The narrator uses vivid imagery in Chapter 1 to describe Gertrude Morel, pregnant with Paul, as she sits outside in her garden after Walter locks her out of their home after an argument:
The moon was high and magnificent in the August night. Mrs. Morel, seared with passion, shivered to find herself out there in a great white light, that fell cold on her, and gave a shock to her inflamed soul. She stood for a few minutes helplessly staring at the glistening great rhubarb leaves near the door. Then she got the air into her breast. She walked down the garden path, trembling in every limb, while the child boiled within her.
Note the painterly quality in the passage above, how the narrator uses descriptive language and focuses on colors as well as the quality of light, especially nature. Particular emphasis is placed on the senses, especially sight and touch. The rhubarb shines and the moonlight emits a warmth that burns Gertrude's very essence and "boils" her second son to be, Paul. These details are not meant to be taken literally and are examples of figurative language. Lawrence presents these visceral images to the reader to underscore the emotional magnitude of the moment. The physical environment reflects Mrs. Morel's inner emotional state: a mixture of anger, fear, and passion.
In Sons and Lovers, nature is a powerful force that human beings connect with and that also has the potential to mirror their internal emotional or psychological experiences. Moments later when Gertrude encounters a patch of lilies, the sight of their beauty calms and soothes her; this moment of connection to the environment relieves her suffering. This idea reflected Lawrence's philosophy at large; he believed maintaining a connection to the natural world was the healthiest and most effective way to live.
The moon, whose rays shine and shock Gertrude, symbolizes maternity and motherhood, and the image of fire, a recurring element in the novel, represents Mrs. Morel's intense love, wishes, and desires for her son Paul.
The novel uses simile and alliteration in Chapter 1 when Gertrude Morel, pregnant with her second son Paul, stands in the garden after Mr. Morel locks her out of their home:
The tall white lilies were reeling in the moonlight […] [Mrs. Morel] drank a deep draught of the scent. It almost made her dizzy. Mrs. Morel leaned on the garden gate, looking out, and she lost herself awhile. She did not know what she thought. Except for a slight feeling of sickness, and her consciousness in the child, herself melted out like scent into the shiny, pale air. After a time the child, too, melted with her in the mixing pot of moonlight, and she rested with the hills and lilies and houses, all swum together in a kind of swoon.
The heady smell of lilies has a lulling effect on Mrs. Morel, causing her to feel “dizzy” and “lost" within herself. Lawrence emphasizes this psychological transformation by using a simile to describe her consciousness, which “melts” out from her like perfume or some other smell that becomes dispersed in the air. This vivid, memorable description evokes Mrs. Morel’s dazed, dreamlike state and enlivens the reader’s imagination. The presence of the moon and moonlight—symbols associated with motherhood—also represents Mrs. Morel’s deep love for her son Paul. The moon also absorbs and reflects light, a characteristic that mirrors the cyclical nature of Paul and Mrs. Morel's relationship. This love, however, has an unhealthy side, suggested by the phrase “melted with her in the mixing pot of moonlight"; as Paul grows older, he and his mother become increasingly enmeshed, both emotionally and psychologically. Eventually the two become as close as lovers, which limits Paul's ability to form romantic relationships with other women. The destructive nature of their relationship all comes to a head at the end of the novel, when Mrs. Morel dies and Paul is forced to confront life without her. All in all, Lawrence sets up the Oedipal nature of Paul and Mrs. Morel's relationship through evocative passages like the one above.
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.
In Chapter 5, the narrator uses imagery—figurative language that engages the senses—to describe an abundant fruit stand Paul and Mrs. Morel see during a pleasant, extravagant day spent in London:
Just where the horse trams trundled across the market was a row of fruit stalls, with fruit blazing in the sun—apples and piles of reddish oranges, small green-gage plums and bananas. There was a warm scent of fruit as mother and son passed.
The "warm scent" and image of the glossy fruit shining in the sun immediately engages the senses of sight and smell and makes the story more vivid for the reader. The fruit has an earthy, sensuous quality, symbolizing fertility and abundance. Lawrence presents this image to the reader as a way to allude to the romantic nature of Mrs. Morel and Paul's relationship.
The enticing sights and sounds Mrs. Morel and Paul experience in London differ greatly from those found back in their small mining village. London is a bustling city of industry where greater opportunities for employment abound, perfectly encapsulated in the image of tantalizing market fruit. At the same time, though cities like London and Nottinghamshire, where Paul goes to work at a factory, offer greater pay and access to luxuries, the novel makes clear that modern industrial life comes with a cost.
The narrator uses vivid imagery and a simile in Chapter 5 to describe Paul's long commute from the city to The Bottoms, the mining community where he lives:
Occasionally the black valley space between was traced, violated by a great train rushing south to London or north to Scotland. The trains roared by like projectiles level on the darkness, fuming and burning, making the valley clang with their passage. They were gone, and the lights of the towns and villages glittered in silence.
Lawrence focuses on two senses in particular, sight and sound, to leave a striking impression on the reader. Note how Lawrence presents the two senses; the passage opens with the image of a dark landscape interrupted by the sound of an approaching train. Instead of describing the train using visual details, the narrator focuses on the sounds the train makes. Through the unusual turn of phrase "glittered in silence," Lawrence juxtaposes light and sound in a compelling way to capture the reader's imagination. The train is a loud, intense presence that disrupts the dark, still valley; words like "violated," "fuming," and "burning" make the trains seem like intrusive forces that harm the surrounding landscape, and the narrator even goes so far as to compare them directly to dangerous "projectiles."
Lawrence presents this powerful image to the reader in order to express how rural life is disrupted by the forces of industrialization. As reflected in the events of the novel, the late 1800s was a time of immense economic innovation and transformation, ushering in a new era of human life. However, the modern lifestyle was not without its difficulties, and Lawrence's use of figurative language reflects a deeper fear of industrialization and how that process transformed social and economic life in rural areas.
In Chapter 10, the narrator uses vivid imagery, or descriptive language that activates the senses, to describe Gertrude Morel's hands:
They, too, were work-gnarled now. The skin was shiny with so much hot water, the knuckles rather swollen. But she began to be careful to keep them out of soda. She regretted what they had been—so small and exquisite.
In the passage above, the narrator offers descriptive details of Mrs. Morel's hands to the reader, paying particular attention to their texture and color. Lawrence lingers on these details to emphasize the physical toll life has had on Mrs. Morel. Wounded and swollen, her hands are evidence of the difficult life she's had to endure. The condition of Mrs. Morel's hands reflects the general realities of Britain's rural poor at that time, especially its women. Life for members of mining communities like the Morels was harsh; they had to rely on nature and natural process like mining to survive. As a result, they had a direct relationship with the land, which produced pollution and ugliness as well as beauty and serenity. In the passage above, Lawrence provides an example of this ugliness, expressed in the image of Mrs. Morel's worn hands.
