![]() ![]() And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so cruel towards her, at the thought of his mother. She wants to absorb him." Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor, incapable of committing himself in either direction: "Why did his mother sit at home and suffer?. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl's deep love of her son will oust her: "She's not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the first of whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives." These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother-urged on and on. ![]() ![]() It is, by Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: "as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers-first the eldest, then the second. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him all his life-for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam, and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Sons and Lovers was the first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. ![]()
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