Sons and Lovers

David Herbert Lawrence

Born: September 11, 1885 in Nottingham

Died: March 2, 1930 in France

First novel: The White Peacock (1911)

Works: novels, poetry, plays, stories, non-fictions

Partial List of Works

Novel:Sons and Lovers (1913)

The Rainbow (1915)

Women in Love (1920)

Lady Chatterley's Lover

PoetryBirds, Beasts, and Flowers" (1923)

Last Poems (1932)

Holy Family

Presurrection

Major Characters

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Oedipus Complex

Sons and Lovers is divided into two parts and is composed of 15 chapters altogether. the story, set in England, can be interpreted as an autobiographical novel of Lawrence. The hero of the book, Paul Morel, is the second son of a miner's family. His mother, Mrs. Morel, is a daughter of a mid-class family. Because of the differences in family background and education, a shadow is soon cast upon the married life of Mrs. Morel. And this shadow is darkened by Mr. Morel's laziness. By misfortune or bad luck, Mr. Morel has an accident and becomes a cripple, which changes him into a man of bad temper. As a result, the couple shares less and less the things in common and is driven farther and farther apart from each other. Little by little, Mrs. Morel transports her attention and love to her children, especially her two sons, William and Paul. She encourages them to leave the small mining region for a big city to find opportunities for a better life. After the death of her first son, William, Mrs. Morel's divided attention and love is poured completely upon Paul. The mother's abnormal love robs Paul of his normal love for his girl friend.

A coal-mining family

Many affairs with women in his life

Father is a coal miner.

Mother is a teacher.

Jessie Chambers Louie Burrows Frieda Weekley née von Richthofen (wife,1914)

Oedipus Complex

Oedipus Complex: (psych) love of an infant for the parent of the opposite sex, with jealousy of the other parent. The term originated from a Greek myth in which King Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. （心理学上）（儿子对母亲的）恋母情结（及对父亲的嫉妒）；（女儿对父亲的）恋父情结（及对母亲的嫉妒）

D.H. Lawrence was aware of Freud's theory, and Sons and Lovers famously uses the Oedipus complex as its base for exploring Paul's relationship with his mother. Paul is hopelessly devoted to his mother, and that love often borders on romantic desire. Lawrence writes many scenes between the two that go beyond the bounds of conventional mother-son love. Completing the Oedipal equation, Paul murderously hates his father and often fantasizes about his death. But Lawrence adds a twist to the Oedipus complex: Mrs. Morel is saddled with it as well. She desires both William and Paul in near-romantic ways, and she despises all their girlfriends. She, too, engages in transference, projecting her dissatisfaction with her marriage onto her smothering love for her sons. At the end of the novel, Paul takes a major step in releasing himself from his Oedipus complex. He intentionally overdoses his dying mother with morphia, an act that reduces her suffering but also subverts his Oedipal fate, since he does not kill his father, but his mother.

Comments Sons and Lovers has always been claimed since its publication to be another version of Oedipus complex. But D. H. Lawrence is in no sense an imitator. Sons and Lovers is truly an autobiographical novel. It describes an ordinary life of a coal miner's family. The abnormal love from the mother deprives Paul of his independent personality and mental health. It is perhaps because of this true picture of life that the novel has won Lawrence everlasting reputation.