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

Self Assessment Notes

Fill in the blanks:
6. Paul maintains his close relationship with his ......... .
7. Miriam goes to stay at her ......... cottage, and Paul visits her often.
8. ......... continues to exhibit physical similarities to his mother.

9. Arthur is born when Paul is ......... old.
10. Morel is injured at work when a piece of ......... falls on his leg.

Analysis

This chapter is an excellent example of the way that the novel is not always narrated in
chronological order, since the first episode in which Paul visits Baxter Dawes in the hospital
actually occurs before Mrs. Morel is taken home, an episode which is included in the previous
chapter.
Mrs. Morel’s desire to be with Paul is so strong that he tells Clara he believes she refuses to
die so that she can stay with him. “And she looks at me, and she wants to stay with me. She’s
got such a will, it seems as if she would never go - never!”.

Even though he says he wishes she would die, Paul’s strong bond to his mother remains. He
feels as though a part of him were dying also. After she dies, Paul still feels this connection:
“Looking at her, he felt he could never, never let her go.”
Morel shows his vulnerability after his wife dies, when he waits up for Paul to return home,
so that he is not alone in the house with the dead body. Paul, who had considered Morel to
be fearless, is taken by surprise.

Task How do you feel about the death of Mrs. Morel? Can you explain your feelings?

Chapter 15: Derelict

Summary
Clara goes back to Sheffield with her husband, and Paul is left alone with his father. There is
no point in keeping their house any longer, so they each take lodgings nearby. Paul is lost
without his mother. He can no longer paint, and he puts all of his energy into his work at the
factory. He has debates within himself, telling himself that he must stay alive for his mother’s
sake. However, he wants to give up.
One Sunday evening, however, he sees Miriam at the Unitarian Church. He asks her to have
supper with him quickly and she agrees. She tells him that she has been going to a farming
college and will probably be kept on as a teacher there. She says that she thinks they should
be married, and he says he’s not sure that would be much good. He says he does not want
it very much, and so she gives up. That is the end between them. She leaves him, realizing
that “his soul could not leave her, wherever she was.”

Paul, alone, yearns for his mother and considers following her into death. However, he decides
to leave off thinking about suicide, and instead walks toward the town.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 261