A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY ON D.H LAWRENCE’S
SONS AND LOVERS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
Elida Mantarina S
Student Number: 984214135
Student Registration Number:
980051120106120133
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
“For I know the plans I have for
you,” declares the Lord, “plans to
prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a
future.”
(Jeremiah 29: 11)
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to the savior of my life, Jesus Christ, for always being here during my up and down times. Thank you for saving my soul from death so I can be a new creation in You. Thank you for helping me to accomplish this thesis. All the glory, honor, praises, they all come back to You alone.
I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd, M. A for all the thoughts, advices, guidance and helps so this thesis is up to the end. I would like to thank my co-advisor Dra. A. B. Sri Mulyani, M.A for lending the books that I have needed. Thank you for the suggestions and inputs.
My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, H. Saragih and D. Manurung. Thank you for believing and holding a huge faith in me to finish my thesis. I thank my brother, Ronal and my two little sisters, Aprida and Christina for their love, support and prayer. I thank God for giving me a wonderful family. What a blessing to have you all in my life.
I thank Silvia and Nope, who have helped me revising this thesis. Thank you for your love, prayer and encouragement. I am so blessed to know you.
I thank Sondang for allowing me to use her computer until 4 o’clock in the morning. I’m so blessed with your kindness. Good luck for your thesis. Fighting!!
I thank all people that I cannot mention one by one who also giving their support and prayer. I hope this thesis will be useful for the readers. God bless you all.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
C. Objectives of the Study ...3
D. Definition of Terms ...3
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review on Related Studies ...4
B. Review on Related Theories...5
1. The Author’s Relation to his works ...6
2. Character and Characterization ...7
C. Theoretical Framework ...11 A. Characteristics of Paul Morel ...17
B. The Similarities between D.H Lawrence’s life and Paul Morel’s life...29
ABSTRACT
Elida Mantarina S (2007). A Biographical Study on D.H Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. Yogyakarta: English Letter Department, Faculty of English Letter, Sanata Dharma.
This thesis analyzes the influence of D.H Lawrence’s background of life in his novel, Sons and Lovers. From this topic, the writer formulates three problems and they become the bases of the study. The questions are: (1) What is the character of Paul Morel like? (2) Which parts of Lawrence’s life are similar to Paul Morel’s life? , and (3) Which parts of Lawrence’s life are reflected in the presentation of characters in Sons and Lovers? The first objective is to find out the characteristics of Paul Morel as the main character. The second objective is to find out the similarities between D.H Lawrence’s life and Paul Morel’s life. The last objective is to find out the significant characters that influence D.H Lawrence’s life as presented in Sons and Lovers.
This thesis is using library research, so the primary data are taken from the novel Sons and Lovers, written by D.H Lawrence. The other supporting data are taken from the critical books, essays, and theoretical books and also from the Internet. The writer uses Biographical approach in comparing and analyzing the story in Sons and Lovers and D.H Lawrence’s background of life. The writer finds out that Paul Morel’s life has many similarities with D.H Lawrence’s life as the creator of Sons and Lovers.
ABSTRAK
Elida Mantarina S (2007). A Biographical Study on D.H Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. Yogyakarta, Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisa pengaruh latar belakang kehidupan D.H Lawrence dalam novelnya Sons and Lovers. Dari topik ini, penulis membuat tiga permasalahan dan permasalahan-permasalahan tersebut menjadi tujuan dari penulisan skripsi ini. Pertanyaan tersebut adalah (1) Karakteristik apa saja yang terdapat pada Paul Morel? (2) Bagian-bagian kehidupan manakah yang menunjukkan kesamaan antara D.H Lawrence dan Paul Morel? Dan (3) Bagian-bagian kehidupan D.H Lawrence yang manakah yang direflesikan melalui presentasi karakter-karakter penting pada novel Sons and Lovers? Tujuan pertama adalah untuk mengetahui karakteristik dari Paul Morel sebagai karakter utama. Tujuan yang kedua adalah untuk mengetahui persamaan antara kehidupan D.H Lawrence dan kehidupan Paul Morel. Tujuan yang terakhir adalah untuk mengetahui karakter-karakter penting yang mempengaruhi kehidupan D.H Lawrence seperti terdapat dalam Sons and Lovers.
Berhubung skripsi ini menggunakan metode studi pustaka, data utama diambil dari novel Sons and Lovers yang ditulis oleh D.H Lawrence. Data lain diambil dari buku penunjang seperti, buku kritikan, esai-esai, buku-buku teori dan juga dari internet. Di dalam membandingkan dan menganalisa cerita Sons and Lovers dan kehidupan D.H Lawrence, penulis menggunakan pendekatan biografi. Penulis menemukan bahwa kehidupan Paul Morel mempunyai banyak kesamaan dengan kehidupan D.H Lawrence sebagai pencipta novel Sons and Lovers.
CHAPTER I
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
For some people reading is simply a hobby, to kill time or to get some information from the book itself. Literature is the book of life. Therefore, it is also the reflection of the author’s life. In literature, an author writes about his or her own experiences about people, time, place, etc. Therefore, by reading literature such as literary works we can also get some benefit from it. Moody in his book
Literary Appreciation states:
The greatest pleasure and satisfaction to be found in literature occurs when (as it often does) it brings us back to the realities of human situations, problems, feelings and relationship (1968: 31).
Literature transfers ideas; it reflects societies, eras and expresses human imagination. Literature also brings understanding of something, enrichment and the joy when reading it. Reading literature is not only giving us pleasure but also educating and teaching us. Through literature, we are capable in understanding the nature of man with his problems and learning the values hidden in it. Literary works give us the knowledge of human affairs; the truth about life and the understanding of man as a human being.
D.H Lawrence in his book Why the Novel Matters: Selected Criticism states: The novel is the book of life. In this sense, the Bible is a great confused novel. You may say, it is about God. But it is really about man alive. Adam, Eve, Sarai, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, David, Bath-sheba, Ruth, Esther, Solomon, Job, Isaiah, Jesus, mark, Judas, Paul, Peter: what is it but man alive, from start to finish? Man alive, not mere bits. Even the Lord is another man alive, in a burning bush, throwing the tablets of stone at Moses's head (from Why the Novel Matters: Selected Criticism, 1956).
Most of the characters in Lawrence’s novels are the reflection of Lawrence himself or people in his life, as Priestly says, “many of his stories are based on real accidents and characters that were friends and acquaintances” (Murti, 1982:31). Alastair Niven gives opinion about the position of D.H Lawrence among other English writers: “D.H Lawrence was one of the most versatile of all English writers, using almost every literary form in which the English language can express itself” (1960:1).
D.H Lawrence’s second novel, Sons and Lovers was published in 1913. It is regarded as the big step in Lawrence’s development. He wrote Sons and lovers
The writer chooses Sons and Lovers because the writer finds some interesting parts in the novel, such as the relationship between the author and the main character, Paul Morel. The writer finds out that Paul Morel is the reflection of D.H Lawrence. In analyzing the problem into discussion, this thesis uses
Biographical approach. The writer chooses this approach to get a deep understanding about the author’s background of life and his works.
