Paul survives and falls in love with Miriam, a mystically romantic and spiritually refined young woman. ‘I should have watched the living, not the dead’ (page 175). She feels very guilty for neglecting him all the time.

Though she is saved when her younger son, Paul falls dangerously ill.

His mother is devastated by the death of her oldest son and slowly fades away. This way he falls ill of pneumonia, and eventually dies. She makes him work hard to pay for her expenses. He knows she would not please his mother and make a suitable wife, still he remains engaged to her out of sense of guilt. But after a while he becomes engaged with a shallow supercilious girl. He succeeds, since he is an intelligent and ambitious gentleman. William tries hard to live up to his mothers expectations. This way Walter becomes even more isolated. He is the one who receives all the love and affection his mother can no longer give to her husband. Walter turns to drinking and brutalising the family, while Gertrude seeks refuge in the love of her children, especially that of William. Their marriage is a failure, because they can not fully satisfy their different needs. Walter Morel, a sensual but practically illiterate man, marries the proud, intellectual and refined Gertrude. It was a psychological novel, as well as an autobiographical novel. In 1913 one of his more famous novels called ‘Sons and lovers’ was first published. His work was often seen as sensation literature, something from which Lawrence suffered very much, since it was not his intention. He had a great gift for writing, with which he wrote a great number of short stories and novels. This masterly work offers many interpretations of Sons and Lovers, but, as the author asserts, the novel contains such a “plurality of perspectives” that every informed reader will draw his or her own conclusions when approaching the work from a unique personal perspective.David Herbert Lawrence was born in 1885, as the son of a Nottinghamshire miner. It also contains chapters on characterization, theme and the form of the novel. For the student unfamiliar with critical theory, Brian Finney’s study clarifies the use of different methods and shows how they can be applied to reveal meaning and significance. Each approach throws light on different aspects of the work, and, brought together, they illustrate its brilliance and complexity. Marxist, feminist, Freudian, structuralist, symbolist. Its concern with social conditions and the class system connects it with the great Victorian novels, but in its profound exploration of the consciousness of its characters it must be viewed as “modern.”īrian Finney uses a variety of critical techniques to probe the heart of this rich and diverse novel. Sons and Lovers, Lawrence’s third novel, encompasses the literary traditions of both the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Dh lawrence novel and lovers