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Fiction

Notes some dinner parties and tells his mother he needs an evening suit. She gives him a suit that
was William’s.
Paul’s newfound success prompts discussions with his mother about class and happiness. She
wants her son to ascend into the middle class, but he says that he feels closest to the common
people. Mrs. Morel wants her son to be happy, which seems mostly to mean finding a good
woman and beginning to settle down. Paul argues that he worries a normal life might bore
him.

Paul maintains his connection with Miriam, able neither to break it off entirely nor to go the
full way to engagement. He feels that he owes himself to her, but he begins to drift slightly
away from her.

Notes Arthur is married to Beatrice, and she has a child. At first he is irritable and
unhappy, but eventually he begins to accept his responsibilities and care for his
wife and child.

One day a mutual friend asks Paul to take a message to Clara Dawes. He goes to her house,
meets her mother, and observes them working on making lace. He delivers his message, has
a pleasant conversation with Clara and her mother, and leaves, having gotten a humbling
view of Clara, whom he had previously believed to be so high and mighty. Paul finds out that
Susan, one of the girls at Jordan’s, is leaving to get married, and so he gets Clara her job. The
other girls do not like Clara because she acts like she is above them; they call her the Queen
of Sheba.
One day Paul is rude to Clara; later, he regrets his rudeness and brings her chocolates as an
apology. On his birthday Fanny surprises him with a gift of paints that all the girls except
Clara, who they do not include in their planning, have chipped in to buy him. Paul goes out
walking at dinnertime with Clara, and she complains that the girls have some secret from her.
Paul tells her that the secret was the planning for his birthday present, and, that evening, she
sends him a book of verse and a note. This incident brings Paul and Clara closer together.
They discuss what happened between Clara and her husband, and somehow the subject of
Miriam comes up. Paul says that Miriam wants his soul, which he cannot give her. Clara,
however, informs him that Miriam does not want his soul, only Paul himself.

Analysis
Paul maintains his close relationship with his mother, allowing her to live vicariously through
his experiences. He tells her everything that happens in his life, and she feels as though she
is a participant.
William is mentioned and reflected on several times in this chapter. First of all, when they are
discussing Paul’s success, Morel says that William might have been as successful as Paul, had
he only lived. This statement affects Mrs. Morel deeply, and makes her feel strangely tired.
When Paul tries on William’s suit, she thinks again of William but is comforted by the thought
of Paul. The notion that Mrs. Morel possesses Paul is particularly strong here, and this concept,
which is constant throughout the novel, may account for Paul’s failure to develop a strong
relationship with another woman.
In the very end of this chapter, Clara provides the motivation for Paul to go back to Miriam.
It is interesting that this motivation comes from Clara, since Miriam is her chief rival (besides
Mrs. Morel) for Paul’s affection.

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