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... ”
It is precisely in the light of these concepts that I will now try to analyse the characters of Walter and Gertrude Morel, and how their differences help us to understand Paul’s character and difficulties. Moreover, in the process of doing so, I will also try to vindicate the character of Walter Morel, for despite the novel being described as “an immediate and true account of the essential paradox of all mother-son relationships”(Keith Sagar, 1985:24), I firmly believe Mr Morel plays a significant role in the novel, a role often disregarded or played down by some literary critics.
• Mr and Mrs Morel
‘The Early Married Life of the Morels’ is the opening chapter of the book. ... Walter Morel and Gertrude Coppard are described as very different; Gertrude is said to be a very intellectual and Puritan woman who loved ideas, but who was fascinated by Walter Morel’s sensuousness and virility. ... Morel was then twenty-seven years old. ... 46, 48) Quoting Louise Maunsell Field (1913:479), “Walter Morel could never have amounted to very much, but had he possessed a less noble wife, he might have been a far better man than he actually was. ... Mrs Morel was strong enough to remake for herself the life he had so nearly wrecked - he could only drift helplessly upon the rocks. ...
It is important to point out that the standards by which Walter Morel is judged are largely those of his wife. Therefore, though ‘Sons and Lovers’ contains several scenes where our sympathy goes out to Walter Morel, as he tells stories to his children, makes fuses, cooks his rasher of bacon in the early morning when he has the kitchen to himself, nevertheless, the novelist’s condemnatory tone is close to that of Mrs Morel. ...
As was aforementioned, it took Mrs Morel only six months to realise the mistake she had made in marrying her husband, and as she later tells Walter, it is not because of him that she does not leave but because of the children: “Ah, wouldn’t I, wouldn’t I have gone long ago, but for those children. ... Morel is helpless before her strength and power, reduced to an impotence which Lawrence stresses when talking of him as “a husk” who did not seem to ripen with the years, “an outsider” who goes “thudding over the deadening snow on the morning of his wife’s death, elderly, drained and afraid.”
Mr Morel is regarded as an outsider in his own house, “The only real rest seemed to be when he was out of the house” (Chapter 2, p. ... Morel brings into the home the callous individualism of a wider society, but he also brings qualities that the mother cannot give: his quick, practical knowledge and vigour:
“The only times when he entered again into the lives of his own people was when he worked, and was happy at work. ... 102)
According to Terry Eagleton (1998:12), “When Morel can make living contact with his children, it is through this kind of immediate material knowledge: through qualities directly connected with his life as a working man . ... It is not that Morel can be happy as a father and not as a workman. ... 99)
Yet, as Terry Eagleton (1998:11) claims, “Morel is not only seen as outside the family context, as an alien intruder from the mines: he is also, and equally, a member of the family, who both on human and economic terms, cannot be denied . ... Eagleton (1983:177) quotes Daleski as claiming that “The weight of hostile comment which Lawrence directs against Morel is balanced by the unconscious sympathy with which he is presented dramatically, while the overt celebration of Mrs Morel is challenged by the harshness of her character in action.” Eagleton (1983:178) further suggests that ‘Sons and Lovers’ “shows us the ways in which Morel is indeed still alive; it cannot stop us from seeing how the diminishing of him has much to do with its own narrative organization, turning as it does from him to his son; and it also shows us, intentionally or not, that even if Morel has denied the god in him, then the blame is ultimately to be laid not on him but on the predatory capitalism which can find no better use for him than as a cog in the wheel of production.”
Let us now see how these differences between Mr and Mrs Morel, which have been analysed so far, and which had such an impact both on their own and their children’s lives, affected Paul’s emotional and personal development.
Approximate Word count = 3805
Approximate Pages = 15.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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