On The Social Content Of The Mother-Children Love In Sons And Lovers

Since its publication, Sons and Lovers has received voluminous interpretation and comments from diverse perspectives, which reflects the inclusive nature of the novel. Due to the prevalence of Freudian theory in Europe then, many critics consider that Lawrence must be edified by it and the novel be a convincing illustration of Freudianism. Based on a detailed reading and careful analysis of the text, this thesis discusses the social background and the family background of Mrs. Morel’s abnormal mother-love and the causes of her children’s failures in their love, and holds that the. abnormal mother-love is not abstract Freudian love, whose concrete social content is adequately manifested by the stories between the mother and her children. In the age of free capitalism in England, with the rapid development of social economy and the rapid growth of the middle classes, the social stratification and class relations have dramatically changed, and consequently the former proletariats, the farmers deprived of land and other working masses, especially their children, have the opportunities to raise their social status and improve their economic state, and most of them have eventually made their way up into the middle classes. In such social environments and during such social change, the abnormal mother-son love is manifested in that, on the part of the mother, an embodiment of the values of free capitalist society, Mrs. Morel expects her children to work hard to edge their way into the middle classes, and on the part of the children, the posterity of a coal miner, they spare no pains to realize their mother’s expectation and have consequently through their effort raised their social status and improved economic state. In this light, this thesis thinks that the mother-children love in Sons and Lovers is in essence a partnership in a common endeavour, and it is abnormal in the mother’s excessive harmful interference in the children’s love affairs.