Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

[Verre]

Lawrence wrote Sons and Lovers in 1913, and much of Freud's psychoanalytical work was published just around the turn of the centry, and the latter's impact on the former is significant.

 

The first part dives straight into the minds of the characters, and uses a very nice metaphor for Victorian society: the terraced houses all have immaculate front rooms and neat white fences, but the wives stand in the kitchen doorframes at the back, and see the children play in all the muck and mud.

 

Getrude, a lower-middle class woman, and Walter Morel fall in love, but his inability to take action when she needs support means that their loves dwindles and goes out.

 

So, she uses her eldest son William as a husband, and he supports the family. After his untimely death, she ends up using the second son Paul, who most the novel is about.

 

Paul represents a younger D H Lawrence, as he is an artist where Lawrence is a novelist, and after Paul experiences bereavement, there is a tell-tale sentence, "The pen stopped writing".

 

As I mentioned earlier, Freud's influence is strong, Paul clearly has an Oedipus complex, his mother is dominating him because they have meshed at an early age. However, Lawrence was interested in the chemical sexual attraction, and there is an interesting dialogue between Paul and a lover, Miriam, comparing the benefits and problems of lust and metaphysical love.

 

To conclude, Lawrence's work is a literary masterpiece no doubt, the writing is extremely heart-felt and articulate towards the end, where Lawrence is clearly writing from experience; but many of the conversations are unneccesarily awkward and intense, and emotion changes too rapidly.

 

Verdict: Along with the ranks of Henry James, Shakespeare and Woolf? No, but definitely worth a read.