is that as soon as they come into
contact with women, there is a split. Lawrence thinks that “William gives his sex to a
fribble, and his mother holds his soul. However, the split kills him, because he does not
know where he is. Then Paul gets a woman who fights for his soul and actually fights his
mother. Paul decides to leave his soul in his mother’s hands, and like his elder brother
go for passion. He gets passion where the split begins to tell again.”15 Paul really
admires his brother and wants to do everything in the same way as he does. This is a
natural stage in a boy’s growth of finding a model of the same sex to imitate. Here,
William becomes Paul’s choice.

We can assume that Paul might share the same fate as his brother’s. Although he
survives the same disease as his brother gets, he suffers the same-patterned fixation to
his mother. In a letter to Edward Garnett, Lawrence told his friend about the story he
wrote. He mentioned “Paul is left in the end naked of everything, with the drift towards
death.”16 The “death” indicates the passing of Paul’s Oedipus complex cannot be
achieved when he is alive. He is destined to suffer the frustrations along the other half
way of his life.

V. Paul’s Dissatisfactions of His Love Affairs with Other

Women
In Sons and Lovers, Paul’s failure in forming normal relationships with either Miriam or
Clara is mainly attributed to two reasons: one is his own psychological immaturity, which
is the major factor; the other is the block from Mrs. Morel.

A. The immaturity of Paul’s psychology:

If there were no strong love lavished by the mother and no great influence of the
father’s impotence, would Paul still be so attached to the Oedipal relationship that ruins
the two relationships with his two lovers- Miriam and Clara? There is no certain answer
to this assumption. However, one thing can be sure that Paul, to some degree, will
encounter difficulties in forming relationships with women too, because his psychology
is still immature.

During the growth into his manhood, Paul has always been taken care of. Physically,
Paul is more delicate than the other children so that his illnesses always tend to further
his mother’s concentration upon him. His mother and for a time his sister Annie are his
only real companions. His brother William is too old to be his playmate and other
children play no role in his early childhood. He is growing in the intricate love from
women and weak masculine qualities from men. He has always been a good boy of his
mother and he always holds his childish fantasy of living with his mother. “But I shan’t
marry, mother. I shall live with you, and we’ll have a servant.”(p.244) He thinks at twenty-
two as he thought at fourteen, like a child that goes on living a fairy-tale. Even in the
relationship with Miriam, he has been called a child of four by Miriam. And it is true that
she treats him as a mother treats a perverse child. At the age of twenty-four, he still
sums up his ambition as the same as before.

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Unlike other boys growing into their manhood, Paul cannot develop a kind of
independence a mature man should possess. He cannot live without his family and his
mother. Although he is physically mature at twenty-five, he still maintains a heart of
child. The self-maturity is one factor affecting the Oedipus complex according to
Freudian theory mentioned at the beginning of the essay. And it is the major internal
cause for the passing of the complex. Unfortunately, Paul does not possess the
psychological maturity, which is, along with other causes, responsible for his deeply
rooted Oedipus complex.
B. The failure of Miriam’s spiritual love:
Miriam Leivers is the first woman who attracts Paul outside his family circle. It might be
regarded as his puppy love that Paul is fascinated but uneasy and fights shy of personal
intimacy with Miriam. However, the intensity of her emotions frightens him and
impresses him as unwholesome. He finds her growing absorption in him strangely
discomfiting. Paul resists every intimation that he is falling in love with Miriam. “We
aren’t lovers, we are friends.”(p.173) And Miriam has already gone so far. Paul can do
nothing with her love because he cannot return it. Love seems to him like a very terrible
thing. The honest and more impersonal passion that he feels for her frightens him.

However, Mrs. Morel makes her appeal. She fears that Miriam will absorb Paul and take
him away from her. “She is one of those who will want to suck a man’s soul out till he
has none of his own left.”(p.161) Her jealousy is being intensified. Her comments on
Miriam grow spiteful and satiric, and she no longer takes the trouble to hide her
jealousy. She makes the final, ruthless, cowardly appeal.

