edited_NovelperspectivesofSonsandLoversbyD.H. Lawrence

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................i
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................................2
1.1. The use of Dialect in the Novel........................................................2
1.2. The Structure of the Novel..............................................................2
1.3. Lexical Analysis................................................................................3
1.3.1 The Structure of Vocabulary........................................................3
1.3.2. The Use of Darkness and its variants..........................................4
1.3.4. The Use of Blood and its variants...............................................5
1.3.5. The Use of Words relating to Nature..........................................6
1.4. Metaphor as a mode of thought......................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................9
REFERENCE................................................................................................10

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INTRODUCTION
The novel Sons and Lover is a representative masterpiece in the history
of British literature, which is a successful model in the early works of D. H.
Lawrence, a famous British novelist. The book can be regarded as a semiautobiographical novel of the author's life. It tells us the tragic story of the
significant protagonist Paul by depicting a vast picture of his family
relationship, especially with his mother, and his romantic relationship with
two women. Based on Lawrence's personal life experiences, his creative
combination of romanticism with realism and psychoanalysis with social
criticism gains the novel an everlasting good reputation. In 1994, one famous
critic Harold Bloom listed Sons and Lovers as one of the novels that have
been important and prominent in Western culture in The Western Canon.
Most researches concerning Sons and Lovers have been made from the
literary criticism perspective. Few researchers have scrutinized it from the

linguistic perspective. This paper examines the conversation between Paul
and Mr. Morel and the conversation between Paul and Mrs. Morel. It aims to
explore the conversational implicature from the perspective of the
Cooperative Principle. In this way, it can be interpreted from a new
perspective, that is, a novel perspective.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Lawrence has used numerous literary techniques and devices in 'Sons
and Lovers' to draw those trapped in the dizzying modernist vortex and
complexity that permeates the modern age. They are discussed under.
1.1. The use of Dialect in the Novel
Lawrence uses dialect and strong idiomatic folk language to conduct
his working-class character's conversation. An example is a shift from a
formal, cultured 'public school' language to the list of ordinary colloquial
speech. According to Jing Hengyi Honors College(Hangzhou Normal
University, China)[6], this is to juxtapose a voice from high culture and a
voice from a low culture providing a contrast, which is one of the critical
areas of interest in this period. He uses the Midlands dialect, which is
considerably different from Standard English. This dialect often drops the
beginning consonant of words and operates the old-fashioned "thee" and
"thou" for "you." Walter Morel speaks in dialect, highlighting his social
background and sensationalism, while Gertrude speaks the Standard English
of the instructed middle class. Paul speaks both dialects. He uses the
Midlands dialect for passionate love with the sexually uninhibited Clara,
flirting, and women towards whom he feels a sensual attraction. He reserves
the Regular English dialect for Miriam, his working-class friends, and his
prim class-conscious mother. Paul talks the jargon that is the speech of

physical kindness. However, it is to the dialect of his father that Paul relapses
when he is flirting with Beatrice. The sons never apply the dialect with their
mother, and Paul never uses it with Miriam.
1.2. The Structure of the Novel
'Sons and Lovers' is split into two parts. Part one contains six chapters
and part two consists of nine. The story has a form governed by its inner logic
and is rigorously verified by an idea. It is not a mere chronological account of
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a family. Lawrence's primary interest lies in his characters' spiritual and
psychical development, as stated in A Study on the Conversational
Implicature in Sons and Lovers From the Perspective of Cooperative
Principle[7]. The novel's beginning may be conventional, but Lawrence soon
gives up the conventional narrative mode. He prefers to mold his story into
four neat events, which form a complete whole. He aims to describe the
subtler complexities of life in its wide variety. Time is vital in shaping the
novel's structure, but emotional and psychological impulses play a vital role.
Lawrence employs other devices of structural combination like a varying
point of view, dialect, descriptions and reflective situations and a complex
web of symbolism.
The description that precedes some event is so apt that it lends an
aesthetic structure to the novel's rhythm. The basic fundamental patterns of
various scenes involve the conflicts that confuse Paul's objective in life.
Lawrence seems to be highly sensitive to what goes on beneath the events,
and it is this quality lends a unique structure to his tale.
1.3. Lexical Analysis
1.3.1 The Structure of Vocabulary
Vocabulary plays a significant part in creating memorable effects-both
textual and communicative, and in any stylistic analysis, it has to be

