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This paper deals with D.H Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (1913) which is a psychological novel. By definition, a psychological novel is “a work of fiction in which the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters are of equal or greater interest than is the external action of the narrative” (psychological novel, Encyclopedia Britannica). In a psychological novel, there is an influence of emotional reactions regarding the personality of the individual. The novel was written in Modernism which is considered as one of the most important periods in English literature because it is different from the preceding periods. It cannot be said that there is an exact predominant philosophy in this age due to the diverse of views and ideas. Modernism as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle 1920s.

The horrors of World War I (1914-19), became the catalyst for the Modernist movement in literature and art. Modernist writers felt betrayed by the war, believing the institutions where which they were taught to believe had led the civilized world into a bloody conflict. Thus, the history of the movement began by the effect of the World War I and also by the World War II. On one hand, World War I has inspired great novels, drama and poetry. During the war itself, it has been estimated that thousands of poems were written every day by combatants and their relatives. During the war many of the combatants published trench magazines, most of them for an audience in a particular division or unit. On the other hand, World War II had enormous impact on American writing, as did many of the other events of mid and late twentieth-century America (explosion of the Atomic bomb in 1945, the emergence of television as a cultural force, the invention and growing dominance of computers, the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, Korean and Vietnam wars, the feminist movement of the 60s and 70s).

Freud and Nietzsche have great influence on the Modernism movement. Freud's theories influenced the writers of the modern age. For instance, Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex assumed that infants love the opposite-sex parent and hate the same-sex parent. The feelings of love and hate change as the child grows, but the original feelings of hate for the same-sex parent and love for the opposite-sex parent still remain in the unconscious mind of adults. The novelists were shocked by his interpretations, in addition to the scientific and industrial revolution that made man think again about the secret of his existence. As for Nietzsche, his philosophies were representative of the concerns and uncertainly of the modernist artists. According to him, to truly realize oneself, you must break free, denounce this imposed morality and search deep inside to develop into your own person. Thus, his philosophy pervades modern culture that many who have never read him are influenced by his thought indirectly.

The characteristics of Modernism in literature reflect the essence of this psychological age. For instance, one of the most important techniques that have an impact on the reader is the stream of consciousness. Also, there are some manifestations of new approaches in modernist fiction, such as the lack of plot cohesion with sudden climactic turning points, the chronological leaps in time and the open, unresolved endings. As for the stream of consciousness, which moves by the logic of the unconsciousness, spread over the twentieth century and particularly the modernist epoch in which the psychological novel flourished. It is a natural product of the 20th century, as it appeared before World War I. Both Dorothy Richardson in England, James Joyce in Ireland and Proust in France are considered the pioneers of the psychological novel. Virginia Woolf has developed this new technique and added a new shape and system to it. D. H. Lawrence focused on the inner thoughts and relationships among characters and this focus is considered “a deeper and more powerful current than the stream of consciousness itself” (Black, Michael D.H. Lawrence, the early fiction: a commentary 247).

Thus, the psychological novel as a whole reached its full potential only in the 20th century; however, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence and William Faulkner revolt against the previous generation of novelists. Virginia Woolf responded to the Modernist need to "reinvent constructive social narratives" to occupy the spaces opened up by Modernity (Nicholls, Peter Modernisms: A Literary Guide 253). To The Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf's masterpiece as it focuses on the inner lives of characters. As for William Faulkner, he is one of the most influential writers of the 20 century. Moreover, his masterpiece, Mosquitoes is about the misfortune of the passengers on a cruise ship. As for Leon Edel who is an American critic and editor, is widely recognized as the world's foremost scholar on Henry James. His interest in James dates back to the 1920s, when he wrote his undergraduate thesis on James and the modern psychological novel. Stuff of Sleep and Dreams continues Edel's exploration of literary psychology; in this work he attempts to define and support the psychological approach to literature, which considers as his masterpiece. As for D. H. Lawrence, he was an English author, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. Moreover, his masterpiece, Sons and lovers is considered an indirect confession of Lawrence’s own life. It can be called an autobiographical novel or a semi-autobiographical novel as critic Richard Aldington calls it. He also says:

When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life. Generally, it is not only considered as an evocative portrayal of working-class life in a mining community, but also an intense study of family, class and early sexual relationships. (Selected Essays 24).

