ASSIGNMENT

Psychoanalytical perspectives in D. H. Lawrence’s

Sons and Lovers

Course Title: 20th Century English Literature.

Course Code: LCS 6203

Submitted to- Submitted by-

Dr. Md. Momin Uddin. Afra Murtoza.
Professor, ID: M190102825
Dept. Of English, 9th Batch.
Jagannath University.

Injamamul Sarwer.
Lecturer,
Dept. Of English,
Jagannath University.

Submission Deadline: 22nd December 2020

D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers is the contemplation of Freudian psychoanalysis over

human lives. This is the very decorative reason behind marking Sons and Lovers as Freudian
novel in the history of literature. David Herbert Lawrence is the mirror between his novel
Sons and Lovers and psycho-analytical theories from Sigmund Freud. During the termination
of 19th century and the dawn of 20th century people from divergent classes became busier
because of capitalization. D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers was written which shows the
breakdown of the Morel family in that span and the mindset of the characters according to
Freud.

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Sons and Lovers was written in nineteenth century which means that there was an impact of
the industrial revolution in this novel, the industrial revolution initiated in Great Britain and
by the mid-18th century Britain was the world’s leading manufacturing nation. This industrial
revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of life was influenced
by it. The standard of living began to change. There were social and economic upheavals
during this period. The worker’s living standards declined under early capitalism as we saw
in case of Morel family and Mr. Morel as he was a miner. The effect of this industrial
revolution and urbanization was seen on women and family life. Middle and upper class
women were confining to an idle domestic existence as we saw in case of Mrs. Morel that
capitalism had a negative effect on powerful women. Thus, the revolution moved economic
power away from the aristocratic population and into the middle-class. The working hours of
that time were between 12 to 14 hours which means that the labour had very less time to
spend with their family, which happen in case of Mr. Morel. Modernist literature has its
origin in the late 19 th and early 20th centuries. Modernists like D.H Lawrence felt a growing
alienation incompatible with Victorian morality, optimism and convention. The novels of
D.H Lawrence reflected on the de-humaning effect of modern society. According to Peter
Childs, ‘D.H Lawrence wrote about characters talking as a real being’ (Modernism). It is the
importance of relationships and relatedness to life that Lawrence emphasized in Sons and
Lovers. He expressed morality as truth to life and its inter-relatedness.

A woman of character, like serious kind of personality and refinement, Mrs. Gertrude Morel
descends into the lower class where she is not satisfied enough with the surroundings.
Actually the environment does not match with her attitude. She used to be serious in each and
every matter. Mr. Walter Morel, her husband was pretty jolly kind of personality who can be
closest enough with anyone. Besides, he was charming and handsome enough during their
marriage. Mrs. Morel used to hold a serious kind of character in her attitude. Their marital
life went swiftly for few months after their wedding. They were happy together for a certain
period after marriage and within the day passing the glow faded. After few months, Mrs.
Morel begun to think herself more superior than her husband. Mr. Morel had the habit of
drinking and he stayed out more frequently and when he came, his wife used to insult him
and she even tried to reform him as a puritan. But Mrs. Morel hated her husband who still
loved her and tried to make his wife happy. A time came when conversation became
impossible between Mr. Morel and any other members of the family. He was treated simply
as an outsider as by the influence of their mother the children also disliked him. The conjugal

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happiness of the Morel couple is destroyed by Mrs. Morel’s persistent effort to reform the
personality of her husband, according to her middle-class ideals. Mrs. Morel thus fails to
achieve harmony in her relationship with her husband because she did not respect him as his
income was low and by this way, the poor man breaks down. Mrs. Morel tried to refine him
by misbehaving with him that works totally opposite and eventually destroys Mr. Morel. Mrs.
Morel’s hatred towards her husband is the result of the frustration that she has been
experiencing in her relationship with her husband. The frustration came as she began to
compare her husband with others which is a common trait of late 19 th century. Mrs. Morel is
aggressive, dominating and there is no passion in her for her husband. She does not respect
the ‘otherness’ of other individuals because according to her she is the most superior. Thus,
Mr. Morel felt helpless in his association with her. Mrs. Morel does not surrender herself to
her husband who gradually made him aggressive and so he misbehaved with the family
members. Mrs. Morels’ love towards her husband was a mingling of selfishness and
destructiveness as she never thought about her husband’s feelings. Mrs. Morel always denied
Mr. Morels’ personality and his way of life and she wanted to live according to her wish.
Mrs. Morel’s unsympathetic attitude towards her husband has been responsible to a great
extent for his alienation with the rest of the family. Alienation was another fact of late 19 th
century. Gertrude Morel always criticized the fact that Mr. Morel was a miner but she never
had a thought that he was the one who worked hard to earn his bread and make his family
happy. Mr. Morel was not so bad at heart, he has real love for his children’s but they never
responded to his feelings under the influence of their mother. Even after the death of Mrs.
Morel, he proclaims that he has always tried everything for her, that she had been such a
good wife and that he could never find any fault with her. Actually it is possessiveness that
works between two different kinds of personality because of their attachments. Regarding
this novel, such kind of possessiveness does work between Mr. Morel and Mrs. Morel. Mr.
Morel usually tries to protect their marital relationship but because of his working schedule
he was unable to give as much as time. So, day by day distance between the couple increased.

