The Decline Of Men In Sons And Lovers

The author makes a textual analysis of the novel—Sons and Lovers, David Herbert Lawrence's third novel which is also his first masterpiece. The novel is recognized as the pioneer work among English novels and now has become one of the most widespread readings. In the past, most of the criticisms on the novel were stated in women's point of view. This paper is to analyze the novel from the angle of men.By reading this novel, it's not difficult to find that Lawrence is imparting such an idea that men are degrading through his description of the historical background and men-women relationships. We notice that industrial civilization makes Mr. Morel suffer physically and spiritually and finally lost his manhood and vitality that a man should have. William, in order to live and marry, he has to do extra work and dies in the end. Once Paul walks into the factory, he feels like into the jaws of the dragon; while in the west countries, the dragon is a symbol of evil, ferocity and avarice.During the description of men-women relationships, the author will analyze several important female figures based on the feminist theory. Morel is inferior to his wife as refers to their comparison and fight; Mrs. Morel's control and dominance to William and Paul and their over emotional dependence on her results in their split between spiritual love and physical love so that they can't find their true love and can't fulfill themselves; Paul can't find his manhood and respect because he is respectively controlled spiritually and physically by Miriam and Clara. So we can draw the conclusion: men in the novel are declining.The thesis will analyze the novel from a new perspective on the basis of the preceding researches. Firstly, the author will illustrate the reason why industrial civilization results in men's decline; then the author will make an analysis of the characterization and men-women relationships based on the feminism to further emphasize the theme—men's decline. Finally, according to the analysis above, it seems clearly that men are declining in the novel.