Mommy and the Modern World

There's this guy named Paul Morel; yeah, like the mushroom. He thinks he hates his father who works in the coal mines, and thinks he loves his mother who does a pretty thorough job of nagging his father, while stifling Paul. Poor Paul is in love with a girl, Miriam, but can't seem to break away from the domineering influence of his mother. Unlike his father who leads a robust, sensuous existence working in the deep, dark bowels of the earth, Paul plies his trade as a shop foreman in the sterile atmosphere of a city factory. Alright, alright, so he won't end up with pneumoconiosis; but he misses out on the mysteries and passions of nature nevertheless.


Anyway, the novel is essentially about the internal struggles that Paul endures. Paul is prim and exacting like his mother, and lacks his father's passionate, spontaneous, unrefined nature. The descriptive passages of the natural world are beautiful as is usual in Lawrence's work. Time passes as Paul matures. Finally, his mother dies and he must decide between her and his girlfriend, Miriam. Guess who he chooses. Well, I won't spoil it for those of you who can't figure it out. It's pretty impressive stuff, and was considered quite risque at the time it was published in the early twentieth century. Lawrence had a keen insight into human nature and didn't especially admire modern civilization. In fact, he downright despised it and felt that industrialization was robbing men of their souls by turning them into automatons. Despite the fact that he was ill with tuberculosis, he spent much of his short life living it to the fullest.

There is another dimension to the novel concerning a way of life that was gradually disappearing from the England of that time. As industrialization made life easier for some, it robbed others of their livelihoods and modes of existence. This is evident as the story closes with the protagonist walking toward the lights of the city and away from the countryside. This is only one interpretation since Paul Morel does say that he embraces life as he heads toward the city lights. But, the life he walks toward is a synthetic one of electric lights, factories, macadam streets, and automobiles. This is perhaps an irony that Lawrence wants us to ponder. The natural world is dying as men clear it to make way for the dynamo and an artificial and anemic world replete with pollution and congestion. It seems that "progress" is an ineluctable event that will, at last, lead to the ultimate suffocation and destruction of mankind.


Sons and Lovers is a good introduction to Lawrence's body of work and thought. Lawrence had Apocalyptic notions and believed that modern civilization was ultimately doomed. It is also, semi autobiographical. Guess who Paul Morel is based on.