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

adults grows. In one scene, Walter drunkenly pulls out a drawer and throws it at his wife, Notes
hitting her and cutting her above the eye. He is ashamed of his actions, but tells himself it is
her fault. He spends the next few days drinking at a bar. Toward the end of the chapter,
Walter steals money from his wife’s purse, and then denies it when she confronts him. He
stalks out of the house with a bundle of his belongings saying that he is leaving, but he returns
home that night.

Chapter 3: The Casting off of Morel—the Taking on of William

In this chapter, Walter falls ill, but his wife nurses him back to health. Mrs. Morel, however,
is devoting more and more of her attention to the children. She tolerates her husband, but
does not love him. In the period after Walter’s illness, the couple conceives another child,
Arthur, who is born when Paul is one and a half years old. Arthur becomes Walter’s favorite
child and is like him both physically and temperamentally.

Walter and his wife fight over how to discipline their children and plan for their future. Mrs.
Morel vetoes her husband’s suggestion that William work in the mines; she finds him a job
at the Cooperative Wholesale Society instead. At nineteen, William takes a job in London,
much to his devoted mother’s chagrin.

Chapter 4: The Young Life of Paul

This chapter focuses on Paul’s childhood, and all of the events narrated are in relation to his
character. Mrs. Morel and her husband still fight, and Walter drifts further away from the
family, even though they have moved from “The Bottoms” and into a new house. There are
also moments when the family bonds, and Mrs. Morel encourages the children to share the
events of the day with their father. But overall, Walter is more alienated than ever from his
wife and children, especially Paul. A significant event occurs when Paul breaks his sister’s
doll and then experiences hatred for the doll. This echoes his father’s own behavior toward
his mother.

Chapter 5: Paul Launches into Life
In this chapter, Walter injures his leg, causing anxiety in his family and guilt in Mrs. Morel,
who is concerned for her husband’s health but guilt ridden because she no longer loves him.
Paul, now fourteen, hunts for work and lands a position with Thomas Jordan, a manufacturer
of surgical appliances, as a junior clerk. William, still in London, is now dating, and sends his
mother a photograph of his girlfriend, Lily Weston. His mother is not impressed.

Media Adaptations
• The most acclaimed film adaptation of Lawrence’s novel is the 1960 film Sons and Lovers,

directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, and Wendy Hiller.
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Many libraries and video stores
carry the video.
• In 1995, Penguin Audiobooks released an audiocassette of Lawrence’s novel with Paul
Copley narrating.

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