Men & Women Relationship in Sons & Lovers.

Men & Women Relationship in Sons & Lovers.

Sons & Lovers is the first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that becomes easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. D.H.  Lawernce may have written this novel on the basis of Oedipus complex theme but the true purpose lies somewhere else. Through the complex & multi layered plot & structure of this novel writer wants to reveal the dynamic psychological relationships of men & women. The men & women relationships of the novel are overshadowed by suspicion & sorrow divisions & ambiguities because they are engaged in an intricate network of intimacies which are generally untrue & unnatural.

The novel is about the relationship between Gertrude or Mrs. Morel & her children, particularly her three sons, borne out of her disastrous marriage with Mr. Morel. There are three basic types of relationships that can be figured out. They are the relationship of Mrs. Morel with her sons, then relationship between William & Gipsy and relationships of Paul, Miriam & Clara. Among these relationships there are some other small relationships of minor characters which help to establish the maladjustment relationship of men & women in the modern tragic life.

After sometimes of the love marriage of Mr. & Mrs. Morel, Mrs. Morel comes to understand that her marriage is nothing but an irrecoverable failure. Then she turns her whole concentration toward her first son William & wants to live through his youthful life. She guides him as like as she wishes which seems firstly proved a way of success for William. But when in the abroad he becomes engaged with Gipsy, his fiancé, and brings her home then he realizes the mental pressure that he carries out unconsciously in his earlier years. Mrs. Morel loves his son very much & wishes to fulfill all her unfulfilled dream through him. In her subconscious mind she actually wants to be the one who can only control her son. So, she does not like Gipsy at all & brings out all the negative quality of the girl in front of William. Because she believes that this girl will must tire up his son. William also in his deep is mentally attached & bound to his mother so that he tortures Gipsy to please his mother. But the suppressed pressure of his mother raises the psychological battle in his mind which makes him sick enough not to recover from pneumonia and he dies.

After the death of William Mrs. Morel’s whole concentration turns to Paul, her second youngest children, & she feels as same as to William. She again guides Paul through her intellectual guidance but Paul’s nature is quite different from William. He knows what happens to his brother.  He is an artist 7 may be because of his job his nature is sensual & his intellectuality is high to understand his mother’s suppressed pressure. But he also loves his mother deeply enough that no women are seemed as perfect as his mother to him.  He cannot able to put any other women in the place of his mother in his mind. His mental intimacy with his mother comes out when he tells Miriam that their relationship can be sustainable even they are now in psychically engaged. Because Mrs. Morel cannot tolerate any women around Paul & she thinks Miriam is not the right one for his son because of Miriam’s less intellectual knowledge. But she also rejects Clara though firstly she admits Clara suitably as her son’s girlfriend. Then it is cleared that her feeling towards her son breaks the natural level of mother-son relationship and it is now becoming so intimate mental bonding that makes the barrier for her son stays with other women in satisfied relationship. Because Clara is as sensual and intellectual as Paul wishes in his mind. But they cannot continue their relationship for the reason of their internal love is always for others like, Paul’s internal deep love is always for his mother where Clara’s is for Dawes. Miriam’s over-spirituality & Clara’s over physicality both result in total failures for what Paul requires is the combination of the two.

This whole novel deals with the complex men-women relationship which is the sign of modern people tragic relationships with each other. For the intimate mental deep desires, characters are not satisfied with their relationship which is the reason that no relationships sustain for long time.