B. PROBLEM FORMULATION
From the background study above, the problems of this study are: 1. What is the character of Paul Morel like?
2. Which parts of Lawrence’s life are similar to Paul Morel’s life?
3. Which parts of Lawrence’s life are reflected in the presentation of characters in
Sons and Lovers?
C. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This study aims to answer the three formulated problems above. They are:
1. Finding the characteristics of Paul Morel as the main character.
D. DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. Biographical
According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition, Biographical is relating to a list briefly identifying persons (1993:115). Oxford Advanced Dictionary of Current English states Biographical as person’s life history written by another. It is a branch of literature dealing with the lives of persons (1974:82).
2. Character
Rohrberger and Woods describe characters as flat and round. Flat character is one-sided while round character is many-sided. Flat character exhibits one predominant character trait (1971:81). Round character reveals many characters trait (1971:184).
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. REVIEW ON RELATED STUDIES
Concerning with the topic, the writer finds some criticisms on Lawrence’s
Sons and Lovers. Cowley Malcolm and Hugi E in The Lesson of The Masters say that the main issues in Sons and Lovers are class distinction and the dominance of powerful woman (1971:381-383). Both of them agree that this novel is the most autobiographical of Lawrence’s real family situation. This theme appears in most of his novels.
Abrams in The Norton Anthology of English Literature states that Sons and Lovers is a response to life. It is a result or product of Lawrence’s fresh look into his life. This novel is more conventional in style rather than Lawrence’s other works. The theme of Sons and Lovers is about a free will. It is also about an over dominating mother who gives up the prospect of achieving true emotional life with her husband and focuses her affection to her sons (1978: 2140-2144).
Sons and Lovers is one of Lawrence’s novels, which based on Lawrence’s own experience. Nigel Messenger in How to Write an Essay on Lawrence states that Sons and Lovers is partly autobiographical and Lawrence tries to open up his own life and problems so the novel can set into a discussion (1989:133).
B. REVIEW ON RELATED THEORIES
1. THE AUTHOR’S RELATION TO HIS WORKS
The author is the important person in literary works because he or she becomes the creator of the literary works itself. An author and his or her works cannot be separated. According to Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, there is a close relationship between the work of art and the life of an author but the work of art is not mere copy of life. A work of art is only a place for an author to hide his feeling and weaknesses (1957: 75-78).
Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature
states there is an indirect relationship and similarity between the work and the author. An author’s work including character is “a kind of mask which is surely based on the author’s experience of life” (1971: 8). The novel reflects the author’s thought and by using his or her biography, the readers can share their consciousness and responses to the author’s thought. The readers should attempt to learn about the author’s life in order to understand his writings.
his imagination to create characters as a living person. An author has uncommon powers of observation and experiences of life. An author does not have to experience everything he writes about, he can write an imagination in his mind despite describe it as real life in his works (1969: 165-176).
Sherwood Anderson in George Perking’ The Theory of American Novel states that the result of the work of an author is influenced by the experience of the author:
Now, when it comes to talking about the experiences of writer, I think I should say something than perhaps most of you realize. The work of any writer, and for that matter of any artist in any of the seven art, should contain within it the story of his own style (Perking, 1970: 293).
2. THEORIES OF CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION
2.1 CHARACTER
Abrams in his book entitled A Glossary of Literature Terms states those two meanings of character. Character is the name of a literary genre; it is a short and usually witty, sketch in prose of a distinctive type of person (1981: 23). Abrams also says character is:
…The person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional and emotional qualities that are expressed when they say the dialogue and do the action (1981:34).
Character is one of the intrinsic elements in literary work. He or she is the person that represents human personality in the novel. The author describes he or she in the experiences on relationship and event or situation (Harvey, 1965: 31).
Roger B. Henkel in Reading The Novel states that character can be differentiating into two categories, major and minor characters (1977: 28). Major character is the center or the important character in the story. Major character deals with conflicts, changes, makes some progresses, and engages our responses more fully and steadily (Harvey, 1965: 56).
In accordance to Murphy’s book (1972: 167) entitled Understanding Unseen, an Introduction to English Poetry and the English novel for Overseas Students, characteristics of the character in the novel can be studied from:
1. Personal description
It is about a character’s appearance that is described by the author in the literary works. The description of the appearance can help readers or viewers to understand or imagine the character.
2. Character as seen by another
The opinion from another characters to a character in a literary works can give an explanation about the characteristics of the character.
3. Speech
4. Past lives
Sometimes, what has happened with the character in his/her past can influence his/her present life and this past life can influence or develop characteristic of the character.
5. Conversation of others
Through conversations of others about a character, which is spoken, can be seen by the readers or viewers.
6. Reaction
The description of characteristics of a character can be seen through his/her action. The reaction of the character shows the character’s way of thinking, which makes a characteristic of the character.
7. Direct comment
Usually, direct comments from the author are written in the beginning of the story. The author describes his characters so it can make the readers or the viewers understand about the characters of the author.
Robert Stanton in his book An Introduction of a Literature states:
Character is commonly used in two ways, it designates the individuals who appear in the story, and it refers in the mixture of interests, desires, emotion, and moral principles that makes of each different individuals. Most stories contain a central character, which is relevant to every event in the story; usually the event causes some changes either in his or in our attitude toward him. We could understand one character if we see the actions, their behavior, the way they speak, their attitude and from the dialogue (1965: 17-18).
According to Little (1981: 93) in his book Approach to Literature, a character can be studied from:
1. His or her basic characteristics.
It can be seen from the physical condition of the character, including his or her age, the social relationship – the personal relationship with other character, the mental qualities – the typical ways of thinking, feeling and acting.
2. His or her appearances from various points of view.
This includes how the character sees him or herself, how various other characters see him or her, how he or she develops or fails to develop during the course of the story.
3. His or her places in the works.
This means the treatment of the author (sketched or fully rounded, a portrayed descriptively or dramatically, treated sympathetically or unsympathetically), his or her place in the story (a leading character or minor one), his or her relationship to theme (does the character exemplify or embody something important that the author has to say?
2.2 CHARACTERIZATION
visualize and understand the character. Stanton also says in a good fiction, every speech or action is not only a step in the plot but also a manifestation of character. The close relation between the character and the story can be seen from his idea that “throughout our knowledge of character, if we understand their actions, we will understand the characters” (1965: 17-18).
Perrine (1974: 48-68) states that the characterization should consider three principles:
1. The character should be consistent in their behavior
2. The character should be clearly motivated in all aspects, especially when many changes raise in their behavior
3. They should be lifelike or plausible. They must be either paragons or virtue non monsters or neither evil nor impossible combination of contradictory traits.
According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literature Terms (1981:21), characterization is seen in two ways:
1. From character gestures - the way he or she talks, acts, communicates with the audience or the readers.
2. From the author’s thoughts – the way he or she describes characters in his or her works.
C. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theories of character and characterization are used to analyze the characteristics of Paul Morel. This theory will help the writer to analyze Paul Morel in more detail, such as his behavior, attitudes, feeling and also a guideline to observe the characteristics of Paul Morel as the reflection of D.H Lawrence.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. OBJECT OF THE STUDY
In 1913, D.H Lawrence’s second novel Sons and Lovers is published for the first time. Since Sons and Lovers became a masterpiece of the world, many publishers in England and the United States printed it. Sons and Lovers is successfully sold out and many editions have been made.