Sigmund Freud coined his psychoanalytical theory named Oedipus complex which is
reflecting in Sons and Lovers. Many of the Freudian ideas concern aspects of sexuality.
Infantile sexuality, for instance, is the notion that sexuality begins not at puberty, with
physical maturing, but in infancy, especially through infant’s relationship with the mother
(Barry). The Oedipus complex is connected with this, whereby, Freud states, the male infant
conceives the urge to replace the father and become the sexual partner of the mother

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(Beginning Theory: An introduction to Literary and Culural Theory 98). Gertrude’s
unhappiness and adjustment problem with her husband made her a woman dependent on her
children as well as a dominating and soul absorbing mother. Walter declines away from his
family as the unwanted father figure. Even we saw that he cut downs William’s hair while
Gertrude was sleeping in order to prove his masculine omnipotence on the little boy and as
his wife. The reason behind such attitude of Mr. Morel was that Mrs. Morel never valued her
as her husband. When William grew up, he was dominated by his mother so he could not find
the right girl to fall in love. He became ill and finally ‘he achieved to return to his mother’s
womb dying at a young age’ (Sons and Lovers). The intimacy between Paul and his mother
ruined Paul’s emotional and professional life. He could not establish a life outside the
dominion of his mother. He was totally unable to develop a healthy emotional and sexual
relationship with the other women in his life-Miriam and Clara. Even, it is visible that Mrs.
Morel could not tolerate them. Paul had a tendency to find the features of his mother in both
of his beloved which acted as a barrier in his development of relationship with them. Mrs.
Morel suffered for a long time in a painful way. Paul could not tolerate the pain of his mother
and gave her a heavy dose of morphia to end all her pain and miseries. The infant male of a
family develops his attraction towards his mother what creates a repulsive nature of the infant
male for his father. Even this kind of psyche obsession becomes an obstacle to build up
relationship with other woman during adulthood rather than mother. From Lacanian
psychoanalysis, Lacan tries to broaden Freud’s theory. He stated that ‘The motherer is the
sensation manager of the infant’ (Lacan for Beginners). Again he illustrated that ‘The
symbolic father is any agency that separates the young subject from its mother’ (Lacan for
Beginners). Lacan argues that ‘the baby is a phallus for the motherer, a way of enjoying and
the child knows this’ (Lacan for Beginners). Similarly, in the novel the two protagonists,
William and Paul, both develop the Oedipus complex as they end up having unfulfilling
relationships with other women rather than Mrs. Morel because she had a great influence
upon them. This psychoanalytic theory by Freud is discussed by Lawrence in Sons and
Lovers. Infant child develop latent sexual impulses towards the parents of the opposite sex
during their early stage of development and what is visualized by Lawrence in Sons and
Lovers. The novel documented Paul’s passionate relationship with his mother, but his
relationship with both Clara and Miriam is unsatisfactory. In fact, the Oedipus complex is
seen to occur with a severity in both the sons of Mrs. Morel, William and Paul. Even the
theory of Freud is primarily created to describe the creation of the id, the ego and the super-
ego.

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In Freudian structural model of the psyche, the id, ego and super-ego are three distinct
components. The id has been described as the collection of instinctual trends that are
uncoordinated and the aspect of the super-ego plays a moral role. The ego of the third
variable serves as a bridge between the id and the super-ego (Moudgil). In the words of
Freud,

"The functional importance of the ego is manifested in the fact that normally control
over the approaches to motility devolves upon it. Thus in its relation to the id it is
like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the
horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength while
the ego uses borrowed forces. The analogy may be carried a little further. Often a
rider, if he is not to be parted from his horse, is obliged to guide it where it wants to
go; so in the same way the ego is in the habit of transforming the id's will into action
as if it were its own". (Personality Theories: Critical Perspectives 88)

The digressive view of Paul on marriage was a consequence of two things: one was due to the
expressions of his failed marriage by Mrs. Morel and the other was the rejection of some
other girl by his mother. So by holding him close to his mother, his ego succeeds in satisfying
his id. His over-awareness of Mrs. Morel contributes to his father’s rejection and inability to
fall for any other women. So, his ego confines him, essentially. On the other hand, Paul’s
super-ego forbids him, since it would be considered unethical, from having an incestuous
relationship with his mother, as it would be considered immoral. To fulfil his sexual thrust
with Clara, his id was also named as the ‘pleasure principle’ (Moudgil).

Thus, the Morel family breaks down only for the dissatisfaction of Mrs. Morel and her
disability to make adjustment with her husband, Mr. Morel. This dissatisfaction gives birth to
Oedipus complex which has a negative influence over the life of Mrs. Morel and her sons.

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Bibliography
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An introduction to Literary and Culural Theory. 4th. New Delhi: Vinod
Vasishtha for Viva Books Private Limited, 2018. Print.

Childs, Peter. Modernism. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Hill, Philip. Lacan for Beginners. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2000. Print.

Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers. Dhaka: FRIENDS' Book Corner, 2014. Print.

Moudgil, Srishti. "A Study of Oedipus Complex in D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers." Academia.edu
(2018): 8. PDF.