scrutinized in depth. This section will be looking at aggregate words,
neologisms, collocations, lexical sets, and monosyllabic of 'Sons and Lovers'.
Lawrence constantly uses short words, mostly monosyllabic and short,
presenting a simple, informal, and casual description. The following
conversation occurs in the novel's opening chapter when William feels very
discontented because he had left his mother alone and talks to his mother.
"The moon was high and majestic in the august night. Mrs. Morel,
seared with passion trembled to find herself out there in a splendid white
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light, that fell cold on her, and gave a shock to her tender soul. She stood for a
few minutes helplessly gazing at the glistening great rhubarb leaves nearby
the door. Then she got the air into her breast. She stepped down the garden,
path, trembling in every limb, while the child boiled within her" [1].
Mrs. Morel is a vessel of the life force that seems to push itself at her in
nature from all sides, but she is also in resistance against it, and the perfume
of the pollen-filled plants makes her gasp with fear.
She finally aroused Morel from his drunken sleep, and he lets her in.
Unlocking her brooch at the bedroom mirror, she sees that her face is covered
with the yellow dust of the lilies. The imagery of the streaming moonshine is
that of a vast torrential force, 'magnificent and inhuman.' It equates with the
revolutionary power of Mrs. Morel. The distortion of yellow pollen on Mrs.
Morel's face is a grossly humorous irony. There is an automatic identification
between real things and what they symbolize in the novel perspective of
Madeline Freeman[8].
1.3.2. The Use of Darkness and its variants
In 'Sons and Lovers,' the words darkness, black, death, nothing and
their variants have been used repeatedly, resulting in a pattern of some sort.
This pattern explores Lawrence's ideas and vision about life forcefully,

especially in the industrialized civilization[6]. In the story, the word dark has
been used in different circumstances affecting a pattern. In the scene
representing the bringing of the coffin containing William into the house, the
alternatives of black have been applied in the following words: night,
darkness, black, faintly luminous night, obscurity, candlelight. Each of the
words has been repeated several times in a brief period. The constant
patterning of these words makes the whole scene dejected and infused with an
air of tragedy in the word of Psychoanalytic and Feminist Perspectives in
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D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers[9]. It very poignantly describes the sorrow
and desperation felt in the Morel household:
At the end of the story, the conflict in Paul's head is brought out very
effectively through the contrasting patterns of light-darkness and life-death.
There is an intended comparison between positive and negative, optimism and
pessimism, hope and despair:
Here, the vast blackness of the night refers to death as Paul is in a
dilemma behind his mother's death. He seems to be in a very disturbed state
of mind and wonders whether to merge with the darkness and his mother or
embrace the glowing lane of life. There is a void within him. Paul is
soundless in the terror of the big night. He ultimately decides to cover life and
turns towards the glowing lights of the city. The lights here refer to and are
representative of hope and life.
1.3.4. The Use of Blood and its variants
In Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers,' the use of the word blood is quite
impressive. He uses it in a very notable manner. Anger, passion, and sensual
desire are shown in various characters. There are several instances where the
word blood and its alternatives have been used. Some of them are: bloodshot
eyes; a sensuous flame of life; full of blood; Morel's blood was up; even the

blood; roused his blood; a wave of hot blood went over to the infant; her heart
melted like a drop of fire; blood battling; etc. Look at the following case:
"The whole of his blood seemed to burst in to fires and he could
scarcely breathe… his blood was focused like a flame in his chest. There were
flitted in his blood" [1].
According to A. H. Gagiano[10], these lines relate to the passion felt
for Miriam as they walked side to side. He wants to make love with Miriam,
but she blenches away from it and Paul. Blood also makes its appearance felt
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when Mr. Morel throws an object with violence at Gertrude, and some bloodshedding occurs. This is representative. Mrs. Morel is hurt on her forehead,
and the blood flows and drops on the baby's white cloak. Later a drop also
dropped on the baby's golden hair. The imagery is strong and very symbolic:
"Mrs. Morel's blood on her baby." There is a blood connection, and a
communion seems to have been established between her and baby Paul.
Moreover, it is ironic that it is Mr. Morel who is responsible for the
illustration of the blood.
1.3.5. The Use of Words relating to Nature
Flowers have a function in revealing the characters' psychological
traits, and even the skies very symbolically change color according to the
characters' feelings(Ding Liming, [4]). Thus it turns to red color when Mrs.
Morel is unsettled and angry, and it turns black when there is a foreshadowing
of death and sorrow. It appears to be a bright and glowing blue when Paul is
out in the countryside with the woman he loves. When he makes romantic
love to Clara, the sky is flushed, symbolizing blood, passion, life and physical
love. Paul is attracted to nature's fundamental things and aspects in contrast to
the industrial and mechanized society.
Mrs. Morel's experience with the lilies when she places her head deep
inside the flower and when her face is covered with pollen golden in color has

been defined in very explicit and figurative language. It is replete with
comparisons, similes, personifications and symbols. Mrs. Morel shares a very
social affinity with nature. Her communion with nature is shared by Paul, her
yet-to-be-born child at that time. Mrs. Morel is influenced by the intense
perfume, the full moon's streaming white light, and the paleness of all the
flowers.

