Nature in Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
In his introduction to The Letters of D.H. Lawrence, (Aldous Huxley, 1932) declared that Lawrence was ‘above all a great literary artist…one of the greatest English writers of any time.’ Born in Eastwood near Nottingham, England on the 11th of September, 1885, D. H. Lawrence wrote novels that presented the dehumanizing effect of industrial culture and preached a glorified union with nature along with its corollary, sexual fulfilment. His experience growing up in a coal-mining family provided much of the inspiration for Sons and Lovers, his third novel, also considered his ‘crowning achievement’ (Qamar Naheed, 1998). Written in 1913, it is considered a pioneering work for its realism, vivid characterisation, treatment of sex complications and faultless control over tone and narrative method. Sons and Lovers is referred to as a Künstlerroman (a version of the Bildungsroman), which is a novel charting the growth and development of an artist. The novel contains many autobiographical details, leading Mary Freeman (1955) to define Lawrence’s ‘most pervasive aim’ as the attempt to link experiences in his writing; she declares Sons and Lovers as the starting point from which Lawrence ‘moved towards more complex speculations’. Undoubtedly Lawrence used his own experiences very fully in the novel: his parents’ relationship, attitudes and personalities are mirrored in that of Morel’s. He remarked in a letter, ‘one sheds one’s sickness in books’ and Sons and Lovers is a way of his coming to terms with those formative experiences which made him the man he was (Jenny Weatherburn, 2001). Lawrence was an acute observer of the natural world who took great joy from it (Weatherburn, 2001) and the novel reveals a great preoccupation with nature. One of the important artistic features in Sons and Lovers is the symbolic meanings associated with nature. Lawrence applies the symbolism of nature to reveal Paul Morel’s complicated relationships with the three women in his life – Mrs.
References: 1. Freeman, Mary. 1955. D.H. Lawrence, a basic study of his ideas, volume 82. University of Florida Press, USA. 2. Huxley, Aldous. 1932. THE LETTERS OF D. H. LAWRENCE. New York: The Viking Press, USA. 3. Lawrence, David Herbert. 1913. Sons and Lovers. Originally published by Duckworth, UK. 4. Michelucci, Stefania. 2002. Space and Place in the Works of D.H. Lawrence. McFarland, USA. 5. Naheed, Qamar. 1998. D. H. Lawrence: Treatment of Nature in Early Novels. APH Publishing, USA. 6. Spilka, Mark. 1955. The Love Ethic of D. H. Lawrence. Bloomington Ind.: Indiana University Press, USA. 7. Weatherburn, Jenny. 2001. D.H.Lawrence: A Beginner 's Guide (Beginner 's Guides). Hodder Arnold, UK. 8. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNotes on Sons and Lovers.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. 9. ‘To what extent is Sons and Lovers a romantic novel?’ 123HelpMe.com. 30 Apr 2012 .