“And I’ve never-you know, Paul-I’ve never had a husband-not-really-“

He stroked his mother’s hair, and his mouth was on her throat.

“And she exults so in taking you from me-she’s not like ordinary girls.”

“Well, I don’t love her, mother,” he murmured, bowing his head and hiding his eyes on
her shoulder in misery. His mother kissed him, a long, fervent kiss.

“My boy!” she said, in a voice trembling with passionate love.

Without knowing, he gently stroked her face.(p.212)

Thus she wins him back. But there is still some resistance in Paul. His emotions towards
Miriam are constantly changing. But at last he tells her that he cannot love her
physically. “I can only give friendship-It’s all I’m capable of-it’s a flow in my make-
up…Let us have done.”(p.220) “In all our relations no body enters. I do not talk to you
through the senses-rather through the spirit. That is why we cannot love in common
sense. Ours is not an everyday affection.”(p.250) Miriam is totally defeated in the fights
for Paul’s soul.

At the same time, Lawrence makes clear that Miriam’s failure to attract Paul physically,
has led to her defeat in the spiritual conflict. The girl’s sexual failure is deeply rooted, for
example, in her own emotional make-up. As Lawrence demonstrates, she is unable to
lose herself in any simple pleasurable occasion, her body is tense and lifeless, and her
abnormal spiritual intensity is coupled with a genuine fear of things physical.

C. The failure of Clara’s sensual love:

The failure of the relationship between Paul and Miriam makes Paul turns to another try
for sensual love. Clara Dawes is married, but lives separated from her husband. She
shows a frankly sensual attraction upon Paul. Like Mrs. Morel, she is unhappy with her
husband, which makes Paul feel less unfaithful to his mother. She takes care of Paul’s
sexual needs, and leaves plenty of him over for Mrs. Morel. So the mother is not hostile
to the idea of Clara. Paul is twenty-three when he meets Clara, and she is about thirty.
Clara really admires Paul’s animal quickness: he brings her the promise of renewed
vitality, and they draw close together and make love. Thus Paul receives the impersonal
love he needs, and Clara comes to full awakening as a woman.

However, Clara is soon dissatisfied with impersonal love; like Miriam, she wants to grasp
hold of Paul and to possess him personally, Paul is even more disturbed about another
failure of relationship. At this moment, the novel turns to the death of Paul’s mother.
Paul meets Clara’s husband and has a fight with him. Surprisingly, Paul brings Clara back
to her husband and makes friends with Dawes, after knowing that the husband is
desperate to win his wife back. Then Paul takes care of his dying mother and never
leaves her until the end.

To sum up, Sons and Lovers presents Miriam not as a type of human love, but as a type
of spiritual love, Clara as a type of sensual love, and neither of them can satisfy the heart
of the young man who loves his mother.

VI. Conclusion
Psychoanalytic readings of Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence frequently discuss Paul
Morel’s psychology in terms of the classic Oedipus complex, because the intimate
nature of his relationship with his mother is so complete that he finds the quality of love
he can give to and receive from other woman deficient and unsatisfying by comparison.
Owing to this reason, there are different views on the novel’s conclusion, with some
believing that Paul is at last moving towards an independent adult existence, and others
contending that he is an emotional derelict drifting towards death out of a desire to
remain with his dead mother.

Whatever Paul will be in the future, the passing of his Oedipus complex cannot be
attained, due to the effects from different causes discussed above. Although his mother
is dead, she still captures his soul, which symbolizes the ecstasy of their relationship and
faithful love. The death of his mother cannot free him and life for him is only where his
mother is and she is dead. “My love-my love-oh, my love!”(p.395) he whispered again
and again. “My love-oh, my love!”(p.395) Paul cries with a lover’s anguish.

