Sons and Lovers ─ 精神面における母親の支配と息子のアイデンティティ・クライシス

The purpose of this paper is to show the causal relationship between the family environment and Paul's development, and how the dominant position of the mother in the mind of her son drives him to an identity crisis in Sons and Lovers (1913). Sons and Lovers was Lawrence's third novel and one of the most highly acclaimed during his lifetime. It was published in May 1913 when he was twenty seven years old, and it did establish his reputation as a novelist. The novel's original title, `Paul Morel', suggests that Lawrence thought of it as being about only one son, but from the third version onwards William's presence and significance were expanded, and in the final version he is an important role model for Paul. In this novel, Lawrence shows that the father and the mother, and working class and middle class, are in a state of confrontation because of the dominant position of the mother in the minds of William and Paul, which is closely connected with their identity crises. Much of Sons and Lovers is taken from Lawrence's own early life: his hero, Paul Morel, grows up near Nottingham in the English Midlands as Lawrence did, and also wants to be a creative artist. In Sons and Lovers, after her marriage to Walter Morel, Mrs. Morel realizes the difficulties of living off his meager salary in a rented house. The couple fight and drift apart, and Walter retreats to the pub after work each day. Gradually, Mrs. Morel's affections shift to her sons beginning with William. As a boy,William is so attached to his mother that he does not enjoy the fair without her. As he grows older, he defends her against his father's occasional violence. Eventually, he leaves their Nottinghamshire home for a job in London, where he begins to rise up into the middle class. He is engaged, but he detests the superficialityof Lily, his girlfriend. He dies and Mrs. Morel is heartbroken, but when Sons and Lovers Paul catches pneumonia she rediscovers her love for her second son. The centre of the novel is the relationship between Paul and his mother : he loves her and needs her to help him make sense of the world around him, but in order to become an independent man and a true artist he has to make his own decisions about his life and work, and has to struggle to become free from her influence. Paul needs to put the outer and inner world together in a true relation. Lawrence shows how the daily life of his characters influences them, but he is concerned to express the inner qualities of human nature. Lawrence represents that Paul experiences a tragedy which the dominant position of his mother brings after William's death. After William's death, Paul's relationship with their mother echoes his brother's in many respects: the bringing home of prizes for her, the flirting banter, the promises never to marry, the discussions about his unsatisfactory girl-friends and so on. In the case of Paul his identity crisis can be considered from the viewpoint of the self which exists with his mother and the self which is independent of his mother. Paul tries to release himself from his mother in the relationship with the women, but he cannot escape from the dominant position of his mother until his mother dies and for a while after the death of his mother. In the ending of the story, Lawrence represents Paul who finds a new self by showing strong determination. In Sons and Lovers, Lawrence shows the influence of a mother on her son in his youth and that her son cannot be psychologically independent of his mother in his development easily without the changes of his environment and circumstances ; Lawrence represents the Oedipus complex which is different from that of an orphan.