OEDIPUS COMPLEX IN SONS AND LOVERS
‘Sons and Lovers’ by D.H Lawrence is
read as a modernist novel to which Oedipus complex can be applied. This
psychoanalytic theory is visible at many levels in the novel; in relation to
Mrs. Morel and her sons, Miriam and Clara as mother substitute and Baxter as a
father substitute. The answer focuses mainly on the relationship between Paul
Morel, the protagonist and his mother.
Oedipus complex is a term coined by
psychologist Sigmund Freud in the book ‘Interpretation of Dreams (1899)’.
Oedipus was the protagonist of the book “Oedipus Tyrannus” written by Sophocles
in 429 BC. King Oedipus driven out of his native land because of prophesy that
he will kill his father and marry his mother grows up and unconsciously kills his
father and marries the woman who is his mother. In psychoanalytic theory,
Oedipus complex refers to the child’s desire for sexual involvement with the
opposite sex parents particularly a boy’s erotic attention to his mother. This
complex played an important role in psychosexual development. It also leads to
a matured sexual identity. According to critics D.H Lawrence’s novel ‘Sons and
Lovers’ is an evidence of Oedipus complex but is the mother- son love really
oedipal and not out of pure biological love between parent and child.
Freud thinks that the boy child
develops feeling of hatred towards father and love towards mother from childhood.
The boy then for having taken mother as his own possession regards father as
enemy wanting to take his place. Thus this complex is also called ‘Mother
Fixation’. Mrs. Morel because of her failed marriage paid all attention to her
sons especially Paul since William died at a young age and Paul had an illness.
lI Haiyan says ‘because of the strong abnormal maternal love from his mother,
Paul has Oedipus complex and so Paul’s life becomes a tragedy’. Is Paul’s
relationship with Mr. Morel really oedipal? Does William also have Oedipus complex
or does only the mother love the children not the other way around.
If there is Oedipus complex then the
root cause of it would be the failed marriage of Mrs. Morel and her love
towards her sons. Why does the child hate the father? Because the father
establishes prohibition against incest, the mother is deprived of child and
child suffers from imaginary castration and since father has the phallus he
becomes the rival. Child’s personality is marked by Oedipus complex. According
to Lacan if the dissolution of the complex is to take place the child must
identify with the father, love for father can’t be avoided as it will allow the
son to assume his own masculinity. Doreen Dewart says that Lawrence selected
the name Gertrude because of the mother- son relationship between Hamlet and
his Mother Gertrude. In Hamlet father is absent and in Paul’s case, the
conventional father figure is absent. Hamlet does not want his mother to go his
uncle’s bed and Paul realizes that his mother has not had sexual fulfillment. Mrs.
Morel because of her disappointment in Mr. Morel finds a husband/ lover substitute
first in William then in Paul. She dedicates her life, energy and love on her
children. Through them she wishes to improve the financial and social situation
of the family which has become miserable in the coal mining neighborhood. But
can’t a mother love her sons and be protective of them? Why the relationship is
named Oedipus? Oedipus kills the father and has sexual relationship with
mother. Yes William and Paul have a hatred for father; they do not want to tell
him anything that happens in family, “He was shut out from family affair” (p.64).
His role is limited only to a bread earner. They do wish him to die but none of
the sons actually have a sexual relationship with the mother. The love that the
mother and sons felt was because of social factors and social environment. The
relationship between William and Mrs. Morel is defined in the first chapter.
William is proud to be seen with his mother because “no other women looked such
a lady as she did” (p.41). William is the substitute husband whom Mrs. Morel
can’t find in her marriage and the sons are a source of emotional fulfillment
for her. William takes his father’s place in mother’s heart. “Already William
was a lover to her”. (p.44). Mrs. Morel disapproved of William’s dancing and
girlfriends. Can’t a mother disagree with her child’s decision? Is every mother
who disapproves of his son’s girlfriend then in love with her son? Aruna Sitesh
says “William dies torn between his lady love and mother”.
The psycho sexual development of Paul
began in his early age, he would have no peace if the mother was upset he knew
how she felt. While sharing space with mother in bronchitis he says “sleep is
most perfect…when it is shared with a beloved” (p.64). Every child likes to
sleep with their mother because of the protective, loved and comfortable space
provided by the mother. Does it make it Oedipal then, just because he called
her beloved? Lawrence uses the words like “love token” (p.65), “beloved” (p.64)
to make their relationship sound Oedipal but Paul and Mrs. Morel do not have a
relationship like the one Oedipus shared with Jocasta. It could be an overtly
loved mother- son relationship but critics label it Oedipus complex. Paul and
Miriam’s love blooms but because Paul comes home late he feels guilty and Gertrude
on the other hand recognizes Miriam as a threat, a rival for Paul’s affection.
