Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence (Book Analysis) E-Book

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• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 30

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Unlock the more straightforward side of Sons and Lovers with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence, which tells the story of the Morel family in the industrial Midlands. Mrs Morel’s marriage to her hard-drinking, sometimes violent husband has left her despairing and frustrated, leading her to focus all her attention on her children. This makes her particularly possessive of her son Paul, an aspiring artist who has difficult relationships with all the women in his life. The novel is partially autobiographical, and is considered by many critics to be Lawrence’s greatest achievement. His other novels include Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Rainbow, both of which are regularly ranked among the greatest novels of the 20th century.

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Leseprobe

D. H. LAWRENCE

ENGLISH NOVELIST, POET, BIOGRAPHER AND ESSAYIST

Born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, in 1885.Died in Vence, France, in 1930.Notable works:The Rainbow (1915), novelWomen in Love (1920), novelLady Chatterley’s Lover, (1928), novel

David Herbert Lawrence grew up in a coal mining village in the English Midlands. His father was a miner and his mother had been a school teacher. He too became a teacher, gaining his teaching qualification at Nottingham University College in 1908. He was already writing poetry and short stories and working on his first novel, Laetitia (published in 1911 as The White Peacock). The semi-autobiographical Sons and Lovers was published in 1913. Lawrence had a long friendship with Jessie Chambers, who became Miriam Leivers in Sons and Lovers. Jessie was angry at the way she was represented in the book. In 1912 Lawrence eloped with Frieda Van Richthofen Weekley, the wife of a professor at Nottingham University, whom he married once she was free. Lawrence was a prolific writer and Sons and Lovers is considered one of the greatest books of the 20th century.

SONS AND LOVERS

SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL

Genre: novelReference edition: Lawrence, D. H. and Morrison, B., Baron H., Baron, C. (eds.) (2006) Sons and Lovers. London: Penguin.1stedition: 1913Themes: family relationships, sexuality, male violence, poverty, inequality of women, nature and the environment

Sons and Lovers is a semi-autobiographical novel set in Bestwood, a coal mining village in the industrial Midlands. Walter Morel is a coal miner; his wife Gertrude had been a teacher. There is a strong physical attraction between them, but once they are married a profound difference in their outlook on life becomes obvious and their life together becomes a battlefield. Mrs Morel begins to look to her sons William and then Paul for the love and tenderness that is missing from her marriage, and as time goes on she becomes very possessive. Her jealousy of their girlfriends leads to problems, particularly for Paul, who has difficulty in his relationship with his long-time friend, Miriam. The novel is disturbing in its realistic portrayal of domestic violence and poverty and can be seen as a social study that tells us a great deal about the lives of miners and their families in in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

SUMMARY

Sons and Lovers is divided into two parts. Part 1, which consists of the first seven chapters, tells the story of the Morel family from the first meeting of the young Gertrude Coppard and Walter Morel, to the death of their eldest son William at the age of 23. Part 2 focuses particularly on the life of their second son and third child, Paul. There are four children altogether: William, Ann, Paul and Arthur.

PART 1

The book opens with Gertrude Morel reflecting bitterly on her life with her husband Walter, a coalminer, whom she has come to despise. She is pregnant with her third child, Paul. It is the first day of the wakes fair and her husband is working behind the bar in the local pub. When he comes home with just a half-crown to show for a day’s work, she accuses him of drinking his earnings. She resents that when she is trying to save for her confinement (the baby’s birth), he is wasting money in this way.