Paul is bound to be a failure in forming any normal relationship with other women.
Because when he cannot go on loving his mother any more, “the next best thing he can
do is to find a woman who resembles his mother as closely as possible.”17 Clara is such
a case, for she is a married woman and unhappy with her marriage. She satisfies Paul’s
sexual desire in the incest sense. The love they make resembles Paul’s expression of love
towards his mother and hatred towards his father. When Paul is through the despair
caused by his mother’s death, he will hope again and when he has compared one
woman to his mother and found her wanting, he will go on to another, in endless
repetition.

Paul will maintain his faith and preserve his love for his mother in other forms. With
much faith and loyalty devoted by Paul to his mother, he can do anything which does
not produce an actual feeling of betrayal and unfaithfulness. Although the
autobiographical novel does not tell us clearly about in which form Paul will maintain his
faith, we can seek the truth in the real life of the autobiography writer-D. H. Lawrence.
One point of view which O’Connor holds through his analysis of the similarity of other
autobiography writers such as Andre Gide and Marcel Proust with D. H. Lawrence,
provides an assumption or better say it an answer.18 O’Connor mentions all of them feel
deeply under the influence of their mothers, somewhat in the sense of the Oedipus
complex. Gide and Proust remained homosexual for their entire lives, while Lawrence
showed strongly marked homosexual tendencies. The difference only lies in the forms of
preserving the faith and loyalty for the Oedipal affections to the mother, maybe in the
form of self-abuse, or in the form of homosexuality. However, the truth is neither
Lawrence nor Paul can ever escape the attachment and fixation to their mothers. What
Paul will exactly do with the rest of his emotional life is uncertain, but the non-passing
of his Oedipus complex will always define him as his mother’s son and lover.

Notes
1For the introduction to D. H. Lawrence and his first major novel Sons and Lovers, the
author of this thesis is indebted to Horage V. Gregory, “D. H. Lawrence: Pilgrim of the
Apocalypse”, The Encyclopedia Americana Vol. 17 (Connecticut: Grolier Incorporated,
1981), p.86.

2For the introduction to Sigmund Freud and his theory on Oedipus complex, the author
of this thesis is indebted to Ernest Jones, “The Life and Works of Sigmund Freud”, The
Encyclopedia Americana Vol. 12 (Connecticut: Grolier Incorporated, 1981), p.p.83-87.
3Alfred Booth Kuttner, “A Freudian Appreciation,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed.
Gamini Salgado (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.83.

4The psychoanalytic term used here refers to something passes away or elapses;
transient, transitory, fleeting; ephemeral, vanishing. And the other psychoanalytic term
“non-passing” used in this thesis refers to the failure of achieving this passing of the
Oedipus complex. Sigmund Freud, “The Passing of the Oedipus-complex” in Collected
Papers, Vol. II (London: The Hogarth Press, 1933), p.p.269-276.

5For the description of the psychoanalytic term, the author of this thesis is indebted to
Calvin S. Hall, A Primer of Freudian Psychology, trans. Chen Weizheng (Beijing: The
Commercial Press, 1985), p.98.

6Alfred Booth Kuttner, “A Freudian Appreciation,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed.
Gamini Salgado (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.71.

7David Herbert Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (New York: Bantam Books, 1985), p.38. All
the following parenthetic pages in this thesis refer to the same book unless otherwise
indicated.

8Alfred Booth Kuttner, “A Freudian Appreciation,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed.
Gamini Salgada (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.72.

9Frank O’Connor, “Sons and Lovers,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed. Gamini
Salgado (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.147.

10Dennis Poupard and James E. Person Jr., ed., Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Vol.16 (Kansas City: Gale Research Company, 1985), p.292.

11Alfred Booth Kuttner, “A Freudian Appreciation,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed.
Gamini Salgado (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.84.

12Dennis Poupard and James E. Person Jr., ed., Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Vol.16 (Kansas City: Gale Research Company, 1985), p.314.

13Niger Messenger, How to Study a D. H. Lawrence Novel (London: Macmillan

Education Ltd., 1989), p.30.

