The Clash Between ID And Superego In Sons And Lovers

David Herbert Lawrence is one of the most unique and controversial English Novelists of the twentieth century. He is a talent with deep and bold thoughts involving the dark, hidden side of human nature. In one of his masterpieces Sons and Lovers, he began to extend the boundaries of the novel into a virgin territory, and explored carefully human relationships especially the man-woman relationship.By analyzing the relationships between major characters in the novel from the personality structure perspective, the thesis tries to expose the suppression and distortion that industrialization forces upon individual's personality and reveal that the break-off of harmonious human relationships is caused by distorted personality.The thesis is divided into five parts, including introduction and conclusion.Introduction briefly reviews the previous criticism on D. H. Lawrence's Works, introduces the personality structure theory, and presents the purpose of analyzing the relationships under the framework of the theory.Chapter one deals with Morel couple's conflictive marriage and its enormous influence on Paul's personality. Their unharmonious relationship provides the source of Paul's suffering and love tragedy.Chapter two illustrates Paul's relationships with his mother and his two lovers. Influenced by the growing environment and education background, the defective personalities of Miriam and Clara make them fail to balance rationality and sensuality. Miriam's love emphasizes rationality and intellect but ignores instinct; Clara's love emphasizes nothing but desire and emotion; Gertrude Morel's love is obviously abnormal and distorted. Chapter three points out the break-off of normal relationships is resulted from the unbalance between Id and Superego. Modern industrialization brings about tremendous changes to human society and obstructs the normal development of personality. Paul's love failure is the result of the defective personalities of himself and two loves. His struggle among the three women reflects his quest for a balanced personality.Conclusion recapitulates the arguments in the thesis. D. H. Lawrence, as a modernist writer, probes into the inner side of human being and his thought-provoking works are still helpful to people who are under pressure of modern society.