In Chapter 1, the narrator uses a simile when introducing the landscape and inhabitants of Nottinghamshire County, where the majority of the novel takes place:
All over the countryside were these same pits, some of which had been worked in the time of Charles II, the few colliers and the donkeys burrowing down like ants into the earth.
The narrator compares the colliers—or miners—to ants burrowing into the ground, an example of simile. This surprising association importantly introduces the novel's setting to the reader in an evocative way. Ants typically symbolize industriousness and cooperative effort. Mining is an extremely dangerous profession, and like ants in the ground, miners must work together seamlessly in order to make it through their workdays and survive. This striking visual image sparks the reader's imagination and creatively describes what living and working in the mines is like, a reality most readers were not likely to be familiar with. In using this simile, Lawrence also suggests human beings aren't separate from the natural world but are instead extensions of it, an idea he explores all throughout Sons and Lovers.
The narrator also makes an allusion to Charles II, who was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1649 to 1651. The novel takes place in the late 19th century, and so the time of Charles II would have been in the distant past. In referencing Charles II, Lawrence makes it clear that the pits of the mine have existed for a very long time. The narrator's description of The Bottoms is also in keeping with the novel's authoritative tone, as the narrator occasionally makes omniscient statements and provides commentary throughout the novel.
Blood is a recurring element, or motif, in Sons and Lovers. Blood first appears in the novel in Chapter 2, after Walter Morel flings a dresser drawer at Mrs. Morel and wounds her brow:
As [Gertrude] glanced down at the child, her brain reeling, some drops of blood soaked into its white shawl; but the baby was at least not hurt. She balanced her head to keep equilibrium, so that the blood ran into her eye.
Note the colors in the passage, particularly the white of the shawl in contrast with the red drops of blood. Blood in literature usually symbolizes danger, violent passion, or impurity. The white shawl covering William symbolizes innocence; the drops of blood staining Gertrude's shawl represents the corruption of said innocence. Lawrence uses this striking image and contrast of colors (red vs. white) to emphasize how horrific and irrevocable Walter's violence is. This violence towards Gertrude causes a profound rift between the wife and husband, a conflict that leads to divisions within the family. As Walter grows increasingly violent towards Gertrude, his children become increasingly estranged from him, aligning and identifying with their mother Gertrude instead of their father. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear to the reader that these complex dynamics have a negative psychological impact on the members of the Morel family, the Oeidipal nature of the relationship between Paul and his mother being one.
As the passage progresses, Lawrence lingers on the image of Gertrude's blood on William's shawl, underscoring its significance of blood yet again for the reader:
[Walter] saw a drop of blood fall from the averted wound into the baby’s fragile, glistening hair. Fascinated, he watched the heavy dark drop hang in the glistening cloud, and pull down the gossamer.
Lawrence uses the image of blood and an implicit metaphor to emphasize the grotesque nature of Mrs. Morel's injury. The narrator emphasizes the color and visual quality of the blood and compares the shawl to a bright, white cloud to leave a dramatic impression on the reader. This heightens the emotional intensity and horror of the moment.
In Chapter 4, the motif of blood appears again as the narrator describes the Morel children's fear of their father:
There was a feeling of horror, a kind of bristling in the darkness, and a sense of blood. They lay with their hearts in the grip of an intense anguish. [...] And then came the horror of the sudden silence, silence everywhere, outside and downstairs. What was it? Was it a silence of blood? What had he done?
In the above passage, blood represents the fear the Morel children feel in anticipation of their father's violence. Lawrence emphasizes the chaotic nature of the Morel household through vivid visual and auditory imagery, presenting it as a physical a force that takes over the entire home.
Blood also has religious connotations. Later in Chapter 4, for example, Paul witnesses a lunar eclipse after his parents fight and thinks of blood:
Paul never forgot, after one of these fierce internecine fights, seeing a big red moon life itself up, slowly, between the waste road over the hilltop, steadily, like a great bird. And he thought of the Bible, that the moon should be turned to blood.
The blood moon, another name for a lunar eclipse, alludes to the red moon referenced multiple times throughout the Bible. In the Bible, the blood moon represents a spiritual prophecy, an omen portending death. In making this allusion, Lawrence makes a connection between this omen to the violence in the Morel home.