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1.4. Metaphor as a mode of thought
“The image seems to almost take over and substitute episodes as in
discursive analysis, and take over the expressive functions of these”[7]. The
image is an excellent expressive medium and is very dominant in the given
novel. Lawrence's imagination/ appears to be so concrete that he seems not to
discriminate between reality and the simile or symbol, which makes it plain to
us. Memorable images are of the streaming moonshine in the first episode and
Paul's wonder at the spatial dimensions of a wren's retreat in a fence (he finds
selfhood and rhythm in it): "He crouched down and carefully put his hand
through the thorns into the large door of the nest. It's almost as if you were
feeling inside the alive body of the bird" he said, "It's so warm. They say a
bird creates its nest round like a cup with pressing its breast on it. Then how
did it create the ceiling round, I wonder?"[1]
Ting Bo[11] once wrote, "The image of the red stallion in the woods
when Paul, Clara and Miriam take a stroll in the countryside, lends the horse
with a unique and magical identity. The image associated with Mr. Morel is
that of the coal pits. It is a representative of rhythmic ascent and descent, like
life and death.” The work in the coal pits changes the natural use of the hours
of life and dark and is an economic distortion of that rhythm in nature. Morel
and the other colliers bear the spiritual wound of that distortion, for Lawrence

is dealing with modern men's natural environment in its complexity and
injuriousness. The work at the pits is symbolic of the more excellent rhythm
governing life, obedience to salvation. Throughout the book, the coal cavities
are always on the horizon.
Figurative language generates pictures or images in the context. It
appeals to our senses, awakens our imagination and thought and adds beauty
and intensity to the text. Lawrence uses various figures of speech like
metaphor, metonymy, simile and alliteration to add beauty and rhythm to the
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story. Lawrence's style is lyrical, poetic and metaphorical, which have
emotive opinions. The images play a crucial role in sense impressions and
evoking our emotions. Thus the passage in which Mrs. Morel has
communication with nature is efficient, effective and sensuous because of the
images, which are exotic, sharp and beautiful. Similarly, the text abounds
with metaphorical images in several scenes. To mention a few: the scene
when William's coffin, including his body, is brought home, the scenes when
Mrs. Morel is shown about to the death, the varieties of flowers, nature and
the farmland, the passionate scenes between Clara and Paul and eventually
the time when Paul takes the decision to turn his back on death and darkness
and turns towards the lights of the city and continues with his life.

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CONCLUSION
Based on D. H. Lawrence's famous novel Sons and Lovers, a good
illustration of the conflicts in people's hearts and the modern civilized society.
From the shown perspectives, the paper analyzes Paul’s internal

psychological causes in his three dynamic stages of love: birth, development,
and disillusionment, and explains the potential reason for his love tragedy to
prove further the importance of keeping the balance between family
relationships romantic relationship.
The analysis shows that the novelist in 'Sons and Lovers' mainly uses
metaphoric language, symbolism, dialogue, disconnected fragments and
sketches, disruptions of narrative flow, techniques of juxtaposition, dialect,
fragmented episodes, and multiple points of view for characterization.
Lawrence makes complex and effective use of a complex range of glossaries
in the novel. The words darkness, black, death, nothing and their alternatives
have been used repeatedly, resulting in a pattern. This pattern examines
Lawrence's ideas and vision about life in the industrialized cultivation
forcefully.
Adjectives are used generously, both predicatively and attributable,
making the prose style more vigorous, colorful, appealing, and forceful. His
passages are often dominated by long polysyllabic words when the instructed
middle-class characters discuss complicated issues relating to emotional
crisis, spirituality and abstract concepts. By comparing the opposites, he
suggests the crisis of the human soul in a mechanized, modern, and
demoniacal society. The writer focuses on characters' 'Mind Style,' which
refers to the characteristic linguistic presentation of an individual's mental self
, presenting characters' reflections, prejudices, feelings, and values.

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REFERENCE
[1] D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers (Oxford University Press, London
1995).
[2] Zhang Tao: On the “Love Son Complex” and “Love Mother Complex” in

Sons and Lovers, Foreign Literature Studies, (1998) No. 4, p. 14-17.
[3] Hu Yamin: The Collision of Reason and Emotion in Modern Civilization
-- Reading Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, Foreign Language and Literature,
(1999) No. 3, p. 35-38 + 42.
[4] Ding Liming: Paul’s Identity Crisis and ‘Lacanian Self’ Construction in
Sons and Lovers, Foreign literature Studies, Vol. 34 (2012) No. 9, p. 91-96.
[5] Sun Shengzhong: From the Separation of Spirit and Flesh to the
Combination of Spirit and Flesh --a Review of Lawrence’s Son and Lover,
Foreign Language and Literature, (2000) No. 1, p. 50-53
[6] Jing Hengyi Honors College: An Analysis of the Love Tragedy of Paul in
D. H. Lawrence's novel Sons and Lovers from the Perspective of Jungian
Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
[7] DU Jingjie: A Study on the Conversational Implicature in Sons and
Lovers From the Perspective of Cooperative Principle, School of Foreign
Languages, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen, China
[8] Madeline Freeman: The Woman of a Lifetime: How Frieda Lawrence
Influenced Sons and Lovers and Revived D.H. Lawrence, Trinity University,
2020
[9] Jackson K: Psychoanalytic and Feminist Perspectives in D.H. Lawrence’s
Sons and Lovers
[10] A. H. Gagiano: English Academy Review: Southern African Journal of
English Studies, 2009
[11] Ting Bo: An Ecofeminist Interpretation of Sons and Lovers, 2018

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