Indeed, Lawrence's novel begins in 1885 and ends in 1911, roughly following the outline of Lawrence's own life. During that time, British miners battled their capitalist bosses for better pay and safer working conditions. As the rate of industrialization increased, so did the gap between rich and poor. Nowhere was this gap more apparent than in the difference between how the miners lived and how the owners of the mines lived. Lawrence's father, on whom the character of Walter Morel is based, began working in the mines when he was ten years old. Moreover, he wrote many other masterpieces such as The Rainbow. However, Sons and lovers is D. H. Lawrence's first and most conventional novel. It is already the work of an accomplished writer. There are two traditional approaches to Sons and Lovers, one of which treats the novel as a psychological study, emphasizing particularly Paul's Oedipal complex; the second of which focuses on the autobiographical side of the novel, exploring the many passages where Lawrence seems to be retelling his own experience fictionally (the scenes of family life, the mining background, Paul and Miriam's relationship). While the first approach risks reducing the novel to a case history, the second has the danger of undermining Sons and Lovers' effectiveness as fictional vision, turning it instead into a confessional autobiography, and vitiating Lawrence's achievement with plot, symbol, dramatic scene, and invented character. However, In fact, The mother’s abnormal maternity and the social conditions of the parents are the main cause of Paul’s Oedipus complex.

The mother-son relationship is well examined in Sons and Lovers. Before moving into the mother-son relationship in details, it is very important to highlight the Oedipus complex as a major theme in the novel. It can be defined as, "a group of largely unconscious (dynamically repressed) ideas and feelings which centre around the desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the parent of the same sex" (Rycroft, Charles A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis). There is no doubt that Sons and Lovers is an illustration of Sigmund Freud’s psychological theory of Oedipus complex. Freud made the term Oedipus complex to refer to a stage in the development of young boys. He felt that in early development, around the age of five, young boys wished to have all their mother's love. Jealousy caused them to resent and even unconsciously wish for the death of their fathers. The idea gets its name from the Greek myth of Oedipus, who unwittingly kills his father Laius and marries his mother Jocasta. Freud also thought the phenomenon happened in young girls, and that they also sought their mother's love exclusively. Freud's views have been met with both acclaim and strong criticism throughout history. Yet there is no denying of his strong influence on the field of psychology. Many thinkers since his time have revised or built on his ideas. Jung reworked the idea of the Oedipus complex, writing that young girls experienced it towards their fathers. Jung called his theory the “Electra complex” (Jung, Carl Freud and Psychoanalysis 154). Freud considered this complex the nucleus of all human relationships. Nevertheless, Freud was subjective and he did not reflect his own attitude. He even defends the right to stop such a bad habit. “Freud considered the reactions against the Oedipus Complex the most important social achievements of the human mind” (Aldous, Huxley The Letters of D. H. Lawrence 316). As for the mother-son relationship as a main theme in Sons and Lovers, the main character Paul has a serious Oedipus complex. He is more delicate and quiet than any other children with his pale faces, and looks older than the other children at the same age. So his illness tends to make his mother's love grow bigger towards him. He is very conscious of what other people feel, particularly his mother. When she gets angry, he can understand her, and can't keep himself calm at the same time; his attention seems always to be centralized to her. Paul's passions upon his mother and the mother's upon him are secretly mutual. When he is together with his mother, his love is very clear, and he considers his mother as his only inspiration. Both the flowers he plucks and the rewards he gets are to be devoted to his mother, only for herself. They tell each other their feelings from their inner world, and share the happiness and grievance with each other. This kind of emotion which excesses the normal one between mother and son reaches a climax when Mr. Morel (Paul's father) is in hospital as a work accident. For example, he even says to his mother with joy: "I'm the man in the house now" (Botong, Zhu D.H. Lawrence Selected Literary Critiques 62). When Paul was informed that his father will back home from hospital, Paul feels disappointed and fear again. Paul is nearly 20 years old, but his affection is completely controlled by his mother. He is hostile to his father, and often prays "Lord, let my father die” (Lawrence, David Sons and Lovers 60). When he grows older, he even treats his father with fists. However, his mother is the most important and the only nice person in his mind. Facing the intense conflicts between mother and Miriam, Paul thinks his most passionate love belongs to his beloved mother. It seemed to Paul that his mother looked lovely, in her new black silk blouse. There is a short conversation from him to his mother: "At any rate, mother, I s'll never marry” (245), which can show that he is involved into a great trouble due to his love towards his mother. Paul always worries a lot when he just talks to other women because of the effects from his mother. He can't control himself and handle it successfully as his Oedipus complex is serious. So he loses the ability to love other women: "He was afraid of her” (Gengsheng, Cui On Feminism in the Relationships of Sons and Lovers 13). The fact is that it seems to be a shame. The woman who will stay with him in his mind is only his mother: "But I shan't marry, mother. I shall live with you, and we'll have a servant” (Lawrence, David Sons and Lovers 245). In his eyes, his mother is his only beloved woman.