In Chapter 2, the novel uses allusion, imagery, and personification to describe the landscape as Gertrude Morel, holding her second son Paul in her arms, watches the sun go down:
Every open evening, the hills of Derbyshire were blazed over with red sunset. Mrs. Morel watched the sun sink from the glistening sky, leaving a soft flower-blue overhead, while the western space went red, as if all the fire had swum down there, leaving the bell cast flawless blue. The mountain-ash berries across the field stood fierily out from the dark leaves, for a moment. A few shocks of corn in a corner of the fallow stood up as if alive; she imagined them bowing; perhaps her son would be a Joseph. In the east, a mirrored sunset floated pink opposite the west’s scarlet.
Note how full the above passage is of figurative language, as well as vivid descriptive details. The narrator describes the image of the sun setting over the hills in painterly terms, with attention paid to light, shadow, and color. The landscape transforms underneath the warmth and light of the sun. Lawrence, who believed nature played a pivotal role in shaping the lives of human beings, includes these descriptions to underscore’s the landscape’s significance, particularly as it relates to Mrs. Morel. The sun’s light and warmth make her feel hopeful and offer a moment of relief from her unhappiness.
Significantly, the narrator also gives the corn in the field human-like attributes, describing them as if they were human figures bowing in respect. This instance of personification also happens to be an allusion, or reference, to Genesis 37:5-10 in the Bible, in which the future patriarch Joseph has a prophetic dream of eleven bundles of grain bowing down to him, representing his supremacy over his brothers. This dramatic image creates a sense of spirituality and awe. Moreover, in comparing Paul to Joseph, the novel characterizes Paul as unique and special, which reflects how Mrs. Morel feels about him. This belief in Paul’s “specialness” causes her to form an especially close bond with him; this means that later, when Paul starts to develop relationships of his own, Mrs. Morel becomes jealous and possessive.
Blood is a recurring element, or motif, in Sons and Lovers. Blood first appears in the novel in Chapter 2, after Walter Morel flings a dresser drawer at Mrs. Morel and wounds her brow:
As [Gertrude] glanced down at the child, her brain reeling, some drops of blood soaked into its white shawl; but the baby was at least not hurt. She balanced her head to keep equilibrium, so that the blood ran into her eye.
Note the colors in the passage, particularly the white of the shawl in contrast with the red drops of blood. Blood in literature usually symbolizes danger, violent passion, or impurity. The white shawl covering William symbolizes innocence; the drops of blood staining Gertrude's shawl represents the corruption of said innocence. Lawrence uses this striking image and contrast of colors (red vs. white) to emphasize how horrific and irrevocable Walter's violence is. This violence towards Gertrude causes a profound rift between the wife and husband, a conflict that leads to divisions within the family. As Walter grows increasingly violent towards Gertrude, his children become increasingly estranged from him, aligning and identifying with their mother Gertrude instead of their father. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear to the reader that these complex dynamics have a negative psychological impact on the members of the Morel family, the Oeidipal nature of the relationship between Paul and his mother being one.
As the passage progresses, Lawrence lingers on the image of Gertrude's blood on William's shawl, underscoring its significance of blood yet again for the reader:
[Walter] saw a drop of blood fall from the averted wound into the baby’s fragile, glistening hair. Fascinated, he watched the heavy dark drop hang in the glistening cloud, and pull down the gossamer.
Lawrence uses the image of blood and an implicit metaphor to emphasize the grotesque nature of Mrs. Morel's injury. The narrator emphasizes the color and visual quality of the blood and compares the shawl to a bright, white cloud to leave a dramatic impression on the reader. This heightens the emotional intensity and horror of the moment.
In Chapter 4, the motif of blood appears again as the narrator describes the Morel children's fear of their father:
There was a feeling of horror, a kind of bristling in the darkness, and a sense of blood. They lay with their hearts in the grip of an intense anguish. [...] And then came the horror of the sudden silence, silence everywhere, outside and downstairs. What was it? Was it a silence of blood? What had he done?
In the above passage, blood represents the fear the Morel children feel in anticipation of their father's violence. Lawrence emphasizes the chaotic nature of the Morel household through vivid visual and auditory imagery, presenting it as a physical a force that takes over the entire home.
Blood also has religious connotations. Later in Chapter 4, for example, Paul witnesses a lunar eclipse after his parents fight and thinks of blood:
Paul never forgot, after one of these fierce internecine fights, seeing a big red moon life itself up, slowly, between the waste road over the hilltop, steadily, like a great bird. And he thought of the Bible, that the moon should be turned to blood.