14Alfred Booth Kuttner, “A Freudian Appreciation,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed.
Gamini Salgado (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.88.
15Dennis Poupard and James E. Person Jr., ed., Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Vol.16 (Kansas City: Gale Research Company, 1985), p.276.

16Dennis Poupard and James E. Person Jr., ed., Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Vol.16 (Kansas City: Gale Research Company, 1985), p.276.

17Alfred Booth Kuttner, “A Freudian Appreciation,” D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, ed.
Gamini Salgado (London: Macmillan Education Ltd., 1986), p.86.

18Such critic as Frank O’Connor agrees that Sons and Lovers is an autobiographical
work by D. H. Lawrence, as well as a reflection of his own life. Frank O’Connor, “Sons and
Lovers,” D. H. Lawrence: So

……………………………….

Psychoanalysis in Fiction; D.H. Lawrence’s

Sons and Lovers
Posted on March 15th, 2016

Dr. Ruwan M Jayatunge

We have lost the art of living, and in the most important science of all, the science of daily life, the
science of behavior, we are complete ignoramuses. We have psychology instead. -D. H. Lawrence

Author D.H. Lawrence is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Lawrence has been
praised for his stories that explore human nature through frank discussions of sex, psychology, and
religion. The work and life of D. H. Lawrence is providing a rich source of material for examination of
the respective importance in personality development of Oedipal conflict and the pre-Oedipal
establishment of a sense of self. Lawrence‟s works are therefore the accumulation of repressed
memories

His famous novel Sons and Lovers is considered as more of a biographical fiction. However the setting,
characters, plot, theme, and tone of the book are changed from their factual model into a fictitious
model. According to Anthony Beal in D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (is) the autobiographical novel
that tells so much about the first twenty-five years of his life, about his family and friends and society
in which he grew up. In this novel Lawrence reexamined his childhood, his relationship with his
mother, and her psychological effect on his sexuality. Sons and Lovers, which projects the
young Lawrence persona’s struggle between life and death, partly accounts for a deepening sensitivity
to life and death in modern society in Lawrence’s subsequent works.
The novel depicts the lower class in English coal-mining town in Nottinghamshire. Sons and Lovers tell
the story of the Morel family, and in particular, of Paul Morel. Paul witnesses family violence and his
mother’s unhappy marriage to an uneducated alcoholic coalminer. His mother Gertrude who is bitterly
unhappy with her married life devotes all her love and ambition to Paul.

Paul’s conflict between his love for his mother and his need to grow up and have sexual experience
are central to the novel. Also Gertrude’s jealousy towards Paul’s girlfriends causes interpersonal
unconscious conflicts in Paul. Paul cannot expand towards the universe in normal activity and form an
independent sex interest because for him his mother has become the universe; she stands between
him and life and the other woman. Trembled between his unconscious desire for his mother and
attraction to his girlfriend Paul finally ended up in relationship failure. After the death of his mother
Gertrude, Paul goes in to a dramatic psychological transformation.

Sons and Lovers is primarily a study of human relationships. Divided into two parts, Sons and Lovers
presents to us in the first part of the book a vivid illustration of family life of the Morels, their working
class condition, childhood growth, games, and problems and festivities, the little amount of money
they make and the debts they owe. The theme of interest split between father and mother is
constructively portrayed. The second part of the novel poses to us the theme of struggle for Paul’s
soul between his mother and Miriam, a girl that lives in a small farm with her family near the Morels.

The novel has a form, which is governed by its inner logic and is rigorously controlled by an idea. It is
not a mere chronological account of a family. Lawrence’s primary interest lies in the spiritual and
psychological development of his characters.

Sigmund Freud rebelled against the Victorian idea that children are asexual. Freud stated that
psychological evolution of the emotion of love as finally expressed by a man or a woman towards a
member of the other sex. According to psychoanalysts Sons and Lovers reflects one of Freud’s most
famous theories is the Oedipus complex.

