进入工厂后的收入让这个家庭的生活面貌也逐渐改观,保罗却无意间沦陷城市的生活中,在情人和母亲之间艰难的踟蹰,诗意的远去,代之而来的是金钱欲望和责任的重量,成长中必须要面对的永恒的主题,让保罗又一次分裂。失去儿子的焦虑感让母亲三番四次的责难,保罗逐渐意识到母亲对自己的束缚和依恋说“只要你活着,我就找不到任何人。”母子关系恶化,母亲的死亡让保罗幡然悔悟,可怜的妇人在最后临死的时刻都企图把儿子一起带到地狱永生永世。若说恋子是最原始的母与子的情结,那原始的情愫应该在一定程度上蜕化,变成最有利于人格发展的情感,可是母亲显然是让自己在极度的占有欲的趋势下忽略了儿子的健全的发展。西方心理学老师讲过西方哲学家Erich Fromm的存在主义的价值观取向,“having与being”,“ He believed that human beings had two basic orientations: having and being. Now, a person with a having orientation seeks to acquire and possess things, property, even people. But a person with a being orientation focuses on the experience. They derive meaning from exchanging, engaging and sharing with other people.” “占有和存在”当一种感情达到极致的顶峰时,你潜意识时中强烈的占有欲会作祟,“是”什么,符合什么,达到什么。换一种角度,体验存在的价值,或许更是一种合理的情感态度。
男人需要某个女人给予信念,赋予生活意义; 但是他们的身体需要被满足。在不成熟的时期,性的满足显得更加的重要,就像书中所说"when he start love -making, the emotion was stronge enough to carry with it everything-reason, soul, blood--in a great weep, like th etrent carries bodily its back-swirls and interwinings noiselessly" 这时爱就是性,性就是爱。所以这时Paul觉得他更爱Clara. 但当他逐渐意识到这不是全部是,他开始神游,他不愿意再亲密,于是他在对命运低头的同时,放弃了性。
When I first laid my eyes on this book, I thought it was about incest. But it turned out not after I read the introduction and that was what interested me----what the story exactly wants to tell? Finishing reading the book I learned a lot about marriage.
Paul is an excellent guy who is diligent and intelligent but the deep love and spiritual dependence prevent him to whole-heartedly love another women. In my opinion, people like Paul may live a arduous life because he is too much conscious his existence which results in his excessive care of people around, which is shown when he feels ashamed with some of his mother's action in the public area. And he think too much when he is with Marian which leads to separation of them. Perhaps, the separeation just shows us the importance of distance. They want too much to get the whole heart of each other which just like the author describ that "she wanted to draw me out of my body". And I think that the needed distance between people is not only physical but also, more significantly, spiritual. Well, I confess that I am dream of a relationship and I am a little bit afraid that I will screw it up. I do not know what to expect and what will happen.
About marriage, I even have not think about it yet but I according to the case around me it seems terrible. However smart the people are and however long time they spend together unmarried, they are seldom know what their mate really like before marrige, just like Mrs. Morel. As a result, they will have many unpleasant problem after they got married and most of them divorce soon after having a baby. I keep asking them why them will not know these flawness of each other before their marry but nobody can tell. Maybe there is a hindrance in the marriage and if you pass you will have the rest of the happiness but most of people nowaday tend to give up before them get through.
Well, I think I am better not to think too much and have too romantic expectation towards love and marriage but wait and let them come naturally.
it hurt the boy keenly,this feeling about her that she had never had her life's fulfillment ,and his own incapability to make up to her hurt him with a sense of impotence,yet made him patiently dogged inside.it was his childish dream.
----exerpt from "Sons and Lovers"
this is my first time to read D.H.Lawrence,so i can't measure how much he exactly put his own personal and private life in this novel. well Sons and Lovers is always thought of as his autobiography, and i believe this is true because no one can write all those exquisite and uncatchable feelings down without exepericing it first. moreover, when reading this novel, i am constantly amazed by how detailed that lawrence has analysed his life. the fact is that ,in our life, most people are too timorous and weak to look life right in the eye.
in this fiction describes a very common and general family in England. the father is a collier, and the mother is a housewife spending most of her time picking up after her children and husband.everything seems so travial and niggling , and doesn't worth any more words to explain it futher. the mother has 4 children: Willian, Paul,Anne and Arthur.Willian dies in london, away from home,of pneumonia. the mother,Mrs Morel, feels heartreding and agnozing .then his second son,Paul, who is believed as the incarnation of Lawrence himself, gradually feels his debt to his mother.he has that strong and intense emotion to care her, love her forever. he would feel bitter to see his mother becoming older ,or weeping for the unfulfillment of life.
as you can see, while the family is a rather essential clue in this fiction,the budding love between young people(Paul and Miriam) is also of key part . the two, both deepy convinced each other as soulmate, are repeatedly pushing each other into anger and frienzy.Paul thinks that Miriam wants his whole soul but not himself while Miriam ,who is a maverick ,is yearning to love him fully and immaculately.later since Paul meets Cara(a married woman),he is gravated by her natural indignation toward man.to him, she is like a spark in the dibbling river of life. eventually, he comes back to Miriam.
the family and love interweave every now and then in this novel. you can see the conflits and intergrations. this is not one of the most imposing novel with attractive plot, however it takes a heart to see and understand it.
above is a very brief summary of this novel. now i'd like talk about what feelings this novel has triggered me to feel.
the girl, the woman, the mother. what infatuates me most in this novel is the life that Mrs. Morel has had. it is so typical for a woman in 19th and early 20th century, and miserable more or less. they get married to men,and all of a sudden they are changed from careless girls into worring women.they start to feel the regrets of their life for marrying out of whim and sudden satisfaction. the errands of every day life almost suffocate them. the children, the dinner, the cleaning ,the husband,adding up together,weaken her as the time ellapses.there is no way for her to jump out of the ties with familys. all she could do is to tolerate whatever life has thrown to her.Just like Mrs.Morel.she loaths her husband for most of time,but she still prepares for his dinner everytime he comes back from the pit and take care of his life.you may argue that Mrs.Morel is financially dependent to her husband.she can't leave.why couldn't woman have their own job after getting married at that time?it makes me wonder.
the charactor ,Mrs.Morel, reminds of a feminist author called Virginia Woolf. in her novel sees how a woman suffers,tolerates and vanishes from life. imagine, there is a woman who marries a man who she no longer loves. they have a son,but she can't care less about him while she is in overwhelming pain.where does the pain and bitterness come from? one day, she is in the kitchen , baking a cake for her husband birthday,and she tells herself"i am going to leave,just walk away". so after puting the tasty cake on the table ,doffing her apron, leaving her son to another neighbor, she leaves. in a hotel she attempts to kill herself .but in the end, she is survived by herself when she decides she doesn't have a right to deprive the life of the infant in her belly.so she comes back home,everything seems peaceful and unchanged. but after she gives birth to the baby, she leaves, or in other word, abandons the whole family to Canada on her own.
it sounds a simple story to tell. but it is not ,at the bottom. i'll spare myself today to talk about the women's position in soceity back in 19 th century.the point i wanna conclude is that all the things that Mrs.Morel has put up with, all the love she has gave,are of great bitternees, but not in vain. it is so tragic,but of beauty in it.
in the end, this novel is one of Lawrence's materpieces and the thrils of it is gradually emerging out of sudden realization of the truth in our lives. even though the way that lawrence decipits the story is rather mild,i can feel the wave of turbulent and unfettered love in it too.