The blood moon, another name for a lunar eclipse, alludes to the red moon referenced multiple times throughout the Bible. In the Bible, the blood moon represents a spiritual prophecy, an omen portending death. In making this allusion, Lawrence makes a connection between this omen to the violence in the Morel home.
In Chapter 5, the narrator alludes to the famous Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo when describing Paul Morel's skill for painting:
He loved to paint large figures, full of light, but not merely made up of lights and cast shadows, like the impressionists; rather definite figures that had a certain luminous quality, like some of Michael Angelo’s people.
Michael Angelo is another name for Michelangelo, the famous artist of the Renaissance period. In many ways Michelangelo is the archetype of the "Renaissance man," a person who has remarkable skills in multiple areas of knowledge. In comparing Paul's drawn figures to Michelangelo's "people," Lawrence finds a unique way to describe Paul's particular style of painting to the reader while also emphasizing his talents.
Paul wins multiple prizes for his work, which becomes a source of great pride for his mother; his specialness makes her feel successful. In Chapter 8, when Mrs. Morel sees Paul's First Prize painting displayed in a gallery, she feels like "a proud woman" and thinks:
When she met well-dressed ladies going home to the Park, she thought to herself:
Yes, you look very well—but I wonder if your son has two first prizes in the Castle.
And she walked on, as proud a little woman as any in Nottingham. And Paul felt he had done something for her, if only a trifle. All his work was hers.
Mrs. Morel identifies deeply with Paul's accomplishments, a reflection of the two's closeness. Although she is equally intelligent and sensitive, Mrs. Morel's gender limits her ability to express these traits. Living in rural 19th century England, she is confined to a life of hardship, caring for her many children and alcoholic husband. As a result, Mrs. Morel pours all of her energy into her sons, practically living through them. Lawrence explores the nature of Mrs. Morel and Paul's relationship by using figurative language like the allusion above, which paints a vivid image in the reader's mind and allows them to imagine Paul's painting, and its impact on his mother, more clearly.
In Chapter 5, the narrator makes an allusion to King Charles I to describe the sense of anticipation Paul Morel feels on his first day of work at the factory in Nottingham:
There were several doors, and two flights of steps. Straight in front, on a dirty glass door at the top of the staircase, loomed the ominous words "Thomas Jordan and Son—Surgical Appliances. [...] Charles I mounted his scaffold with a lighter heart than had Paul Morel as he followed his mother up the dirty steps to the dirty floor.
First the narrator describes the sight of the office, which significantly "looms," a word that suggests something frightening or ominous. The narrator next compares Paul to Charles I, who was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland until his execution in 1669. Lawrence's audience would have been familiar with Charles I, who was an important figure in English history. In comparing Paul to Charles I, the narrator implies Paul feels more fearful before the moment of his interview than Charles I did the moment before his death—a comparison that would bring Paul's intense emotions home to readers.
Paul's first day at work is a significant milestone. Instead of working in the mines like his father, he follows in his eldest brother William's footsteps and works in the city. However, modern life in the city isn't all that it's cracked up to be; William becomes overworked and unhappy as he tries to keep up with his fiancé's expensive lifestyle, and in the end falls seriously ill and dies.
Lawrence believed industrial life cut human beings off from nature and that modernity confined and restricted human beings. Lawrence explores these ideas all throughout Sons and Lovers, using descriptive and figurative language to draw the reader in and challenge their perspective about the desirability of modern, industrialized life.
Chapter 5 closes with a simile that makes an allusion, or reference, to the Arabian Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales:
[Paul's] life story, like an Arabian Nights, was told night after night to his mother. It was almost as if it were her own life.
Arabian Nights is another name for One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales. In the frame narrative of Arabian Nights, Scheherazade, married to the jealous King Shahriyar, must tell him a story every night to delay her execution. The narrator sets up this passage by describing Paul's journey home from Nottingham where he works all day at the factory. When he arrives, Paul's mother greets him with "gladness" and he then relays the events of his day. In comparing Paul to Scheherazade, Lawrence emphasizes the romantic nature of Paul and his mother's relationship, all in all suggesting that the pair act more like lovers than mother and son. By using literary allusions that his readership would have been familiar with, Lawrence is able to suggest the sexual overtones of Paul's and Mrs. Morel's relationship without too directly addressing such controversial theories as Freud's concept of the Oedipal complex, a major interest of Lawrence's that's constantly in the background of the novel.
