Explore the figure of the male and/or female in D.H. Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers'

Sons and Lovers is placed in a rural setting, thus evoking a great deal of description of the natural world. The natural world encompasses the characters of the novel, and often the environment reflects emotions; relationships are strengthened in nature, but nature also paradoxically acts as an agent of division. One of the ways therefore, in which Lawrence experiments with the themes of gender and sexuality is through his exploration of masculinity, or indeed femininity, in relation to the natural world, and the surrounding landscape. Light and dark imagery is a foundation upon which Lawrence can construct this aspect of the novel. The importance of the word “darkness” in the work of D.H. Lawrence cannot be underestimated. More than simply the absence of light, darkness is a state of being, a blind virtue, the true goal of authentic masculinity.The reference to ‘darkness’ as a state of masculinity immediately connects manhood with the darkness of mines; Mr Morel, a hardy working class miner represents a sense of traditional masculinity; of manual labour and the seemingly dominant man of the household. The contrast between light and dark imagery, juxtaposed against the inevitable and perpetual fluctuation between night and day is highly poignant when considering Lawrence’s exploration of gender; his philosophy of sexual identity rests upon the tension between light and dark motifs: the inevitability and fluidity to fluctuate between both worlds as either a man or woman. The passage in which Mrs Morel finds herself locked out and under the moonlight is a poignant passage in which the light imagery of femininity is explored. Lawrence constructs a narrative rooted in poeticism which lifts life out of its normalcy, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary; the supernatural and the symbolic. The ‘immense gulf of white light’ that appears to be ‘filling the valley where the Bottoms crouched, almost blindingly’ is highly intense and poignant. This bright whiteness is a paradoxical image of both illumination and blinding oppression. White as a colour offers a multitude of meanings; it signifies purity and radiant beauty, however more subliminally is a reference to consciousness, or rather, a consciousness provoked to delirium by a bright light, oppressive in its perfection. The theme of nature and the masculine or feminine self is a poignant motif permeating this passage as the consciousness takes a place of centrality in Mrs Morel’s experience. She cannot ‘control her consciousness’[1], and she seeks to ‘find out what it is that penetrated her consciousness’[2]. Lawrence here merges the physical and the transcendental, thus creating an almost imagined other-reality of escapism in which the oppressed female, Mrs Morel can temporarily reside. Mrs. Morel is so oppressed by the dominant male presence of her husband that it is in nature she seeks her escape and consolation; a parallel reality in which the flowers seem so vividly alive. The repression of female thought can only be freed when the domestic sphere and the overwhelming power of masculine superiority is taken away. Mrs. Morel is at one with nature; she is at one therefore with her own thoughts, devoid of any interruption or influence, and everything seems so startlingly alive that it scares her initially. This initial fear then translates gradually into a feeling of ecstasy in which Mrs. Morel and her unborn child are one in a mixing pot of moonlight. Mrs Morel is literally a vessel of the life force that seems to thrust itself at her in nature from all sides, but she is also in rebellion against it and the perfume of the pollen-filled lilies makes her gasp with fear.[3] Her thoughts are returned bitterly back to reality when she returns back to the house- the domestic sphere in which she continues to undertake ‘the little tasks that remained to be done, set his breakfast, rinsed his pit-bottle, put his pit clothes on the hearth to warm, set his pit boots beside them, put him out a clean scarf and snapbag…and went to bed…he was already dead asleep.’[4] The use of ‘his’ rather than naming ‘Mr Morel’ personally is interesting to note as it not only enhances the unhealthy marriage of function which they have but the use of ‘his’ also signifies a general description that could be said by any woman suffering the conventions of tradition. It distinguishes clearly the inferior woman battling against the dominant male, and the sense of obligation rather than free will and choice. [1] D.H.Lawrence, ‘Sons and Lovers’, (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1987) p. 22 [2]D.H.Lawrence, ‘Sons and Lovers’, (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1987) p. 23 [3] Mark Spilka (ed), ‘D.H.Lawrence: A Collection of Critical Essays’, (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall inc, 1963) p.18 [4] D.H.Lawrence, ‘Sons and Lovers’, (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1987) p. 24