D.H Lawrence in Sons and Lovers wants to present his point of view about his family life through the presentation of the main characters in the novel. Lawrence is focusing on the relationship between Paul Morel as the main character with other characters in the novel such as his relationship with his parents, friends and some women that influenced his life and shaping his character. The story tells about the unhappy, tense and uneasy life of Morel family. The family problem is more complicated. Gertrude, Paul’s mother does not agree with her son relationship with Miriam and Clara. She is jealous of her son’s lover and she is afraid both of the women will take Paul away from her. In the end Gertrude is diagnosed of cancer and Paul gave an overdose medicine to end her suffering and she died.
B. APPROACH OF THE STUDY
Since the writer chooses the topic that related to the author’s life, a
Biographical approach is used. According to D.K Peterson, a biographical approach sees a literary work as the reflection of an author’s life and times (or of the character’s life and times). It relates to the author’s life and thoughts of his works (http://www.english.wayne.edu/`peterson/Fiction/approach.html).
A Biographical approach is also used as a criticism of the story in discovering and presenting the fact of an author’s life and in using a sensitive interpretation of them to show relevant connections between a writer and a story. A Biographical approach is used for comparing D.H Lawrence’s life and Paul Morel’s life as the main character in the novel.
Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature states a biographical approach is used when we intend to judge literary works based on the importance of acknowledging the author’s personal life for a deep understanding about his writings. This approach believes the work of literature is a representation of author’s life and it supplies useful information that could facilitate them to a better understanding and appreciation of the works itself (1971: 6). Rohrberger and Woods also add that “in order to apply a Biographical approach in a paper, we should learn as much as possible about the life and development of the author in order to understand his/her work better” (1971: 8).
author's life helps the readers to comprehend the work more thoroughly. However, a Biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer's life too far in criticizing the works of that writer. The Biographical critic should focuses on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author's life. Biographical data helps to amplify the meaning of the text and not drown it out with irrelevant material (1995: 1790-1818).
A Biographical approach is used to have a deep understanding about D.H Lawrence’s life and Paul Morel’s life as the main character in Sons and Lovers.
C. METHOD OF THE STUDY
Some steps are applied in analyzing Sons and Lovers. The first step was reading and re-reading the novel in order to get a deep understanding. The second
was divided some groups of data. The first group was finding criticisms that related to the novel. The second group was finding theories on character and characterization.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the writer is divided the discussion into three parts based on the problems formulated earlier. The first part of the analysis, the description of Paul Morel’s characteristics will be analyzed. The second part of the analysis is finding the similarities between D.H Lawrence’s life and Paul Morel’s life, and the third is finding the reflection of D.H Lawrence’s life through the presentation of the significant characters in Sons and Lovers.
1. CHARACTERISTICS OF PAUL MOREL
Paul Morel is the protagonist in the novel. He is the third child of Walter and Gertrude Morel. Paul represents D.H Lawrence. He is barely alive when his father looks at him for the first time and says, “Bless him!” (1981: 69). Paul is born as a weak baby and he has peculiar heaviness eyes that seems to understand something pain and sorrowful. Gertrude feels guilty about her son’s condition.
And that moment she felt, some far place of her soul, that she and her husband were guilty. The baby was looking up at her. It had blue eyes like her own, but its look was heavy, steady, as if it had realized something that had stunned some point of its soul (1981: 74).
Gertrude does not want to have a new baby. She is tired with her husband temper and she has to baby sit the children. She feels trapped in her own house while her husband always goes out and enjoys drinking beer all the time.
She couldn’t afford to have this third. She didn’t want it. The father was serving beer in the public house, swilling himself drunk. She despised him, and was tied to him. This coming child was too much for her. If it were not for William and Annie, she was sick of it, the struggle with poverty and meanness (1981: 40).
Gertrude realizes that she does not love her husband, Walter anymore. Therefore, it is not easy for her to have this new baby.
In her arms lay the delicate baby. Its deep blur eyes, always looking up at her unblinking, seemed to draw her innermost thoughts of her. She no longer loved her husband; she had not wanted this third child to come, and there it lay in her arms and pulled her heart (1981: 74).
Paul is a delicate boy and the frailest child in the family. He grows almost like his mother, slightly and rather small. “Paul was rather a delicate boy, subject to bronchitis” (1981: 105). He seems to be getting thinner and thinner. William Hopkins, as quoted in Phillip Callow, mentions the baby looks like “a skinned rabbit” when he met Mrs. Lawrence cuddling her new born child down the main street in Eastwood. People from Lawrence’s childhood is used to comment that he is the thinnest little boy they had ever seen.
All the children, but particularly Paul, were peculiarly against the father, along with their mother. Morel continued to bully and to drink. He had periods, months at a time, when he made the whole life of the family a misery. Paul never forget coming home from the Brand of Hope one Monday evening and finding his mother with eyes swollen and discolored, his father standing on the hearthrug, feet astride, his head down, and William, just home from work, glaring at his father…Another word, and the men would have begun to fight. Paul hoped they would (1981: 97).
As a little boy, Paul has a fervent religion. He receives good religious education, which gives him a deep understanding about the Bible. Congregationalism becomes the religion of his family, especially his mother. Every night Paul prays the same prayer, which is asking God to make his father die. He prays his mother will be safe. He asks God to make his father hurt or killed therefore, his father will never hurt his mother again. His father, Walter ultimately can never get along with his family because he rejects any single shred of religion, stability, compassion and love deep in his soul.
‘Make him stop drinking’, he prayed every night. ‘Lord, let my father die,’ he prayed very often. ‘Let him be killed at pit’, he prayed when, after tea, the father didn’t come home from work (1981: 99).
Paul is a traumatic person. He is almost twenty-three years old and he does not want to get married. He prefers staying home with his mother. Not once or twice, his mother supports him to get married but he refused it. He does not want to leave her alone. He wants to spend his time with her.
It seemed to Paul his mother looked lonely, in her new black silk blouse with its bit of white trimming.
‘At any rate, mother, I s’ll never marry’, he said.
‘But I shan’t marry, mother. I shall live with you, and we’ll have a servant’.
‘Ay, my lad, it’s easy to talk. We’ll see when the time comes’. ‘What time? I’m nearly twenty-three’.
‘Yes, you’re not one that would marry young. But in three’s time- ‘I shall be with you just the same’ (1981: 213).
Paul refused to get married because of the circumstance he faces in the family. He is not ready to leave his mother alone after all the cruel treatment his father does to her. He also fears that he will have unhappy marriage like his parents.