Sons and Lovers is full of allusions, or references, to the Bible. The Bible is particularly associated with Paul and Miriam. Paul is associated with Saint Paul, the Christian apostle who spread the teachings of Jesus. When Paul is a baby, Mrs. Morel lifts him up to show him the sun, an image that parallels Saint Paul's revelation on the way to Damascus, when he is temporarily struck blind and receives a revelation from God. In Chapter 7, the narrator describes Mrs. Leivers and their children as "almost [Paul's] disciples."
In the same chapter, the narrator introduces Miriam to the reader and portrays her as serious, intellectual, and religious:
Her face scarcely ever altered from its look of brooding. She might have been one of the women who went with Mary when Jesus was dead.
The narrator, in referencing the "women who went with Mary" is a reference to the three Marys present at the crucifixion of Jesus: Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Clopas. Lawrence makes this Biblical allusion to draw out Miriam's religious, sacrificial nature. This continues throughout Chapter 7. Later, the novel makes an allusion to the Garden of Eden to describe Miriam as she she grapples with her growing romantic and sexual feelings for Paul:
There was a serpent in her Eden. She searched earnestly in herself to see if she wanted Paul Morel. She felt there would be some disgrace in it. Full of twisted feeling, she was afraid she did want him. She stood self-convicted. Then came an agony of new shame. She shrank within herself in a coil of torture. Did she want Paul Morel, and did he know she wanted him? What a subtle infamy upon her. She felt as if her whole soul coiled into knots of shame.
In the Bible a serpent tempts Adam and Eve to eat fruit from a tree in the Garden of Eden, despite the fact that God has explicitly forbidden them to eat from it. The tree is not just any ordinary tree, but a tree containing knowledge of all good and evil. The act of eating the forbidden fruit represents a fall from a state of innocence to one of disobedience and guilt. Similarly, Miriam's feelings of attraction towards Paul cause her to feel ashamed and conflicted, and like Adam and Eve encountering the serpent, she feels tempted. Part of her wants to give in to her feelings towards Paul, while another stifles her need for physical expression.
The allusion also reflects Miriam's extremely religious worldview, which was common in those times. Christianity was an important aspect of day-to-day life, and Lawrence reflects this in the lives of the novel's characters. Christian beliefs about temptation and sin prevent characters from expressing their physical urges and desires. Lawrence, however, believed the physical, sensual world was an expression of the divine and an aspect of human spirituality. When characters refuse to express their urges, they feel confused, pained, and ashamed, and Lawrence makes Biblical allusions to explore that intersection of sexuality, guilt, and faith.
In Chapter 7, the narrator uses hyperbole and makes an allusion, or reference, to the Scottish novelist, poet, and playwright Walter Scott when introducing Miriam Leivers, the farmer's daughter who becomes Paul's love interest, to the reader:
The girl was romantic in her soul. Everywhere was a Walter Scott heroine being loved by men with helmets or with plumes in their caps.
Miriam, of course, does not literally see "Walter Scott" characters everywhere. Lawrence exaggerates—an example of hyperbole—for comedic effect. Walter Scott was a Scottish novelist who penned romantic adventure tales, notably Ivanhoe, a novel that popularized romance narratives and featured medieval heroes and heroines. Readers of Lawrence's novel would have likely been familiar with Scott's novels. Lawrence makes this reference intentionally to reflect Miriam's sensibility; Miriam, passionate and fragile, sees herself as a heroine from a book, a desperate girl in need of a chivalrous hero to save her.
Miriam's dreamy sense of self complicates her and Paul's relationship, especially once it turns romantic. Although both she and Paul share an interest in books, art, and religion, Miriam is physically self-conscious while Paul expresses himself freely. Miriam is more comfortable with an idealized, storybook version of romance, one that exists in her mind, rather than real-life physical romance, which frightens her. In the novel, Miriam admires Paul's sensuality but her spiritual beliefs and cerebral personality prevent her from exploring her physical urges. All in all, Lawrence suggests Miriam's sexual naiveté to the reader through evocative passages like this one.
In Chapter 7, the narrator makes an allusion to "The King and the Beggar-maid," a famous 16th century ballad:
Miriam seemed as in some dreamy tale, a maiden in bondage, her spirit dreaming in a land far away and magical. And her discoloured, old blue frock and her broken boots seemed only like the romantic rags of King Cophetua beggar-maid.
