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

William becomes engaged to the girl he has been seeing, and decides to bring her home at Notes
Christmas. She comes home with him and puts on airs of high station, treating Annie like a
servant. William begins to be annoyed with the way that she acts much grander than his
family, and he tells his mother that he only feels fond of the girl when he is around her in the
evenings; otherwise, he has no feelings for her.
Paul has Monday afternoons off from work, and one Monday his mother tells him that they
have been invited to see Mr. Leivers on his new farm. They decide to go that afternoon. They
have a nice walk through the countryside on the way there, and then are welcomed and given
a tour of the farm when they arrive. The Leivers boys show Paul how to make the chicken eat
out of his hand, and they tease their sister Miriam because she is afraid to try. Paul later finds
her shyly reaching her hand toward the chicken and helps her to let it eat out of her hand.
The next time William brings his fiancee home, she once again annoys him and the rest of his
family with her attitude toward his sister. He begins to ridicule her in front of others, and
discusses with his mother that he no longer really wants to marry her, but feels that he has
gone on too long to break it off now. He comes home again, alone, the first weekend in
October, and his mother notices that he has not been well. The Tuesday morning after his
return, Mrs. Morel gets a telegram saying that he is ill. She takes the train to London, arrives
at William’s lodging, and stays with him until he dies late that night. She sends a telegram
for Morel to come to London, and when it arrives Paul has to go to the mine to fetch his father.
Morel goes to London, and Mr. and Mrs. Morel return on Saturday night. After William’s
death, Mrs. Morel becomes shut off until one day Paul falls ill with pneumonia. She almost
loses him as well, but he somehow pulls through and “Mrs. Morel’s life now rooted itself in
Paul.”

Self Assessment

State the following sentences are True or False:
1. After the children go to bed, Mrs. Morel waits for William to return from the bar.

2. Morel begins to fall ill, despite all of his requests for medicine.
3. Mrs. Morel want her eldest son to become like his father.
4. Morel is injured at work when he falls on stairs.
5. Miriam and Paul make their connections through nature.

Analysis
The title of the chapter foreshadows what will happen in the end of the chapter; however, the
reader wonders throughout the chapter which member of the family will die. Since the first
sentence of the chapter begins with Arthur, the reader might begin by suspecting that Arthur
will die. It isn’t until William alludes to his death by saying that his fiancee would forget
about him three months after he died that we begin to suspect that William will die. He makes
many allusions to his death so that, by the time his mother gets the telegram from London that
he is ill, the reader is hardly surprised.
After William dies, Mrs. Morel remains closed off from the world until Paul also falls ill.
Lawrence uses an image of tulips to illustrate the bond forged between Paul and his mother
as a result of his illness. Mr. Morel buys Paul a pot of tulips, and they flame in the window
where Paul and his mother sit closely and contentedly.

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