David Herbert Lawrence was born in 1885 in Nottinghamshire, England
where his father was a miner. His experience growing up in a coal-mining family
provided much of the inspiration for Sons and
Lovers. Lawrence had many affairs with
women in his life, including a longstanding relationship with Jessie Chambers
(on whom the character of Miriam is based), an engagement to Louie Burrows, and
an eventual elopement to Germany
with Frieda Weekley. Sons and Lovers was
written in 1913, and contains many autobiographical details.
The first part of the novel focuses on Mrs. Morel and her
unhappy marriage to a drinking miner. She has many arguments with her husband,
some of which have painful results: on separate occasions, she is locked out of
the house and hit in the head with a drawer. Estranged from her husband, Mrs.
Morel takes comfort in her four children, especially her sons. Her oldest son,
William, is her favorite, and she is very upset when he takes a job in London and moves away
from the family. When William sickens and dies a few years later, she is
crushed, not even noticing the rest of her children until she almost loses Paul,
her second son, as well. From that point on, Paul becomes the focus of her
life, and the two seem to live for each other.
Leivers lives on a farm which is not too far from the Morel
family. They carry on a very intimate, but purely platonic, relationship for
many years. Mrs. Morel does not approve of Miriam, and this may be the main
reason that Paul does not marry her. He constantly wavers in his feelings
toward her.
Paul meets Clara Dawes, a suffragette who is separated from
her husband, through Miriam. As he becomes closer with Clara and they begin to
discuss his relationship with Miriam, she tells him that he should consider
consummating their love and he returns to Miriam to see how she feels.
Paul and Miriam sleep together and are briefly happy, but
shortly afterward Paul decides that he does not want to marry Miriam, and so he
breaks off with her. She still feels that his soul belongs to her, and, in part
agrees reluctantly. He realizes that he loves his mother most, however.
After breaking off his relationship with Miriam, Paul begins
to spend more time with Clara and they begin an extremely passionate affair.
However, she does not want to divorce her husband Baxter, and so they can never
be married. Paul's mother falls ill and he devotes much of his time to caring
for her. When she finally dies, he is broken-hearted and, after a final plea
from Miriam, goes off alone at the end of the novel.
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