D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers: A Study of Abortive Love Affairs

This article analyzes the theme of love gone wrong in D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. It focuses on Paul Morel’s entangled relationships with three women: Miriam Leivers, Clara Dawes, and his mother, Gertrude Morel. With Freudian theory and close reading of the novel, this writing illustrates how emotional dependence, inner struggle, and the Oedipus complex prevent Paul from having successful love affairs. All of these experiences—spiritual, bodily, and maternal—are manifestations of different forms of love, yet none of them makes him happier for longer than his sorrow over having loved somebody so lavishly. Lastly, the article exposes that Paul’s doomed affair out of love unveils inherent deficiencies in his sense of self, independence, and emotional maturity.