From Self-Absence To Self-Realization: D. H. Lawrence's Sons And Lovers As Bildungsroman

Many critics on D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers have focused their attention on the novel's social critique, gender issues, and the main characters' mental and psychological development, pointing out that this novel has criticized the Western industrial society and explored the ideal relationship between sexes and the irrational aspects of human mind. From a perspective of Bildungsroman and through an exploration into the main character Paul's growth process from dependence to independence, from self-absence to a gradual consciousness of self, this thesis tries to show the complexity, intricacy, and uniqueness of the relationship between Paul's growth and the environment of society, family, and parents; the relationship between his growth and gender issues; and the relationship between his growth and self. The result I find is that in the process of growth Paul, on the one hand, has to keep an independent self, but on the other hand he needs to adjust the distorted and alienated relationship with the social force under the pressure of capitalist industrial civilization so that he could maintain a harmonious unity with various social relations and may find a true self of his own.First, Paul's self-absence is closely related with his dependence on his mother and his identification with his mother's idea which is characteristic of social ideology in the late 19th and early 20th century English society in which one's social status is mainly evaluated by one's financial bases. In a sense, Paul's attachment with his mother and his dependence on his mother's idea betray his indirect identification with the social ideology. When Paul totally relies on his mother, he becomes a medium of his mother to express her emotions and social ambitions. The result is that he loses his self identity. This process shows that when one's idea is identified with the social ideology one will become a social being and will be externalized by an outside force. With Paul's growth process, when his idea becomes different from his mother's and at the same time he has to follow his mother's way, Paul experiences a suffering in feeling and conflicts in both spiritual and physical. In professional development he also meets with problems in both financial needs and personal ability development. In the process of class identity construction Paul feels perplexed regarding his class status. This situation demonstrates that when one's idea is divergent from social ideology one still cannot escape from the control of it and will become alienated from it. However, the suffering, conflicts and alienation make Paul realize that he needs to build a new self identity, a new true self; he desires an ideal love based on the combination of body and soul; he wants an ideal profession and needs to solve the crises in his class identity.Paul's growth process towards independence and his search for a true self reveal that when one possesses a clear self consciousness and identifies his self value without attachment to an external force, it is possible for him to begin his search for a true self; it is the integral and intrinsic will of one's own that constitutes the main element of self; only when one truly becomes his own self is it possible for him to be harmoniously unified with others, society, and finally himself.