As indicated by Freud man usually falls in love for the first time in his life with the image of his
mother. When the boy grows up a little, his super ego gets activated. As he grows older, his super
ego is suppressed by his ego. The protagonist Paul, in this novel is trapped by the conflict between his
ego and super ego.

The Oedipus complex of Freud is based on the inevitability of the tragic fate of a man who fled his
home to escape the prophecy of parricide. Thus, he fulfilled it by killing a stranger who proved to be
his father. The meaning of Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King is found to lie in the clash between
Oedipus’ omnipotent narcissism (hubris) and the power of the unconscious psyche, rather than in
cross-generational sex. As Freud does, this consideration of the tragedy of Oedipus takes as its point
 of departure the inevitability of the confrontation between father and son. Paul has deep resentment
towards his father and unconsciously sees him as a competitor. When the father is dead the
completion is over. Paul’s passions upon his mother and the mother’s upon him are quietly mutual.

Freud’s theory of the oedipal complex, however, held that the heterosexual outcome was the “normal”
resolution, while the homosexual outcome represented arrested sexual development. In the normal
resolution the boy identifies as a male with the father, gives up the mother as a love object, and later
substitutes another woman of his choice for the mother. He suggests that infantile sexuality is
bisexually orientated the final object choice due to repression of either homosexual or heterosexual
desires.

On the evidence of Sons and Lovers, neither Lawrence as author nor Paul as a character in the novel
appear to master their deepest feelings towards the mother. Paul never utters a single word against
her gentle but unyielding rule, trying to contain his violently conflicting emotions, wildly alternating
from admiration and compassion to anger and despair. But at the end Paul finds a new direction.

………”Mother!” he whispered—”mother!” She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all
this. And she was gone, intermingled herself. He wanted her to touch him, have him alongside with
her. But no, he would not give in. Turning sharply, he walked towards the city’s gold
phosphorescence. His fists were shut, his mouth set fast. He would not take that direction, to the
darkness, to follow her. He walked towards the faintly humming, glowing town, quickly.

(Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence)

At the end of the novel, Paul takes a major step in releasing himself from his Oedipus complex. 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.

1. H. Lawrence felt that society made people lifeless and unreal, and that the class system was
pernicious. Lawrence believed in the ‘life force’, in Nature, its beauty and its power. He also believed
passionately in man’s natural instincts; he believed that sexual feeling between a man and woman
was natural and should be celebrated. He was the first novelist in western culture to attempt to
explore sexuality seriously and frankly.

References

Bragan, K.(21986). D. H. Lawrence and Self-Psychology. Australian and New Zealand Journal of
Psychiatry Volume 20, Issue 1.

Clark M.(2009).Suppose Freud had chosen Orestes instead.J Anal Psychol. 2009 Apr;54(2):233-52.
Datan N.(1988).The Oedipus Cycle: developmental mythology, Greek tragedy, and the sociology of
knowledge.Int J Aging Hum Dev. ;27(1):1-10.

de Kuyper E.(1993).The Freudian construction of sexuality: the gay foundations of heterosexuality and
straight homophobia.J Homosex. ;24(3-4):137-44.

Gutierrez D.(1980).D.H. Lawrence and modern destructiveness.Suicide Life Threat Behav.10(4):219-

29.

Haritatou, N.(2012).Emotion and the Unconscious: The Mythicization of Women in Sons and Lovers.

Heenen-Wolff S.(2011).Infantile bisexuality and the ‘complete oedipal complex’: Freudian views on
heterosexuality and homosexualityInt J Psychoanal. ;92(5):1209-20.

Kuttner,A.B.(1916). “`Sons and Lovers’: A Freudian Appreciation,” in The Psychoanalytic Review ,

Vol. III, No. 3.

Mbanefo, O.S. (2013).Psycho-Analysis in Fiction and a Study of D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers.
AFRREV LALIGENS, Vol.2 (1).