Paul's friend Miriam and Mrs. Morel have many similarities in their personalities. Just as Mrs. Morel, she is not only educated, but also full of confidence and independent spirits, and at times keeps Paul in a subordinative position. Since Paul considers her as the substitute of his mother, he can't have a normal relation with Miriam. He hates her because she makes him contempt himself in some way. When he stays with Miriam, he misses his mother. His deepest love belongs to his mother. When he feels that he hurts her or hurts the love devoted to her, he can't bear. His mother looks like a magnetic pole that prevents him getting away from her. Paul can't help missing his mother for a long time after her death, because he loses the power which supports his life. He ever struggles in order to break away from his mother's controlling, but he fails. According to Freud's viewpoint, Paul's Oedipus complex is very severe. Although he grows up, he can't transcend the love between the baby and mother; he can't make his emotion develop healthily. The love complex from the son to his mother has existed to the end of the novel. At the beginning, Paul can take good care of his mother when she is ill, but as time goes by, he and his sister can't stand to see their beloved mother live in such pain so that they give her an extra dosage of morphine in their mother’s cup. Then Mrs. Morel dies.

So, he gets himself into trouble again as he realizes that he never lives by his own will and his own way, he never leads a real life for himself. He not only feels that he can't live without her but also feels if she lives, he can't live independently. But when he accelerates his mother's death personally, he cries again and again: "My love my love…oh, my love!” (392).

Sons and Lovers reveals two different kinds of relationships that can't be separated from each other. The identity of a son indicates a family relationship which relates the boys to their parents by blood relationship; while the identity of a lover indicates a special human relationship, which reflects the emotion between men and women. In the novel, Paul is not only a son but also a lover, who has an Oedipus complex, but he dates with the other two women still. Paul has a resistant consciousness on the problem how to deal with the relationships of his beloved mother and the two loves. But this consciousness only exists in a few words or phases. For example, when he and Miriam have a further development on the love affairs, he doesn't know what and how to do again. He feels depressed and finally he returns to his mother yet. When he keeps contact with another woman, Clara, his mother quarrels with him angrily: "But won't people talk?...Of course, these may be nothing wrong in it, but you know what folk are, and if once she gets talked about” (314). But, Paul also quarrels with his mother this time instead of giving up directly: "I can’t help it. Their jaw isn't so almighty important, after all…What can people say?...that we talk together, I believe you're jealous” (314). From these words, we know the conflicts between Paul and his mother become clear. It's the very relationship which changes Paul's attitude to his mother. It seems that he realizes the person is his mother who destroys his happy life.

