Sons and Lovers: Examine the Relationships Paul has with the
Women in his Life.
Paul Morel is the main character in DH Lawrence's novel 'Sons and
Lovers'. The story charts his early life from when his parents married and the subsequent birth of four children, through childhood and early adulthood to the death of his mother. During this time three women have a major impact on his life, his mother, Miriam and Clara. Each has the most influence at different times in his life and can be attributed to his childhood, being a young man and early adulthood respectively; but each woman's influence carries on to shape Paul into the man he becomes.
From the very beginning there is a connection between Paul and his mother in that he looks like her
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Paul could do better. Mrs morel was also jealous of Miriam and felt that if they should become heavily involved and marry 'she'd leave me no room - not a bit of room-'. Paul was also jealous of William, his older brother, whom his mother had a more passionate relationship with. After his death when Mrs Morel could not pull herself out of her grief and barely spoke to Paul, he became ill and lost the will to live until she woke from her grief-stricken stupor.
Paul was more of a companion to his mother, particularly after William's departure to London and his eventual death; 'Mrs Morel's life now rooted itself in Paul'. She told him all her troubles and 'he took it in as best he could' as a child and a man.
Although the book depicts Paul as being more himself when he is with
Miriam it is necessary for him to have his mother to soothe him. 'His ridiculous hyper-sensitiveness made her heart ache' and it made him miserable so he found relief in the company of his mother. However,
Miriam cultivated this sensitive nature to match her own and to such an extent that he can't bear to be himself or see himself reflected in Miriam.
He begins to hate Miriam because she does this to him, she makes him what he doesn't want to be, and because she is not like his mother. This relationship he has with his mother is also slightly
The love of affection is a term that I feel I have had in my life and was easily portrayed as a need. My parents are the people in who brought me into this world. They have shown me their ways of becoming a person- by me making my own decisions, and most importantly having a walk with Christ. They may have been a pain to me through discipline, but they always have shown me their love through affection.
thinks that no man is good enough for his daughter. Therefore, he pushes anyone who
Because the father was so involved with himself, he did not make the time or put the effort to develop a proper relationship with his son.
“ ‘So you figured it would be better if I just hated myself?’ ” (265). This is important because he hates being blind, especially since he doesn’t know why he was blind. He’s not allowed on his school soccer team and his brother bullies him about it. She had good intentions, but now Paul has to go through the process of finding it out himself.
She could feel Paul being drawn away by this girl. And she did not care for Miriam. "She is one of those who will want to suck a man's soul out till he has none of his own left," she said to herself; "and he
When he comes home to everyone living perfectly unaffected lives, he feels his life has been flipped upside down. Paul speaks very nostalgically, as if he wishes he could go back to his former self that fit in so well, but now that he has seen so much suffering, he literally “cannot comprehend” the frivolity of their actions.
whatever danger lies before them. Furthermore, she gives him no optimistic view of the future, and,
When he is reunited with his mother "[they] say very little," but when she finally asks him if it was "very bad out there" Paul lies. In trying to protect her by lying, Paul creates a separation between his mother and himself. As Paul sees it, the tragedies and horrors of war are not for the uninitiated. Sadly, the true nature of war further separates the two generations.
Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a
the love and care he unknowingly needs. Paul takes on roles that disguise his own traits and turns him into what he believes to be a person nobody can say no to. When he takes on these roles, he
Paul has got an old university friend, a character who is very important for this book. His name is Ed Finnerty. He is the fatal character for Paul because he is the one who makes Paul realize his real position and all the people's real positions. He is
Paul's father had abused him emotionally, and probably physically, throughout Paul's life. He did so much to Paul's flagging self-image that he had to boast to others to make himself feel big, when he felt tiny inside. When he finally achieved that "bigness" that he always wanted, the glamour of "the good life," his father found him out and took that away from him, or rather, made Paul give it up. This made Paul feel even smaller and made him feel that he would be better off dead. So Paul decided to make his life "better off" and
The film Dangerous Liaison, directed by Stephen Frears remains just about faithful to the epistolary novel, Dangerous Liaisons, by Choderlos de Laclos. Stephen Frears does "betray" the novel towards the end of the film but, it makes the ending that much more better and enticing. The film represents what the epistolary novel only hints at us readers. The novel is composed of letters where we only get a sense of the characters thoughts and emotions. The film tries to put those words into action but only showing one version of each scene. It is different in which the writer of the novel is using words while the film maker is using pictures to describe what's happening.
about Paul and his mother right from the start just by how the author described
Both poems “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke and “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden are poems in which the speaker (a son in both cases) attempts to explain his complex relationship with his father. It seems that the two poets are reflecting back in their early lives as young boys and showing different appreciation toward their father. In my interpretation “My Papa’s Waltz” is about a boy and that is excited that his father got home to play with him. Only problem is the speakers father is drunk and it hard to enjoy himself but he held on because the unconditional love he has for him, as the line says “The Whiskey on your breath / could make a boy dizzy; / But I hung like death: ” (1-2-3). However, “Those Winter Sundays” is more