Being the son of the mother whose husband had blundered rather brutally through their feminine sanctities, they were themselves too different and shy. They could easier deny themselves than incur any reproach from a woman; for a woman was like their mother, and they were full of sense of their mother. They preferred themselves to suffer of celibacy, rather than risk the other person (1981: 243). Paul refuses to get married because he never expects to have another woman like his mother in his life. His mother, Gertrude is more than enough for him. “He did not answer, but said in his heart “All right; if I’m a child of four, what do you want for me? I don’t want another mother” (1981:257). He is happy living with his mother. He feels tired of his mother’s domination. He does not want to have another woman who will act like his mother.
with Miriam. Paul is clumsy; he is afraid to kiss Miriam or doing something else more than a kiss.
And rather red, nervous hands looked so pitiful, he was mad to comfort her and kiss her. Then he dared not or he could not. There was something prevented him. His kisses were wrong for her (1981:165).
Paul knows Miriam lover him more than he loves her. He does not want to hurt her; he does not want to hurt his mother either. Paul does want to betray his mother. He does not want to break her heart. He realizes he does not deserve for her. Miriam deserves to have another man who will love her in return. Paul feels unworthy. He is in dilemma and confused with his feeling.
Recklessness is almost a man’s revenge on his woman. He feels he is not valued, so he will risk destroying himself to deprive her altogether (1981:166).
He is nervous and lacking of confidence every time he wants to show his feeling to Miriam. Miriam also thinks that she is not good for Paul and either is Paul. It makes Paul afraid to touch or even to kiss her.
He only knew she loved him. He was afraid of her love to him. It was too good for him, and he was inadequate. His own life was at fault, not hers (1981:181).
Paul cannot do anything. It is not easy for him to keep and hide his feeling for Miriam. Paul sometimes shows it to her. He tries to deny it but he knows he failed to do it. He wants to do the things a couple usually do but again the guilty feeling for his mother always comes.
Paul is tired with the way he holds his feeling to Miriam. He is tired of his inability to show his affection to his girlfriend. Finally, he decides to end his relationship with Miriam. He says their relationship is only a friendship not more than that. Paul also convinces Miriam their relationship failed because his family especially his mother does not agree with this relationship. It is not her fault; it is his fault.
It’s not that- only they don’t like me to. They say I care more for you than for them. And you understand, don’t you? You know it’s only friendship (1981:171).
Paul realizes about his inability to express his feeling to a woman he loves. He feels insecure with himself. His past and failed relationship with Miriam still hurt him. He is not ready for a new relationship. He is afraid the woman he loves is not the “right” one for him. He is afraid his feeling for his mother blocks him again to have another chance to love a woman. He meets and falls in love with several women but he still does not find the right one. Paul compares his mother and some women in his life. He tells his mother that there is no woman like her. His mother shadows Paul. It makes him comparing all the women he ever meets or loves and failed to keep it.
‘Yes’, he said. ‘You know, mother, I think there must be something the matters with me, that I can’t love. When she’s there, as a rule, I do love her. Sometimes, when I see her just as the woman, I love her, mother; but then, when she talks and criticize, I often don’t listen to her’.
‘…I feel sometimes as if I wronged my women, mother’.
Paul is a sensitive man. Besides his sensitiveness, he is blessed with handsome face. He has beautiful blued-eyes and fair hair. Paul becomes his mother favorite (after his brother, William died). Gertrude is proud of him although she ever rejected him before. Paul becomes her happiness; she focuses her love on him.
The thought of being the mother of men was warming to her heart. She looked at the child. It had blue eyes and a lot of fair hair and was bonny. Her love came up hot, in spite of everything. She had it in bed with her (1981:29).
When Paul grows up, his sensitiveness is developed. He is sensitive with other people have in mind, they way they speak, act or interact especially when it connects with his mother. He can sense her feeling and her thought. When his mother hurts, he hurts even more. Paul hurts when he saw his father, Walter beaten his mother. Her eye is swollen. His father is not only abusing his mother physically but also the children in the house. Paul and his brothers and sister are abused verbally. Paul feels weak because he cannot protect and becomes her shield. He hates his weaknesses and hates his father even more. His childhood is unhappy; he lives in poverty and his parents always fight.
He was so conscious of what other people felt, particularly his mother when she fretted he understood, and could have no peace. His soul seemed always attentive to her (1981: 52).
shapes him into a weak person. He spends most of his time with his mother and his sister, Annie. He is easily crying; when he hurts someone, he will take it seriously and he suffers because of it. His mother spoils Paul and it turns him into a spoil brat.
He is usually active and interested, but sometimes he would have fits of depression, then the mother would find the boy of three or four crying on the sofa.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, and got no answer. ‘What’s the matter?’ she insisted, getting cross ‘I don’t know,’ sobbed the child…
And then a butterfly on the rhubarb-leaves perhaps caught his eye, or at last, he cried himself to sleep (1981:44).
Paul becomes his sister companion in playing. He has few friends. When Paul played doll with his sister, Annie, he vandalizes the doll. Annie is so upset and it hurts him. He loves his sister and to make her happy again he creates an idea. He decides to burn the doll and plans a ceremony for it. He blames Arabella for making his sister upset. His hatred for the doll is bigger. Sometimes his sensitiveness is not the right time and place.
He made an altar of bricks, pulled some of the shavings out of Arabella’s body, put the waxen fragments into the hollow face, poured on a little paraffin, and set the whole thing a light. He watched with wicked satisfaction the drops of wax melt off the broken forehead of Arabella...so long as the stupid big doll burned he rejoiced in silence (1981: 52).
his mother take care the house and the children. Paul wants to help her but he is just a little kid. He cannot do anything and he becomes so sensitive because of powerlessness. He knows that his father is failed to fulfill his mother needs and his desires to make her happy and proud of him.
It hurt the boy keenly, this feeling about her that she had never had her life’s fulfillment; and his own incapability to make up to her hurt him with a sense of impotence, yet made him patiently dogged inside (1981:59).
Paul has to take his father’s salary and his sensitiveness gets stronger when he contacted with some people in his father’s work place. When he went there, he has to stand in line waiting for his turn. Some people mocked and laughed at him because he cannot count the money correctly. His fragile side comes up and he becomes so upset and mad. Some people out there underestimate him. He refuses to take his father’s salary again. Actually, Paul is a clever boy, he is just easily nervous when he has to socialize with new people.
‘How much do you think you’ve given me?’ asked Mr. Winterbottom
The boy looked at him, but said nothing. He had not the faintest notion
‘Haven’t you got a tongue in your head?’…
‘Don’t they teach you to count at the Board-school?’ he asked ‘Nowt but Algibra an ‘French,’ said a collier
‘An’ cheek an’ impedance,’ said another…
He suffered the tortures of the damned on these occasions (1981:64).
mining place. She does not want Paul to join his father life style; his drinking habit and her rude words.
‘I’m not going to the office anymore,’ he said…
‘They’re hateful, and common, and hateful, they are, and I’m not going anymore…
His ridiculous hypersensitiveness made her heart ache. And sometimes the fury in his eyes roused her, made her sleeping soul lift up its head a moment, surprised (1981:65).