Mrs. Morel, mother of the sons, is the major character, who comes from a good family, civilized and educated well. She also has refined manners comparing. Her husband is from a lower class. He is a struggling coal miner and a heavy drinker. They have nothing in common. In fact, their marriage life is very frustrated which is full of conflicts. At a Christmas party, both the father, who is from a poor family, and the mother have decided to get married. Mrs. Morel thinks that she would reform the miner and bring him up to her level of manners. But very soon she knows he can never be reformed. On the contrary, Mr. Morel becomes more and more cruel and fierce to the family due to Mrs. Morel's complaints and contempt. Every morning, the father crawls into the dark and work hard. In the evening, he doesn't come back until he is dead drunk. When he is at home, he treats his wife and children brutally. He even locks his wife out of the door when she is pregnant, and hits her head violently just after she gives birth to a baby. It seems when he is drunk, he escapes from his sorrow and fatigue; only when he maltreats his family. So the harmonious atmosphere is destroyed. The mother is unsatisfied and angry with the coal miner, because he not only fails to live up to her bourgeois idea, but also hurts her in body and mind. Their marriage is broken up completely, as Lawrence once described: "their marriage life has been one carnal, bloody flight” (Niven, Alastair D. H. Lawrence: the novels 184). Mrs. Morel loses her husband's love; she slowly transfers her emotions to her children. In her eyes, her sons are her lovers who take position of her husband. She wants to win her son's love that she can't get from her husband in order to make up her emotional gap. Her personal abnormal emotion is the direct factor for Paul's Oedipus complex. When Mrs. Morel finds that Paul has been with Miriam very closely, she is afraid that Miriam will absorb him and take him away from her, so shouts at her son: "I can't bear it. I could put up with another woman, but not her. She'd leave me no room, not a bit of room" (Lawrence, David Sons and Lovers 213). Obviously, Mrs. Morel really wants to take up her son's emotion only for herself. When Miriam often dates with Paul, Mrs. Morel can't control her envious feeling again. At a time, she says to Paul angrily: "Is there nobody else to talk to?” (161), “Yes, I know it well…I am old, and therefore I may stand aside; I have nothing more to do with you. You only want me to wait on you…the rest is for Miriam” (212). In order to occupy Paul's whole soul, the mother even vows to Paul: "I have never…you know, Paul…I have never had a husband…not really…" (213). From the analysis above, we can know it's the mother's abnormal maternity that strengthens Paul's Oedipus complex which comes into being naturally and normally when he was a baby according to Freud's theory. In another word, mother's abnormal maternity is the origin or the basic cause to Paul's abnormal feeling.

Healthy conditions must have an impact on healthy life styles and social systems. The problem described in Sons and Lovers are not only the mental problems but also social factors. The development of the abnormal emotions between Paul and his mother are caused by the reasons from many aspects. Besides the ones mentioned above, it also includes the social problem at that time which can't be neglected absolutely. The lives of the coal-miners were described by Lawrence, but he is different from the other writers in the 19th century, he paid much more attention to personal emotions to reflect the inner feelings of the persons living in this kind of environment. In fact, when a civilized woman comes into a lower class and then became unsatisfied with her life very much - and as she once loved her husband - when her sons grow up, she selects her husband and her sons as her lovers. The deformed emotions are due to the whole living or social conditions. Nottingham, a county where they live, is very dirty and poor. The working and living conditions there are too terrible. Morel as well as the other coal-miners is working hard day and night without mercy. When they don't work, they will get rid of tiredness by drinking until they become drunk. So it's not only Paul's disease, but also the western world's disease. Actually, the capitalist system deprives Morel's rights to be educated, and bring him hardships which make him very poor; then his rudeness and poverty lead to the wife's contempt and discontent and the family troubles. Later, Mrs. Morel becomes very disappointed and she shifts her love to her sons. But too much maternity prevents the sons being healthy; the sons' tragedy also brings more pain to the mother. So, the social influence on Paul led him to behave in such manner.