In the above passage, the narrator compares Miriam's faded blue dress and worn boots to the rags of "King Cophuetua's beggar-maid." The ballad alluded to relays the tale of King Cophueta, an Ethiopian king who falls in love with a young woman he sees begging on the streets. The king decides to marry the beggar-maid and she becomes queen.
Lawrence makes this allusion to say something about Miriam's personality. Miriam hates her life of manual labor and fantasizes about a hero who will swoop down to "save" her from her frustrating life on the farm. Miriam has romantic visions of her life and, like the story of the beggar-maid, wants to be a heroine "whisked away" by a savior like the King. Lawrence explicitly makes this reference in Sons and Lovers to stress Miriam's tendency to be self-pitying and idealistic.
Miriam's starry-eyed worldview, as well as her pious manner, is a byproduct of social attitudes of the time, particularly in regards to relations between the genders. Most women were discouraged from pursuing education or work outside of the home, and as a result had to rely on the men in their lives for their basic needs. Moreover, women were expected to live and find meaning through men, often prioritizing the lives of their male children, lovers, and spouses rather than their own. Although Lawrence's use of allusion in the above passage has a humorous tone, it reveals the limitations placed on women like Miriam.
In Chapter 7, the narrator makes multiple allusions to literary characters to introduce Miriam to the reader:
To Miriam, Christ and God made one great figure, which she loved tremblingly and passionately when a tremendous sunset burned out the western sky, and Ediths, and Lucys, and Rowenas, Brian de Bois Guilberts, Rob Roys, and Guy Mannerings, rustled the sunny leaves in the morning, or sat in her bedroom aloft, alone, when it snowed.
The narrator first describes Miriam's religious and sensitive disposition; she thinks of "Christ and God," whom she feels great reverence towards. The narrator then makes multiple allusions, or references, to heroes and heroines of various romantic stories and novels. The list of names are all characters Lawrence's original audience would have likely been aware of. Lawrence uses this allusion to emphasize Miriam's tendency to romanticize life around her. Miriam constantly daydreams and feels more comfortable expressing herself through stories, words, and ideas.
Miriam's religiosity also informs her terror of all things sensual, which prevents her from fully actualizing her relationship with Paul. She struggles to express her sexuality, which she fears and finds shameful. Miriam prefers intimacy through conversation, while Paul, who identifies with his body as well as his mind, prefers intimacy through physical connection. Paul feels a "soul" connection to Miriam due to their shared love of art, literature, and ideas, but finds something is missing between them due to a lack of physical connection. Physical love, for Paul, engenders spiritual feelings of connection and relief, which he feels with Clara and not Miriam. This reflects Lawrence's own philosophy, which included the belief that sexuality and physical expression were part of the divine. All in all, Lawrence draws out the tension between the mind and body through playful and descriptive passages like the one above.
In Chapter 5, the narrator alludes to the famous Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo when describing Paul Morel's skill for painting:
He loved to paint large figures, full of light, but not merely made up of lights and cast shadows, like the impressionists; rather definite figures that had a certain luminous quality, like some of Michael Angelo’s people.
Michael Angelo is another name for Michelangelo, the famous artist of the Renaissance period. In many ways Michelangelo is the archetype of the "Renaissance man," a person who has remarkable skills in multiple areas of knowledge. In comparing Paul's drawn figures to Michelangelo's "people," Lawrence finds a unique way to describe Paul's particular style of painting to the reader while also emphasizing his talents.
Paul wins multiple prizes for his work, which becomes a source of great pride for his mother; his specialness makes her feel successful. In Chapter 8, when Mrs. Morel sees Paul's First Prize painting displayed in a gallery, she feels like "a proud woman" and thinks:
When she met well-dressed ladies going home to the Park, she thought to herself:
Yes, you look very well—but I wonder if your son has two first prizes in the Castle.
And she walked on, as proud a little woman as any in Nottingham. And Paul felt he had done something for her, if only a trifle. All his work was hers.
Mrs. Morel identifies deeply with Paul's accomplishments, a reflection of the two's closeness. Although she is equally intelligent and sensitive, Mrs. Morel's gender limits her ability to express these traits. Living in rural 19th century England, she is confined to a life of hardship, caring for her many children and alcoholic husband. As a result, Mrs. Morel pours all of her energy into her sons, practically living through them. Lawrence explores the nature of Mrs. Morel and Paul's relationship by using figurative language like the allusion above, which paints a vivid image in the reader's mind and allows them to imagine Paul's painting, and its impact on his mother, more clearly.