His sensitiveness becomes his weaknesses. He finds difficulty to socialize with new environment and people. He gets nervous every time he enters new place or meet new friends. He is not good in socializing. It bothers him and he is hurtled again. His mind bothered him; whether people will like and welcome him or likewise hate and reject him. He seldom hangs out with friends; his companions are his mother and his sister, Annie. Later, he has good time when he shares friendship with Miriam’s brother, David. He continues to visit Leivers’ farmhouse. He meets Miriam for the first time in that farmhouse.
He suffered very much from the first contact with anything. When he was seven, the starting school had been a nightmare and a torture to him. But afterwards he liked it. And now that he felt he had to go out into life, he went through agonies of shrinking self-consciousness (1981:79).
Paul applied a job in a surgical equipment company and he is accepted. His brother, William helps him to make the application letter. Once again, socializing is not easy for him. He has to deal and overcome his sensitiveness. It was a hard time for him. He suffered emotionally. It is always up and down.
tight inside him. He would have suffered much physical pain rather than this unreasonable suffering at being exposed to the strangers, to be accepted or rejected (1981:82).
Paul is a dependant man. He clings to his mother. He does anything to make his mother happy and proud of him. When he has his first job interviewed, Mrs. Morel accompanies him. She likes when Paul depends on her. Paul is not a burden for her; she loves her children and they are her everything.
When Mrs. Morel suffered of cancer, Paul knows that nothing is going to save her. He hurts and upsets. His dependence grows stronger. He is always with her mother but when Gertrude seriously sickened, he is alone and abandoned. He feels empty inside. He loses her affection and love. Paul is desperate and frustrated because he hates to see her crippled by the cancer. He is not ready to say good-bye. He still needs his mother. Paul is unable to bear his life and compressed by the agonies of his mother’s dying. He hastens her death by giving her an overdose of morphine in her milk. Paul ended her suffering although Gertrude still struggle to live for him. It is too heavy for him.
…he was such in mess, because his own hold of life was unsure because nobody held him, feeling unsubstantial, shadowy, as of he did not count for much in this concrete world. He drew himself together smaller and smaller” (1981: 355).
loses her affection. Paul struggles to move on. He spends his day alone; usually he spends it with his mother or helps her in the kitchen.
So weeks went on. Always alone, his soul oscilliated, first on the side of the death, then on the side of the life, doggedly. The real agony was that he had nowhere to go, nothing to do, nothing to say, and was nothing himself (1981:359).
His mother is his true companion in life. She comforts Paul. She already dominates his life. Paul’s life is too much on her. She understands Paul; he is the image of her. His sensitiveness inherits from her.
He did not know whether his face was still bleeding. Walking blindly, every step making him sick by pain, he went back to the pond and washed his face and hands…He wanted to get to his mother-he must get to his mother-that was his blind intention (1981:319).
She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself. He wanted her too touch him, have him alongside with her (1981:365).
Paul has love affair with Clara Dawes. She is mature and has husband, Baxter Dawes. When Baxter found out this affair, he fights with Paul. Baxter still loves Clara but Clara loses her feeling for him. Baxter had an affair with another woman.
Paul is a mature man. In his childhood, Paul desires to give his mother a good life. He wants to fulfill his mother needs that cannot complete by his father. Paul knows she suffered on poverty and abused by her husband.
Paul works as junior clerk in Thomas and Jordan & Co. He earns some money for his mother. Paul feels proud because he can do something for her. He enjoys his working place.
Paul is a clever man. He won a scholarship to Nottingham High School at the age of twelve years old. Actually, he is less educated. Paul never goes to Public School or famous university, like other people in his time. Paul is as an autodidactic that goes straight from elementary school to his clerical job and works at the factory for several years. Paul is interested in painting and won two prizes in art exhibition.
2. THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN D.H LAWRENCE’S LIFE AND PAUL MOREL’S LIFE
In this part, the writer compares some parts of D.H Lawrence’s life and Paul Morel’s life as the main character in Sons and Lovers.
D.H Lawrence is born as a delicate and weak baby who nearly died of bronchitis and remained as a fragile man during his life. Paul Morel is also a small boy who suffered bronchitis since he was born. Paul is the frailest child in the family. The other children are quiet strong and because of that, his mother has different feeling for him. Paul becomes his mother’s favorite (1981: 105).
All the children, but particularly Paul, were peculiarly against their father along with their mother (1981: 97).
It was one Monday evening when Paul came home from the Brand of Hope and he saw that his father beating his mother. Her eyes were swollen and bruised. It made William and Paul so angry with the father (1981: 99).
D.H Lawrence and Paul Morel is clever and educated person although they do not enter a Public School. Both D.H Lawrence and Paul Morel also win a scholarship to Nottingham High School at the age of twelve years old.
D.H Lawrence is fond of art especially in painting and designs. In the novel, D.H Lawrence describes Paul Morel as a character who is fond of art. Both of them are good in art and win two prizes in art exhibition.
Paul won a prize in a competition in a child’s paper. Everybody was highly jubilant (1981: 102).
Friday was the baking night and market night. It was the rule that Paul should stay at home and bake. He loved to stop in and draw or read; he was very fond of drawing (1981: 113).
D.H Lawrence is worked as junior clerk for thee months in Thomas and Jordan & Co but he had to quit because of his illness. D.H Lawrence is presented that in the novel. Paul begins to like his job as a clerk and his working place at Jordan’s. Paul illness starts because of the bad condition at Jordan’s. He went home in pale and tired. It makes him have to stop working.
3. COMPARISON ON D.H LAWRENCE’S BACKGROUND OF LIFE AND THE SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERS IN SONS AND LOVERS
In this part, the writer wants to find Lawrence’s background of life including real people and event through the significant characters presented in the novel.
1. WALTER MOREL
Walter is father of Paul Morel, husband of Gertrude Morel. He works as a miner. After analyzes Sons and Lovers and the biography of D.H Lawrence, the writer finds out Walter Morel in Sons and Lovers identifies as Arthur John Lawrence, Lawrence’s father in real life. Walter Morel and Arthur John Lawrence shared some similarities. The first acquaintance of Arthur and Lydia Beardsall (Lawrence’s mother in real life) is also shown in the novel. Arthur met Lydia for the first time when Lydia visited her uncle who married to Arthur’s aunt, at Chifton on Christmas. Arthur introduced himself as a mining contractor. In Sons and Lovers, Walter Morel and Gertrude also met on Christmas party and Walter intro Arthur John Lawrence is described as a good dancer, attractive and outgoing man. Walter Morel is also described in that way.
In the novel, Walter Morel describes as poor coal miner who hardly read and scarcely write. He has been a coal miner since boyhood. He is a heavy drinker and spent his time drinking beer in pub house. His wife hates him because he gets to enjoy himself drinking while she stays home caring for the children. Gertrude's hatred for her husband begins with his excessive drunken fits and his temper. Moreover, Morel does not have a close relationship to any of his children. Arthur John Lawrence is also a poor coal miner and he is uneducated. Arthur is also a drunker and sometimes he went home drunk. This bad behavior is caused by the condition in their working place. It is a continual custom for miners.
