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  • Essay / Father Theme in Lawrence's “Sons and Lovers”

    “I'll write another Sons and Lovers now; my mother was wrong and I thought she was absolutely right. (Jeffers 296)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This line betrays DH Lawrence's eventual realization about her maternal fixation. As a corollary, one could suggest that he regretted being mean to his father. However, critics argued that Lawrence was too harsh on himself – perhaps he was unable to grasp the significance of the novel for a reader who did not share his personal associations, or that his genius had unconsciously given his work an objectivity that he failed to recognize in himself. As Aruna Sitesh confirms, “Sympathy for Walter is scattered throughout the novel. » (494) In Walter Morel, we find the difficult situation of a simple-minded man stuck in an incompatible marriage with a woman who possessed greater sensitivity than him. “What he felt in that moment was everything to him. . . . Her nature was purely sensual and she strove to make him moral, religious. She tried to force him to face things. He couldn't stand it – it was driving him crazy. Obviously, a situation reflected in the subsequent relationship between Paul and Miriam; but returning from the digression, Gertrude “was too much her opposite. She couldn't settle for what little he could be, she would have him as much as he should be. Thus, by seeking to make him more noble than he could be, she destroyed him. (Lawrence 18, 20) This distance continues to grow with the children as the mother turns her aspirations towards them (her eldest sons in particular), resulting in a marriage where the fleeting passion of youth has long since evaporated. , the one who impulsively brought together the mismatched couple. As Thomas L. Jeffers explains: "It is an attraction of opposites - the pale civilized lady startled but warmed by the ruddy native charcoal burner - marked in the all-too-brief but unforgettably vivid scene of the Christmas dance." Although passionately happy with him during the first months of their marriage, she soon decides that, because he has not been honest about his financial situation and has been more fond of the pub than of her company at home, he is not It's not good, and his marriage was a mistake. (299) Nevertheless, it is clear throughout the text that Walter continued to love Gertrude. He could not bear to see his position usurped by his sons, and yet he was powerless in the face of his authoritarian wife. As a result, he consoles himself in the company of his fellow coal workers, "relieving the boredom of their lives with alcohol." (Murfin 472) Related to this is an interesting observation that “the masculine place is also distinctly feminine.” . . it is the orifice in the earth in which every day the charcoal burners “die” and from which they “are born”. This crumpled “belly”, teeming with men, horses and mice, allowed Morel to incorporate the feminine part of himself. This cathartic feeling is echoed in Lawrence's Nottingham and the Mining Countryside, where he states that the miners "knew each other practically naked and with a curious intimacy, and the darkness and subterranean remoteness of the 'stall' and the The continual presence of danger made physical, instinctive and intuitive contact between men very developed, a contact almost as close as touch. (Jeffers 295, 296) At home, the alienated husband tried to assert himself to no avail, leading to moments of brutality that further contributed to his estrangement. What compounds the tragedy is the fact that he lacked sensitivity andconsciousness to understand the problem. For example, when he threw the drawer at Gertrude, he was overcome with guilt and shame even though he did not express it, and the following lines describe his inner turmoil and attempts at self-justification: “C "It was his own fault," he told himself. Nothing, however, could prevent his inner conscience from inflicting upon him the punishment that was eating away at his mind like rust, and which he could only alleviate by drinking. (Lawrence 49) Thus followed his inevitable descent into alcoholism, which of course further marginalized his position. On the other hand, the astute and self-righteous wife was fully aware of the situation and simply abandoned her husband. There was this impasse of passion between them, and it was stronger." She knew that his statements such as "I will make you tremble at the sound of my footsteps." (Lawrence 49, 43) were only empty threats of meaning She was aware of his tenderness and his instinctive character and therefore had, so to speak, an absolute emasculating hold on him, against which he tried to rebel but never succeeded. Therefore, to make Walter forget, Gertrude presented herself as the victim, and in fact she was really convinced of it. However, to the reader it is obvious that individuals must bear mutual responsibility. Of course, the real culpability could be attributed to the 19th-century English ethos, which led to "clearly historical circumstances of maternal domination in Victorian and Edwardian households." with moral constraints and notions of social decorum, which required unhappy couples to remain in their marriage despite daily sorrows. Moreover, on the material level, "the stultifying routine of the factory, the mine or the store and the domination of the mother in the verbal education of the children had left the father with little to offer in conversation or in narration” (Jeffers 293, 293), making him a nominal head of the family with no real involvement. Because the wife and children would unconsciously regard him only as the provider and would thus put up with him as if by constraint. Eventually, everyone involved came to terms with the situation. In the Morels’ case, Walter “no longer cared what the family thought or felt. . . . The family withdrew, stepped back and fell silent at his entrance. But he no longer cared about his alienation. (Lawrence 49-50) As for Gertrude, “she was more tolerant because she loved him less. . . . standing more apart from him, not feeling him so much a part of herself, but simply part of her situation, she didn't care so much about what he did, could leave him alone. . . . autumn in a man's life. His wife rejected him, half with regret, but relentlessly; reject it and turn now to the children, for love and life. He was now more or less a shell. And he half-acquiesced, as so many men do, giving way to their children. (Lawrence 54) Therefore, while family was taken for granted, Walter's kind nature shows in his interactions with strangers, such as with his friends, or Gyp or Clara. For the rift at home was too great to repair, as reflected in Walter's dilemma when Paul fell ill: “The father waited undecided about the hearth for a moment or two. He felt his son didn't want him. (Lawrence 82) There is an inherent conflict in the father – a dichotomy of feelings, a fatherly love that Walter was unable to express or realize, due to various inhibitions, including notions of manhood –, in effect creating a miserable situation. As a reactionary To this extent, Walter resorted to trifles.