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Unit 22: D.H. Lawrence — Sons and Lovers : Detailed Study of Text

William is offered a trip to the Mediterranean over the midsummer holiday. However, he Notes
declines in favor of returning home, much to the delight of his mother.

Analysis
This chapter focuses on Paul so that each event is narrated in its relation to him. We are told,
for instance, that all the children feel “peculiarly” ill at ease with their father, but particularly
Paul. The use of ‘peculiarly’ in this sentence suggests that it is somehow unusual for the
children to be against their father. Another example of the focus on Paul is the family’s
divergent opinions about the ash-tree: Paul finds it an almost unbearable presence. The disagreement
about the ash-tree is representative of the conflict between father and children.
There is a sense that Paul represents all of the children; that narrating what happens to Paul
suffices for describing the experiences of all of them. This is created partly by the way that all
of the events in this chapter are told in relation to Paul, and partly by passages like the
following in which the subjects ‘Paul’ and ‘the children’ are used seemingly interchangeably.
Paul wakes; hearing thuds downstairs, and wonders nervously what his father is doing. It
seems that events like this begin from Paul’s perspective and continue to include the perspective
of all the children.
However, we also see further evidence of the way that Paul is treated differently from the
other children; he is more delicate, and Mrs. Morel realizes it. Physically, Paul resembles his
mother, and like each of the children, he picks up on and shares her anxieties about her
husband.
Even though Paul is treated differently, William is still Mrs. Morel’s favorite. She thinks of
him as a successful young man in London, and imagines him as her knight in shining armor.
After he breaks Annie’s doll, Paul feels resentful toward the doll. This is reminiscent of the
statement about Mr. Morel in Chapter 2: “He dreaded his wife. Having hurt her, he hated
her.”

Chapter 5: Paul Launches into Life

Summary
Morel is injured at work when a piece of rock falls on his leg. When Mrs. Morel gets the news,
she is very flustered while she is preparing to go to the hospital to see him. Paul calms her
down and gives her some tea, and she leaves for the hospital. When she returns, she tells the
children that their father’s leg is injured rather badly. They all feel anxious, but are comforted
by the fact that her father is a strong healer. Mrs. Morel feels somewhat guilty because she no
longer loves her husband; while she is sorry for his pain and his injury, she still feels an
emotional emptiness. She is somewhat comforted by talking to Paul, who is able to share her
troubles. True to his nature, Morel does recover, and the family is very happy and peaceful
while he is still in the hospital, almost to the point of regretting that he will soon return.

Paul is now fourteen, and it is time for him to find a job. Everyday, his mother sends him to
the Co-op reading room to read the job advertisements in the paper. This makes him miserable,
but he dutifully writes down a few offers and brings them home. He makes applications for
several jobs using a variation on a letter that William had written. He is summoned to call on
Thomas Jordan, a manufacturer of surgical appliances, and his mother is overjoyed.
Paul and Mrs. Morel travel to Nottingham one Tuesday morning to respond to the invitation.
Paul suffers the whole way there, dreading the interview and the necessity of being scrutinized
by strangers. During the actual interview, Mr. Jordan asks Paul to read a letter in French and
he has trouble reading the handwriting, becomes flustered, and continually insists that doigts
means fingers, although in this case it refers to the toes of a pair of stockings. Nevertheless,
he is hired as junior spiral clerk.

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