After the marriage, Walter’s manners often shocked his wife. Walter signed the pledge and wore the teetotaler’s blue ribbon, presumably to please her. He always had his dinner before cleaning himself. After the meal, he smokes his pipe in his dirt-pit. Gertrude’s civilized manners have no effect on him, he preferres to eat his food with a clasp knife and drink his tea from the saucer. Walter’s grossness and drunkenness only irritated his wife’s sensitivity.
Walter is irresponsible man. His wife discovers household’s bills in the seven months of their marriage.
D.H Lawrence described Walter Morel as a kind one. Walter sometimes tell his children about the pit yet he failed to win their heart. Gertrude takes their children away from their father.
‘Meantime Arthur, still fond of his father, would lean on the arm of Morel’s chair, and say:
‘Tell us about down pit daddy.’ This is Morel loved to do.
‘Well, there’s one little ‘oss- we call ‘im Taffy,’ he would begin. ‘An he’s a fawce un!’ (1981:103).
D.H Lawrence creates the character of Walter Morel in order to show how he hated his father and it causes by the influence of his mother. D.H Lawrence in his letter in December 1910 wrote “I was born hating my father, as early as ever I can remember, I shivered with horror when he touched me (1910: xviii). Lawrence’s mother, Lydia Beardsall influenced Lawrence to hate his father. Paul ever planned to poison his father with verdigris in his tea. ‘Let him be killed at pit’ (Lawrence, 1981:79).
Walter is an emotional and bad tempered man. The whole family dislikes Walter because of these attitudes. He does not deserve to be respected.
She hated her husband because, whenever he had an audience, he whined and played for sympathy. William sitting nursing. The boy hated him, with a boy’s hatred for false sentiment and for the stupid treatment of his mother. Annie had never liked him; she merely avoided him (1981:48).
2. GERTRUDE COPPARD
Gertrude is Paul's mother. She intensely hates her role as Walter Morel's wife and wishes that she were not the wife of a miner. Gertrude Coppard identifies as Lydia Beardsall. Lydia is the second daughter in her family.
She has a curious, receptive mind, which found much pleasure and amusement in listening to other folk. She was clever in leading folk on to talk. She loved ideas and was considered very intellectual. What she liked most of all was an argument on religion or philosophy or politics with some educated man. In her person she was rather small and delicate, with a large brow, and dropping bunches of brown silk curls. Her blue eyes were very straight, honest and searching. She has the beautiful hands of the Coppards…She was still perfectly intact, deeply religious and full of beautiful contour (1981: 17).
In Sons and Lovers, Gertrude describes as an overprotective mother and dissatisfied woman. She is tired with her husband and poverty. Therefore, she
focuses all of her love and attention from her husband to her two older sons. First, she devotes herself to William and she is very jealous of William's relationship with his fiancée. She resents that William allows Lily to treat Annie
like a servant. After William's death, she clings to Paul. In real life, Lydia
Beardsall is also a possessive mother. Lydia always gave best education to her children. She wanted her children to have better life.
drinking and socializing too much. Mrs. Morel does not like the attention William receives from all the girls who call on him. Although Mrs. Morel is confident that William will be good in London, she is greatly saddened by his leaving. This farewell depresses Mrs. Morel to such a degree. William is all she thinks about when he is not with her, but she consoles herself thinking that he is in London for her alone. When William leaves home for London again, Mrs. Morel is depressed and sad again. She misses her son so much that it hurts to see him leave. Both she and William know that the love they have for one another is strong to last their separation. When Mr. Morel becomes sick, Mrs. Morel does not feel as badly as she should. Her love and affection for her husband is replaced by her love for William.
that he wants to be with her and spend all of his time with her. To live with his mother is his greatest desire.
Although Paul does not realize the seriousness of his relationship with Miriam, his mother certainly does, and she is jealous. As with William and his fiancée, Mrs. Morel feels threatened by the presence of a girl whom her son is very serious about. Paul, however, does notice that his mother is hurt that he spends much of his time with Miriam. Mrs. Morel instinctively knows that Paul will become famous and known. More importantly, she feels that her destiny and her dreams will be carried out through Paul. She knows that Paul is capable of accomplishing all of her goals and her dreams. When Mrs. Morel states that Paul does not seem to spend time with anybody but Miriam, Paul sees that she is hurt that he is spending time with a woman other than her. He feels bad that the time he spends with Miriam is making his mother suffer, and he hates Miriam for making his mother suffer so much. He attempts to convince his mother that she is the one woman who he loves the most and wants to come home to, but his mother is too hurt to believe him.
fact that he was the second-born son, wishing that he were her first-born, so that he would have had more time with her. Mrs. Morel hates Miriam even more than she already does because of the way Paul is affected by her. She hates that Miriam is changing his will, his passion, and his temperament. She can see that Paul will die of the excessive, passionate temperament he fosters when he is with Miriam.
Mrs. Morel is terribly tired of her involvement in Paul and Miriam's relationship and decides to stop intervening. She knows that Paul is an adult now and that there is nothing she can do to stop Paul from seeing Miriam. She feels that she can never forgive her son for sacrificing himself to love Miriam. Paul tries persuading his mother that Clara is a better match for him than Miriam ever was, but his mother is deaf to his words. He tells his mother that her jealousy of his relationship with Clara is the only thing that stops her from liking Clara. Paul is too wrapped up in his involvement with Clara and with his mother's dislike of Clara to notice that his mother does not look well at all.
sacrifice his mother for her. Paul tells her that it seems that his mother will never die because she is stubborn and relentless in heart, mind and soul.
Paul suffers to see his mother in so much pain. He cannot watching his mother turn into a limp, lifeless creature from a person of vitality and spirit. When he looks into his mother's eyes, he can see that she agrees that she wants to die to end all the pain she is in, yet her stubborn spirit and body will not allow her. When Paul kisses his dead mother, he feels emotions he has never experienced from her: cold and harsh, unreceptive and loveless. He does not want to let his mother go from his life. As much as Paul wants his mother to be with him, he decides that he cannot follow his mother. Even her spirit will guide him if he allows it to but he decides to break away from her. He knows he must separate himself from her to become a man of his own instinct and will.
In real life, Lydia Beardsall also did not like Lawrence’s relationship with Jessie Chamber, his childhood girlfriend. Lydia is jealous of Jessie and she will do anything to avert Lawrence in marrying Jessie. Lawrence in his letter to Louis Burrows stated:
…My mother has been passionately fond of me and fiercely jealous. She hated J [essie]- and would have been risen from the grave to prevent me marrying her (1981: 13).
Paul. Gertrude is died of cancer in December. Paul and his sister, Annie decided to put an overdose medicine in her milk because they knew she is suffered too long.
3. WILLIAM MOREL
William Morel identifies as William Ernest Lawrence in real life. Although the presentation of William is omitted in the first draft of the novel yet some real events in William Ernest’s life are shared in Sons and Lovers.
William is the first of Morel child. Mrs. Morel transfers her affections for her husband to William. William is the only bright spot in Mrs. Morel's frustrated, disgusted life. She despises the life she has with her husband and gives all of her love and attention to her son. She horrifies when her husband cuts off William's blond curls. William is a gifted, intelligent and handsome child and teenager, easily finding jobs and earning a salary. He becomes involved with Bestwood and London society. He is in love with Louisa Lily Danys Western, a shallow, pseudo-sophisticated woman and they engaged. He hates the way Lily treats his family, especially Annie. William dies before he can marry Lily, but he never truly loved her anyway.
