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Unit 23: D.H. Lawrence — Sons and Lovers: Themes and Characterization

Contradictions and oppositions Notes

Lawrence demonstrates how contradictions emerge so easily in human nature, especially with
love and hate. Paul vacillates between hatred and love for all the women in his life, including
his mother at times. Often he loves and hates at the same time, especially with Miriam. Mrs.
Morel, too, has some reserve of love for her husband even when she hates him, although this
love dissipates over time.
Lawrence also uses the opposition of the body and mind to expose the contradictory nature
of desire; frequently, characters pair up with someone who is quite unlike them. Mrs. Morel
initially likes the hearty, vigorous Morel because he is so far removed from her dainty, refined,
intellectual nature.

Notes Paul’s attraction to Miriam, his spiritual soul mate, is less intense than his desire
for the sensual, physical Clara.

The decay of the body also influences the spiritual relationships. When Mrs. Morel dies, Morel
grows more sensitive, though he still refuses to look at her body. Dawes’s illness, too, removes
his threat to Paul, who befriends his ailing rival.

Nature and flowers

Sons and Lovers has a great deal of description of the natural environment. Often, the weather
and environment reflect the characters’ emotions through the literary technique of pathetic
fallacy. The description is frequently eroticized; both to indicate sexual energy and to slip pass
the censors in Lawrence’s repressive time.
Lawrence’s characters also experience moments of transcendence while alone in nature, much
as the Romantics did. More frequently, characters bond deeply while in nature. Lawrence uses
flowers throughout the novel to symbolize these deep connections. However, flowers are
sometimes agents of division, as when Paul is repulsed by Miriam’s fawning behavior towards
the daffodil.

23.3 D.H. Lawrence—Sons and Lovers: Style and Plot

23.3.1 Plot
Gertrude Morel has an unhappy marriage to coal-miner William Morel in the English town of
Bestwood. She is most devoted to her eldest son, William. Her second, sensitive son, Paul,
grows up and works in a factory while painting on the side. William dies of a skin disease,
and Mrs. Morel plunges into grief. Rededicating her life to Paul revives her, and the two
become inseparable.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Sons and Lovers is a ......... .

2. Lawrence believed in the ......... in nature, its beauty and its power.
3. Paul is the ......... of the novel.

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