Resumo de Sons And Lovers - D. H. Lawrence

Sons and Lovers is set is the English midlands at the turn of the Twentieth Century. It tells the story of the Morel family who live in a mining town, and the difficult conditions they face, both financially and emotionally. The story concentrates on the troubled relationship between between the mother Gertrude and her hard drinking husband Walter, and they way it impacts on their relationships with the children. Although the Morels have four children, the novel focuses almost exclusively on Gertrude's relationships with her Sons William and Paul.

Gertrude is a woman from a refined background, who falls for the rakish charms of her husband Walter. Their marriage is a passionate one at the beginning, but it is not long before Gertrude discovers things are not what they seem. Believing her husband to be a reliable and financially secure man, Gertrude soon comes to realise that he is extreamely irresponsible, and that they are in dire financial trouble. The house she believes they own outright is actually rented from his mother, and he has a stack of unpaid debts.

This comes as a crushing blow to Gertrude, and destroys the trust she had in her husband and her optomisim for the future. Having little other option in life, she decides to make the best of her situation by simply carrying on as best she can. Her daily life is one of poverty and back breaking drudgery. She virtually gives up on her own personal happiness, and decides to concentrate all her energies on her children, in the hopes that they will have a better life than hers.

Through his brutish and selfish behaviour, Walter becomes excluded from his own family. His children hate and fear him, and his wife resents him. Indeed, the family is forced to live on a pittace, while Walter keeps the majority of his income for himself. Even then, he is not above stealing from his wife's housekeeping money.

In the absence any kind of intimacy with her husband, Gertrude turns attention to her sons. They become her confidants, and her allies against her husband. After William dies, her relationship with Paul becomes very intense. They become so emeshed with each other, that Paul finds it impossible to form relationships with other women. Gerturde always finds reason to disapprove and dislike Paul's choice of women, and makes her feelings known.

While Paul works in a local factory as a clerk, his real ambition is to become an artist. He wins local art prizes, which he proudly brings home to his mother. This is of course a great source of pride and consolation to her. Gertrude's life seems to get a little easier as her children grow into responsible adults. Her two younger children go on to marry and have families of their own, but Paul remains by her side.

Walter continues his hard drinking ways, and Gertrude's bitterness toward him grows. This bitterness and the hardship of her life get the better of her, and she finally succumbs to cancer. In her final days, Gertrude hates her husband with a passion, and can barely stand to have him in the room with her. The two have become so alienated from each other, they can scarecly speak.

For his part, Walter leaves the care of his wife and even the funeral arrangements to his children. After her death, he goes to live as a boarder with another family who seem to make a pet of him.

Paul is devestated by the loss of his mother, and becomes no more than an empty shell of a man. He refuses the last ditch efforts of his lover Miriam to form a relationship, and like his father, seeks solace in alcohol. The novel ends on ambivalent note, with Paul leaving his squalid appartment, and walking off down the street.

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