Nottingham. The first child in Morel family is George Arthur who did not describe in the novel. William Earnest is died in 1901 at the age of twenty-three.
4. PAUL MOREL
Paul identifies as Lawrence himself. Lawrence describes his own experiences through Paul Morel but still it has some re-arrangement in presenting Paul Morel. In Sons and Lovers, Paul is the third child in Morel family. In reality, Lawrence is the fourth son in his family. Paul never gets formal education because he spends his time on painting and his mother. In reality, Lawrence is an educated person. Lawrence also qualifies himself to take two years certificate course at Nottingham University College. He is also a teacher. He puts his formal education’s experience into other character of Arthur Morel and Annie Morel. Lawrence describes Arthur as a student of Board School and gets a scholarship to enter the High School in Nottingham while Annie is a junior teacher in the Board School.
Paul describes as a son who wants to be free from his mother. Her domination influences Paul’s character. Paul fails to find a long lasting relationship with some women. He is unable to love them because his love for his mother is stronger. This becomes the main issue why Lawrence wrote Sons and Lovers. In real life, Lawrence becomes his mother’s affection after his brother, William died. Through the character of Paul Morel, Lawrence tries to describe the conflict in his family, which Lawrence has to face in real life. Lawrence wants to be free from his mother’s domination and becomes a complete man. In the novel, Lawrence describes Paul’s relationship with Miriam and Clara in order to release himself from his unique relationship with his mother. In his letter to Rachel Annand Taylor, Lawrence writes:
…There has been a kind of bond between me and my mother. We have loved each other, almost with a husband and wife love, as well as filial and maternal…We have been like one, so sensitive to each other than we never needed words. It has been rather terrible, and has made me, in some respects, abnormal (Lawrence, 1991:xviii).
Lawrence considers his mother as his first, great love, and generous as the sun, just like what Lawrence wrote in his letter to Louisa Burrows, his fiancée, three days before his mother died. He is alone and he feels trapped with his own feeling. He cannot do anything.
5. ARTHUR MOREL
His generous manner and fiery temper made him a favorite. He joins the army at the advice of his friend but begs his mother to get him out as soon as she can. The strict military regime does not discipline him enough. He has sex with his girl, Beatrice, before they marry. At first, Arthur distances himself from his wife and baby, but he soon realizes his role and responsibilities as a father.
The character of Arthur Morel is fictionalized. In real life, the youngest child in Lawrence’s family is Lettice Ada. Arthur Morel is created because of Lawrence’s dissatisfaction and anger toward military regime. Arthur joined the army and he is treated like an animal there. In his letter to Catherine Carswell, Lawrence wrote:
I never wrote to tell you that they gave me a complete exemption from all military service, thanks to be God. That was a week ago last Thursday. I had to join the Colors in Penzance, be conveyed to Bodmin (60 miles), and spend a night in barracks with all the other men, of soldering. I am sure I should die in a week, if they kept me. I was very upset. Things are very bad (1953: 392).
6. MIRIAM LEIVERS
Miriam Leivers is identified as Jessie Chambers, Lawrence’s girlfriend in real life. Miriam is a daughter of a farmer. She is the first girl Paul ever loved and had sex with. She is a beautiful, deeply intense and devoted girl whose feelings for Paul are as passionate as her love for God and church. She loves him more than he loves her.
She is nearly sixteen, very beautiful, with her warm coloring, her gravity, and her eyes dilating suddenly like an ecstasy (1981: 175).
Miriam has disharmonious relationship with her brothers. Her brothers always treated her badly. In real life, Jessie also had disharmonious relationship with her brothers including her parents. It is reflected in Sons and Lovers. Miriam’s mother, Mrs. Leivers, is identified as Sarah Ann Chamber. Mr. Leivers is identified as Edmund Chamber, Jessie’s father. Agatha in the novel is identified as May, Jessie’s older sister. Jessie’s brothers, Alan, Geoffrey and Jonathan David, in the novel they are identified as Edgar, Bernard and Hubert.
Miriam is dependent person just like Paul. She depends on her mother. Her personality and temperament is like Mrs. Leivers, her mother. It makes them feel deeply about nature and religion and are devotedly pious to church and religion. He also likes Paul. Miriam is raised with religious values; therefore, she is religious both in her attitudes and in her thinking.
them, breathe in their nostrils, and see the whole life in a mist thereof. So to Miriam, Christ and God made on great figure, which she loved tremblingly and passionately when a tremendous sunset burned out the western sky, and Edith’s, and Lucy’s, and Rowena’s, Brian de Bois Gilberts, Rob Roys, and Guy Mannerings, rustled the sunny leaves in the morning, or sat in her bedroom alone, when it snowed. That was life for her (1981: 191).
Miriam is considered as Paul Morel’s first girlfriend and also as a destructive woman. Gertrude Morel is afraid Miriam will take Paul away from her. Paul thinks Miriam is the reason of the failure of their relationship. Paul gets frustrated and furious with the way she absorbs everything in her soul and cannot figure out why she has to treat everything with so much depth and intensity. Miriam is too religious and Paul is dissatisfied with her. In his letter to Miriam, Paul wrote his dissatisfaction on her. Paul described Miriam as a nun who did not have passion. This letter is taken from Lawrence’s letter to Jessie Chambers, which is written in January 1908. Lawrence wrote:
Look, you are a nun; I give you what I would give a holy nun. So you must let me marry a woman I can kiss and embrace and make the mother of my children (1908: 31).
In real life, Lawrence’s family also did not agree with Lawrence’s relationship with Jessie Chambers. In Sons and Lovers, it is showed that Gertrude Morel and Paul’s sister, Annie disliked Miriam. In May 1911, Lawrence writes another letter to Jessie Chambers. Lawrence wrote:
In this case, it seems Lawrence is dramatized the real situation through some scenes in Sons and Lovers. Lawrence seemed to ignore the good time he has with Jessie. Jessie has given a contribution to Lawrence in the process of writing the whole story and keeps the story true to life. Jessie also helped Lawrence to re-tell about their relationship. Jessie also suggested Lawrence to write the whole story based on truth because it will help him to free from his unique relationship with his mother.
As the result, Sons and Lovers is a betrayal for Jessie because Lawrence is described Jessie through the character of Miriam Leivers as a destructive woman. Jessie stated ‘I was hurt beyond all expression,’ I did not know how to bear it’ (1991: xiv). Lawrence, in responding Jessie’s statements, steadily responded it:
I could hear in advance Lawrence’s protesting voice: Of course it is not the truth. It is an adaptation from life, as all art must be. It is not what I think of you. You know it is not (Lawrence, 1981: 18).
In the correlation with the main reason of Lawrence in writing Sons and Lovers, Lawrence wants to control the main characters in his novel, in this case, the character of Miriam is to support and maintain the theme of the novel that is to show the domination of Lawrence’s mother on his life.