Niazi,N.(2013). A Stylistic Analysis of D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Sons and Lovers. International Journal of
Applied Linguistics & English Literature Vol. 2 No. 4 .

…………………….\\
Adeeba ManzoorDr. Naveed RehanLIT 71009 May 2019

Sons and Lovers

as a Psychological novel

Sons and Lovers

is a semi-autobiographical novel in which the male protagonist of the

novel Paul Morel got chained by a mother’s love

. Throughout the novel, his love is for hismother and he is all the time surrounded by his mother that led
Paul towards composite psychological issue. The novel actually focuses upon Oedipus complex, mother
fixation and

psychological issues. The novel deals with the mother and son’s

strong bond which seems like aflimsy pendulum, gradually split and smashed.

Sons and Lovers

was published in 1913 and it was fictional autobiography and this novelis build upon
D.H Lawrence’s personal experiences. According to Michael Bell, who w

rote

about this autobiographical novel in his essay “A Restrained, Somewhat Impersonal Novel”:

“Sons and Lovers was the first of Lawrence’s novels… ga

ve fictional expression to theintense relationship with his own mother which had, in its possessiveness,
checked his

capacity in early manhood… as the figure of Miriam Leivers is closely based on his owngirlfriend of
adolescence, Jessie Chambers.” (Bell,

2005)Throughout the novel, one can see Oedipus complex as a major theme of the novel
whichconsequently becomes psychological novel. Psychological here cannot be defines easily as it
hasdifferent interpretations and connotations. It can be taken as mental illness or the closelyacquainted
association with his mother.

Manzoor2Oedipus complex regards under the concept of psychoanalytical theory. According to

Melanie Klein, “Freud had referred oedipal situation as the primal scene, i.e. the sexual relations

of the

parents both as received and as imagined” (Klein 1928) and this shows

, Paul suffers thesame situation throughout the novel.However, Gertrude Morel lives a very
disrespectful life with her husband andconsequently William and Paul starts hating their father, vigilant
towards their mother. In thestart of the novel Gertrude Morel was close to William and being shattered
she comes close withPaul. They both have very deep erotic bond between them which causes
incapacitate result and

affects Paul’s psychological as well as emotional development.

As he fears to initiate any kind of relationship with other women, fails to buildrelationship with Miriam
and Clara too. He never feels satisfaction with other women and henever comes in

a comfort zone with other women in his life as Alfred Booth Kuttner says, “Paul

will hope again and when he has compared one woman to his mother and found her wanting, he

will go on to another, in an endless repetition.”

Thus, Paul left every relationship behind except his mother. Whenever, he was about to

fall in love whether with Miriam or Clara, he resists by saying “We aren’t lovers, we arefriends.”(pg 173)
It is a human’s very nature if someone got close to or feels a warm association with

someone special, jealousies and insecurities rises up there as Lawrence discloses the same insightinto
human nature through the text because Mrs. Morel was unable to hide his jealousy.

“And I’ve never

- you know, Paul-

I’ve never had a husband

not really”

He stroke

d his mother’s hair, and his mouth was on her throat. I don’t love her, mother”

(pg 212)

Manzoor3It is Mrs. Morel fault

behind Paul’s psychological immaturity even though his physical

appearance is not immature enough. Whenever he moves ahead in his life, Gertrude was standingthere
in his way to stop him by emotionally blackmaling him which is quite evident in the abovetext. He is
caught between duality likewise Paul and Miriam displays the problem, an individualfaced while getting
in towards the new experience

s. It doesn’t come from childhood but it is the

brain or psychology of mind that makes a person psychological immature.

The novel is seen as a psychological novel through Paul and Mrs. Morel’s acts. Paul’s

struggle of being attached with his mother makes him realize that he cannot unchain himselffrom his
mother even she is dead. He feels nostalgic and needs someone to be with but hismother repressed him
as well as his feelings. In short, circumstances like mother fixation,incompleteness of Oedipus complex
and alienation after his mother death makes him mentally illand the novel, a psychological novel.

…………………………………………….