There is a resemblance between D. H. Lawrence’s own memories, experiences and the novel itself, and this is why he chooses Paul as a character in this form. In both the novel and in the story of Lawrence’s life, childhood is spent in the poor parts of a mining town. In both the novel and Lawrence’s life, the mother and father suffer from failed and frustrated relationship. In both the novel and Lawrence’s life, the father drinks too much, distancing himself from his wife, whom he no longer understands. In both, the mother in turn takes all her emotional life into her children, especially her sons. In both, the mother is overwhelmed by grief, but finds herself emotionally alive again when the younger brother becomes ill and she can focus her love on him. In both, the development of a mature life for the son is stopped by his affection for his mother. In both, the hero works in a surgical appliance factory. In both, the son gives his mother an overdose that increased the possibility of her death. Lawrence was very close to his mother so much that even he admitted that his relationship with his mother interfered with his own relationships with women. His relationship with his father was very much like Paul's. Both young men sided with their mothers and clung to them. They hate and detested their fathers. As a young boy, he was sickly and weak and preferred to stay at home with his mother. And there is much more in the novel that speaks directly from Lawrence’s own experiences with his parents, his background and his early relationships. However, the disadvantage that can be felt through reading the book is that the autobiographical aspect of the novel gives it the impression of having been written quickly. There are sudden, unclear shifts of time or perspective. Therefore, the novel may reflect indirectly the author’s point of view and not only Oedipus as a historical figure, because there is a link between the novel’s background and the life of D. H. Lawrence.

The narrator is one of the main techniques of the novel. Sons and Lovers is told from the point of view of an omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator. Most of the time, the narrator tells you more about the characters than they themselves know. This helps you accept and understand actions that might otherwise seem arbitrary or unmotivated. Since this book is highly autobiographical, many readers identify the narrator with Lawrence, who seems to be looking back and trying to come to terms with his own youthful problems and feelings through the character of Paul Morel. The narrator's subjectivity about Paul shows through. At times he sympathizes with Paul, and at other times he condemns him. You may find the other characters judged in a similar way. Some readers find the narrator's changing opinion indicative of Lawrence's own confusion over his various past relationships. Others feel that the narrator is simply reflecting how people naturally change their perspective depending on the circumstances. At times, the narrator seems to step aside and allow the characters to speak for themselves in passages of dialogue. You may feel closer to them when the narrator doesn't guide your view of their motivations. But don't forget that the narrator is choosing the speech and actions to be revealed, in order to influence your reactions. Sometimes, instead of stepping aside, the narrator seems almost to take over a character, even if the result is at odds with that character's personality. For instance, when Gertrude Morel is locked out of her house in Chapter 1, she seems mystically transported by her experience with the daylilies. She is really out of character that some would say that the narrator (or author) has stepped into her shoes in such a totally subjective way that he reveals his own artistic and spiritual nature rather than Gertrude's. Others might feel this is the only way to depict a character's hidden inner feelings.

In conclusion, the psychological novel focused on the inner life and self of the personality and not the external influences. The writers were right to express the true state of the society and how that was reflected on the individual. World War I and Sigmund Freud made huge influences on the writers at the time. Paul's Oedipus complex and its reasons are very clear. Actually, Paul has not become a normal adult by getting over some problems like other children. That is not only determined by his mother's abnormal maternity. The reasons are in many ways, some comes from the parents and some even from the society. The mechanical civilization and the capitalist society that depend on industrialization lead the family tragedy and distortion of people. The constrained life suffocates human nature. So, it is easy to know, the bad working and living conditions are one of the main reasons for Morel's (Lawrence's) family tragedy. It devastated people's healthy development on spirits. The novel may also reflect the viewpoint of the author, however, if the man sticks to the moral values, the teachings of his religion and be a good person, there won’t be any complex or psychological bad influence as the spiritual side is very important for people, even if there is a bad condition in life or in family itself.

Works Cited

Aldington, Richard. Selected Essays. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1990.

Aldous, Huxley. The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1969.

Black, Michael. D.H. Lawrence, the early fiction: a commentary. London: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Botong, Zhu D.H. Lawrence Selected Literary Critiques. London: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1986.

Edel, Leon. Stuff of Sleep and Dreams: Experiments in Literary Psychology. London: Harpercollins; 1st edition, 1982.

Gengsheng, Cui. On Feminism in the Relationships of Sons and Lovers. Xiaogan: University of Xiaogan, 2003.

Jung, Carl. Freud and Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge, 1997.

Lawrence, David Sons and Lovers. Rockville: Wildside Press LLC, 2007.

Nicholls, Peter. Modernisms: A Literary Guide. California: University of California Press, 1995.

Niven, Alastair. D. H. Lawrence: the novels. London: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

"Psychological novel." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 27 Apr. 2010 .

Rycroft, Charles. A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. London: Penguin, 2005.

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