A Great Mother

David Herbert Lawrence is one of the most original and most controversial British writers in the literary world. As the third novel and a semi-autobiographical story of his, Sons and Lovers is considered to be one of his masterpieces, which wins the international fame on both sides of the Atlantic for its author. Some critics hold that "Sons and Lovers has always been Lawrence's most popular book and will probably remain so." Since its first appearance, Sons and Lovers has been reviewed by numerous critics who have analyzed this novel from various perspectives and with multiple methods.This thesis tries to explore this novel from the perspective of Archetypal Criticism, represented by Northrop Frye, a well-known Canadian critic. In Archetypal Criticism, there is an archetypal image called the Great Mother, existing in western mythology, who possesses the dual power of creation and destruction. This double characteristic can be easily found in Gertrude Morel, a mother figure in the novel.The thesis is divided into four parts, the former two giving a brief introduction to the author, the novel, and the theory, and the latter two focusing on the analysis of Gertrude Morel as a Great mother.As the central part of the thesis, the third chapter firstly traces the change of Mrs. Morel from an innocent girl to a Great Mother caused by multiple factors, then explores how the dual nature of the Great Mother is shared by Mrs. Morel, especially her ambiguous attitudes and affections towards her husband and children, and finally analyzes the tragic ending of all the members of the family as a result of her absolute control of them. The fourth chapter, as the conclusion, probes the personal tragedy of Gertrude, a Great Mother figure, which, indeed, is brought about both by the social environment and her own character.