Sons and Lovers

“She had borne so long this cruelty of belonging to him and not being claimed by him.” Sons and Lovers (1913) is a semi-autobiographical novel by renowned English writer D.H. Lawrence.This story of a working-class family revolves around Paul Morel, a young artist who is deeply attached to his mother, Gertrude. His relationship with his mother towers over his romances with Miriam Leivers, his repressed, religious girlfriend, and Clara Dawes, a mature and free-spirited woman.The characters of the alcoholic miner father, and the mother, who resists him in the novel, are said to be modelled on Lawrence’s parents.The older brother,William, who dies young in the novel mirrors Lawrence’s brother Ernest, who passed away. Sons and Lovers is an astute and impactful psychological study of familial bonds, passion, love, and desire. Many critics consider it an Oedipal novel whose theme has been influenced by Sigmund Freud’s controversial theory of sexual desire and the Oedipus complex.