7. CLARA DAWES
Miriam could not. Lawrence creates Clara Dawes as an interesting fictional character. Clara Dawes identifies as the representation of several women in Lawrence’s life. In the summer 1901, Lawrence met Jessie Chambers, a daughter of a nearby farmer. They indulged in readings, discussions, long walks through the countryside and all sorts of cultural activities. The cultural activities become the foundation of Lawrence’s culture. After ended his relationship with Jessie Chambers, Lawrence had his first sexual experience with Alice Dax, a wife of an Eastwood chemist. Clara Dawes can be identified as Alice Dax. Later, Paul fails to fulfill Clara’s expectation to keep their relationship because Paul cannot separate from his mother. Yet Paul is tired of Clara because he can see that she did not belong to him. She still wants her husband; he notices that Clara does not want to be with him when he is troubled or worried. Clara returned to her husband after Paul tells her that Dawes has been ill for some time.
In October 1902, Lawrence becomes a pupil-teacher in Eastwood and Ilkeston, where he met Louise Burrows (she is described as Ursula in Lawrence’s novel Women in Love). This is also an adaptation from Lawrence’s experience with Louise Burrows, his fiancée in real life. In his letter to Louise Burrows, Lawrence wrote that he could not marry her if his mother is still alive. Lawrence is admitted that his mother is his first and great love. In a letter written on 6 December 1910, three days before his mother passed away, Lawrence wrote to Louise Burrows:
could be as swift as white whiplash, and as kind and gentle as warm rain, and as steadfast as the irreducible earth beneath us (Lawrence, 1981: 12).
In the winter 1908-1909, Lawrence met the third woman in his life, Helen Corke. She is a teacher and played a capital role in Lawrence’s artistic progression. Lawrence met Helen when he became a school teacher. After Lawrence broke up with Helen Corke and Louise Burrows, he resigned from his teacher’s job in Croydon in February 1912.
In March 1912, Lawrence met Frieda Weekley, the wife of his former Professor of French Literature at the University of Nottingham. Clara Dawes identifies as Frieda Weekley, Lawrence’s wife in real life. It is seen in Sons and Lovers when Paul and Clara went to beach. In real life, as Lawrence wrote in his letter, it is found that Lawrence and Frieda ever spent their time on a beach (Lawrence, 1952: 374). Furthermore, it illustrates when Paul asked Clara to go to the theatre. This scene is also presented when Lawrence and Frieda went to the theatre to see Man and Superman. Keith Sagar describes Jessie Chamber’s statement in The Collected Letters of Jessie Chambers:
There is incident, however that may refer to her-where Paul Morel goes to the theatre with Clara. From the description of her dress I guessed at once Mrs. Weekley, and they actually did see Man and Superman here at Nottingham, together (1980: 19).
Lawrence admits Frieda as the woman of his lifetime, even though Lawrence is not the only man in her life. When they met, Lawrence is 26 years old and Frieda is 32 years old. Frieda has three children and she is married to a boring University teacher who is fifteen years older than her. Frieda is literally bored to death with the provincial life of Nottingham. She prefers staying in Germany and other European countries. Frieda is the perfect example of the emancipated woman, both sexually and intellectually.
In The Art of D.H Lawrence, Keith Sagar writes:
Frieda’s influence is incalculable in these first years together. She helped Lawrence to realize the atrophy of England, the extent to which his mother had been circumscribed by that society …(1983:35).
So, within 18 months, four women are gone out of Lawrence’s life. The death of his mother in December 1910, Helen Corke and Louise Burrows in February 1912 and Jessie Chambers whom Lawrence saw for the last time in April 1912.
8. BAXTER DAWES
Baxter Dawes identifies as Earnest Weekley, a husband of Frieda Weekley. Earnest is Lawrence’s former Professor of French Literature at the University of Nottingham. He is fifteen years older than Frieda. Lawrence describes Baxter Dawes as a superior man at Thomas Jordan Factory where Paul worked as a clerk. In real life, Earnest Weekley is Lawrence’s professor of modern language at Nottingham University.
Baxter and Clara have unhappy marriage because Baxter has an affair with another woman. In real life, the unhappiness in Earnest and Frieda’s marriage is because Earnest is a workaholic. Earnest is always busy and abandoned his wife. Frieda is literally bored to death with the provincial life of Nottingham. It is different with her life in the first twenty – years in Germany and other European countries.
Baxter Dawes knows his wife; Clara has an affair with Paul Morel. This scene is reflected from Lawrence’s real life. In one of his letters, Lawrence wrote:
I always want to tell my good news. When I came to Germany with Mrs. W- went to Metz with her. Her husband knows all about it- but I don’t think he will give her a divorce- only a separation. I wish he’d divorce her, so we could be married. But that’s as it is (Lawrence, 1953: 368).
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
D.H Lawrence’s second novel Sons and Lovers, Lawrence presents his experiences of life through the character of Paul Morel. In this chapter the writer would like to state the results of analysis based on the three problems formulated in the first chapter.
In the first part, the writer analyzed the characteristics of Paul Morel. Paul as the protagonist in Sons and Lovers identifies as D.H Lawrence himself. Paul is a son of a coal miner, Walter Morel and puritanical woman, Gertrude. He is a delicate and the weak child in the family. His appearance looks like his mother. Paul is clever and intelligent; he is good in reading and writing. He knows French and enjoys painting. He attends the Nottingham High School because of scholarship. Paul used to be an unexpected child. His mother rejects him when she knew that she is pregnant and going to have her third baby. Then his mother begins to love Paul and he turns into her favorite child. Paul is sensitive and dependent. Besides, he is traumatic on marriage; he is mature and has strong bond
with his mother. Paul is quiet and shy but intensely passionate and emotional.
Paul has an off and on relationship with Miriam Leivers for seven years. He ends relationship with Miriam and begins one with Clara Dawes, a married woman who separated from her husband.
Morel are born as a delicate and weak baby who nearly died of bronchitis and remained as a fragile person throughout his life. D.H Lawrence and Paul Morel stated that they shivered with horror when their father touched them. D.H Lawrence and Paul Morel is clever and educated person although they never enter Public School. Both of them are fond of art especially in painting and designs. D.H Lawrence and Paul Morel are ever worked, as junior clerk for three months in Thomas and Jordan & Co yet have to quit because of illness. From the explanation above, it is clearly showed that D.H Lawrence’s background of life influences him in writing Sons and Lovers.
Sagar (1982) in his book The Life of D.H Lawrence stated that the character of Clara Dawes in Sons and Lovers is an adaptation of several women in Lawrence’s real life. While Baxter Dawes in Sons and Lovers is an adaptation of Ernest Weekley, Lawrence’s professor of modern language at Nottingham University. In reality, Ernest is the husband of Frieda, a woman who became Lawrence’s wife after she is divorced from Ernest Weekley. Through the character of Clara Dawes, Lawrence describes his love affair with Frieda. Arthur Morel in Sons and Lovers is fictional character. In reality, Arthur Morel does not exist in Lawrence’s real life. However, through the character of Arthur Morel, Lawrence describes his anger on military authorities when he faced World War I. It is a revenge of his inability to face his mother’s domination.
