Sons_and_Lovers

Sons and Lovers Throughout one’s lifetime many relationships are established between people that result in either a negative or positive influence on a person, shaping how they form new relationships with others. Throughout D.H. Lawrence’s classic novel Son’s and Lovers, the character of Paul Morel is developed through his relationships with three women, Gertrude, his mother, and his two loves Miriam and Clara. These women each play a distinct role in the construction of Paul, as his connection with his mother is Oedipal, while his relationships with Clara and Miriam are sexual and spiritual. Gertrude is the most powerful woman in Paul’s life, and thus this tight-knit relationship serves as the root for Paul’s future affairs. It is no coincidence that Gertrude shares the same name as Hamlet’s Queen Gertrude, for both women share the mother’s possessive role of the Oedipal complex. Paul sees his mother as youthful and virginal, frequently comparing her to flowers. At times Paul and Gertrude’s closeness is almost like that of a couple, for example while the mother and son dine in town together, Paul thinks of her as "gay as a sweetheart", and feels the "excitement of lovers". However, Gertrude’s sons, lovers, paul, paul’s, mother, miriam, gertrude, clara, relationship, love, sexual, soul, relationships, gertrude’s, while, spiritual, spilka, however, both, young, thus, nature, death, youth, women, woman, weiss, virginal, should, sex, oedipal, much, mind, man, loves, herself, flowers, feels, explains, even, each, dawes, cannot, between, being, writes, win, toward, throughout, through, three