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Rohina Sharma

English Honors (III B)

131080

6th August, 2015

Short note on Chapter 1 of Sons and Lovers

D.H. Lawrence begins the novel with: The Bottoms succeeded to Hell
Row. Before Lawrence brings the focus onto the characters, he has roughly
sketched their background. The beginning of Sons and Lovers is considered
to be significant because it sets the path of the whole novel. Mining activity
had been going on in the country of Nottinghamshire for a long time on a
small scale. One of the major industrial concerns, Carston, Waite & Co., dug
many mines on the fields of Nottinghamshire which led to the discovery of
Derbyshire, and to accommodate the large number of miners working in
these mines Carston, Waite & Co. built The Square on the site of Hell Row
and erected The Bottoms.

The Bottoms was a small resident unit in the brook valley near the village
Bestwood. It consisted of six blocks of miners dwellings, with twelve houses
in a block. The houses were considerably decent and substantial with very
attractive little front gardens. The families spent their time in the kitchen at
the back of the houses, looking upon the black alley. In these alleys the
children are found playing, the women gossiping and the men smoking. This
highlights that even though the houses were beautiful and substantial they
were not quite desirable to live in.

Whats interesting to note is that Lawrence, with certain deftness explains

the economy of that period in just over a page. He has been able to
communicate the feel of the place with an ease and it doesnt seem that it
has been done with a sense of hurry.

Next Lawrence brings the focus onto the characters starting with Mrs.
Gertrude Morel who was thirty one years old and had been married for eight
years. As opposed to the other women residing in The Bottom, Mrs. Morel
did not relish her contact with those women. She thought of herself to be
superior because of her middle class inheritance. It satisfied her vanity to
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live in a house for which she to pay a slightly higher rent. Mrs. Morel came
from a good family- the Coppards. She had the Coppards clear, defiant blue
eyes and their broad brow and inherited from them a proud, unyielding
temper. Mrs. Morel has a Congregationalist background. The
Congregationalists believe in a sort of pre-determinism, that everything is
ordained by fate. But this fate did not reduce the importance of human
endeavor. Even then Mrs. Morel is not always rigidly pious and even though
she preserved John Fields Bible, it was because of sentimental reasons and
not religious.

Where on one hand, Mrs. Morel was considered intellectual and liked an
argument on religion or politics or philosophy with some educated man, Mr.
Walter Morel on the other hand was the complete opposite. Walter Morel was
a miner and met Mrs. Morel when she was twenty three. Mr. Morel was them
well set-up and smart. He had shiny wavy black hair and a black beard that
had never been shaved. He laughed often and laughed heartily. He was full
of animation and vibrancy and was pleasant with everybody. He was rich in
non-intellectual and warm humor.

Mrs. Morel met Mr. Morel at a Christmas party and was quite taken with him.
The next Christmas they were married but soon that happiness started to
dissipate. They were temperamentally unlike each other which was a
harbinger in their married life. One of the important themes in the novel is
marital antagonism. Lawrence suggests this theme in the first few pages of
the novel when he does not attempt any detailed account of their life
together apart from the fleeting mention of them being married for eight
years. To further highlight the estrangement Lawrence mentions selected
facts such as, Walter lying about owning the house, he lies about the unpaid
bills, his drinking habit, and his failure to understand his wife and match her
intellect and through the contrast in their speech. Walters dialect is that of
the typical miner whereas Mrs. Morels speech is refined. Due to Walters
inability to take care of his wife shattered Mrs. Morels middle class
superiority. Their family was badly disrupted.

Just when Mrs. Morels faith in life was being shaken, William was born. She
made much of the child which ended with the father being jealous. The
estrangement between the husband and wife gradually started to increase
and Mrs. Morel drew towards William for affection. William was also attached
to her. It is clear that there is an unusual bond between of affection shared
between the two. During one of Walters drunken stupor, a bitter quarrel
between the husband and wife culminated in Mrs. Morel being shut out of the
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house. It was during that period she was expecting Paul. Lawrence describes
that night as magnificently moon-lit night in August. As Mrs. Morel walked
down the garden path, the child boiled within her which made her
delirious. Then she became aware of the tall white lilies reeling in the
moonlight. The white lilies symbolizes a lot of things- in the Greek lore lily is
associated with birth and its symbol for motherhood because the flower is
said to created from the breast milk of Hera. The Greek Gods held the lily as
a symbol of high eroticism and sexuality. The long pistil represented the
phallus and the pollen represented fertility. In the Christian notion the white
lilies symbolize chastity and virtue and were the symbol of the Virgin Marys
purity.

Mrs. Morsel along with her child rested with the hills and lilies and houses.
When she came back to herself, she returned to her house, got the door
opened, warmed herself, and then attended to the odd jobs left to be done.