A Study Of Sons And Lovers From The Perspective Of Ecocriticism

D. H. Lawrence is one of the greatest English novelists and also the most frequently studied English novelist in the 20th century. Sons and Lovers is regarded as a masterpiece in his early writings, successfully embodying his life philosophy, and it is also a representative novel in the history of British literature. For many years, Sons and Lovers has encountered a variety of compliments and criticisms from many different critical genres. However, few people have tried to study the novel from the perspective of ecocriticism, a new critical approach with which the thesis attempts to interpret the ecological consciousness in the novel.In Sons and Lovers, Lawrence expresses his worry about human unbalanced ecology. To interpret the novel from the perspective of ecocriticism, we can explore the deep connotation of Lawrence's thoughts and understand his transcendent ecophilosophy.The thesis interprets Sons and Lovers from three perspectives, namely, Natural Ecology, Social Ecology and Spiritual Ecology, which respectively reveal the complexity of three basic relationships---man-and-nature relationship, man-and-man relationship and man-and-self relationship. Only when these basic relationships are in harmony with each other, can man realize true ecological balance.Firstly, the thesis analyzes Lawrence's viewpoints of Natural Ecology embodied in the novel. He gives a magnificent description of the natural world and thinks deeply of the relationship between man and nature, which reveals his deep love and unique understanding of nature. In Lawrence's opinion, man is the child of nature and cannot be isolated from nature. Nature can stimulate man's instinct; nature can save modern man. However, the pastoral nature is corrupted by the march of modern industrial civilization, and the modern world is becoming a"waste land". Therefore, he fiercely advocates man's returning to nature and building a harmonious man-and-nature relationship for salvation.Then, the thesis further explores Lawrence's concern for Social Ecology and...