She makes her dislike clear when Miriam comes for tea, when they sit in the
chapel he becomes happy because he finds it “wonderfully sweet and soothing to
sit there for hour and a half next to Miriam and near mother, unifying his two
loves under the spell of the place of worship” (p.183). But while coming back
Paul and Gertrude blame Miriam for their own reasons. Gertrude does not want
Miriam to “absorb him”. When Paul says “no, mother I really don’t love her, I
talk to her but I want to come home to you” (p.202). it’s as if a husband is
assuring his wife of loving her when she is accusing him of infidelity. Why is
Paul feeling guilty? Is it because he does not want to enjoy the pleasure his
mother does not get? Why does Gertrude say she never “actually had a husband”
to her son? Does she want the pleasure and life of a woman who has a husband
like Paul? Like Gertrude choose a wrong husband, she does not want her sons to
find a bad match and so she gets anxious when they find a girl and have them
met with her. Paul always comes to his mother’s defense like any other son
would. Paul is at peace whenever he is with Gertrude, he loved his mother best.
Paul tries hard to alleviate family poverty. According to Lacan Paul has become
Mother’s phallus meaning he is anxious about Mrs. Morel’s lack of sexual
fulfillment. When his father is hospitalized he fancies himself as “the man of
the house”. Children get excited when a responsibility is entrusted upon them,
it’s casually said, take care of house or mother or sister to boys, does it
mean every boy is suffering from Oedipus complex? After his break with Miriam Paul
is driven towards Clara Dawnes who was introduced by Miriam to him.
The relationship Paul has with Clara
and Miriam are not wholesome like he wants. He tries to find a mother
substitute in both the women. But don’t we all try to find a mother substitute?
In front of Clara the mother looks older, Clara is luxuriant and appears
superior to Mrs. Morel. Paul finds age and vitality in Clara which was missing
in Mrs. Morel. Earlier he was with Miriam for artistic and spiritual quality
which was also lacking in Mrs. Morel. Clara has all the qualities which lack in
mother, maybe Paul is looking for a younger version of his mother but because
of Oedipus complex he is unable to stay with her. The mother substitute which
he tries to find doesn’t appear to be successful as both lack in some quality.
Faith Pulin says Lawrence is a ruthless manipulator of women since he tries to
show that its women who lack something or the other and not Paul; his only
excuse is the Oedipus complex whose truth value is not even proved completely.
Paul according to critics is not able to maintain a steady relationship with
any women because of his attachment to this mother. Paul also finds a father
substitute in Baxter (Clara’s husband). He finds the missing father figure in
Baxter; earlier he hated his father and even wished him to die which is an
oedipal element but in Baxter he finds a father figure as well as a friend.
Like Lacan said the boy has to love the father to overcome the complex,
Lawrence provides Paul with a father figure so in the end he is able to kill
his mother and overcome the complex.
Baxter and Mr. Morel use the same dialect and Baxter fights with Paul as
many times as Mr. Morel did. At the time Paul give an overdose of morphine to
Mrs. Morel Paul says “My love…oh my love” (p.410), the shock of seeing the
mother dead is expresses in horror and he keeps on calling her “my love” like a
lover would. Can’t a son address his mother as “love” when the mother dies? Of
course the son would express more love than he ever has. Even at funeral he
kisses her in order to wake her up like a fairytale but unfortunately realism
sets in and she doesn’t wake up. Paul is first of all in guilt and secondly a
very important part of his life has gone, it’s obvious all his emotions would
come up on surface. Ashok Celly says the killing was to free himself from the
crippling hold of mother. If he wanted to get free he would have got freed
after some time, why would he take on the sin of killing his own mother? Paul finds incomplete mother substitute in
Miriam and Clara and a father substitute in Baxter, the reunion of Mr. and Mrs.
Morel. We can say Paul overcame his Oedipus complex when his mother died but
did he really have the complex?
Is it Oedipus complex or Jocasta
complex? Or both? Paul is shown as curious about mother’s sexual life, wants to
be in the same cottage as her, man of house, and quotes her with words used by
lovers. On the other hand Mrs. Morel makes the children her emotional support,
she is anxious of her son’s girlfriends. She desires her son’s as substitute
for her husband says Doreen Dewart. Is it not okay for mother and son to love
each other without getting labeled as incestuous or sexual? Why is too much
emphasis placed on sexual aspect of a relationship rather than its aesthetic
aspect? The only Oedipal aspect of the novel is the son’s hatred towards father
and finding a father substitute in Baxter. There is no sexual desire in Paul
towards mother and calling loving names is not part of sexual behavior,
attachment to one’s mother is natural and not a part of Oedipus complex.
WORKS CITED
Celly, Ashok. Sons and Lovers edited by Ashok
Celly. Delhi: worldview publications, an imprint of Book Land Publishing
Co., 2015.
Doreen, Dewart. Jacques Lacan’s
interpretation of the Oedipus comlex and its application to the family dynamics
depicted in D.H Lawrence’s sons and
lovers.
L.H.Y., Weng, R.Q., and Guo, X.J
(2016). Paul Morel’s Oedipus complex in sons
and lovers. Studies in literature and language, 13 (1), 2016.
Salgado, Gamini. A preface to D.H Lawrence. (2000)
Sitesh,
Aruna. Women in sons and lovers. Sons and Lovers edited by Ashok Celly.
Delhi: worldview publications, an imprint of Book Land Publishing Co., 2015.
Deepali Yadav
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