The novel Sons and Lovers demonstrates abnormally strong obsession through the description of conflicting love affairs. The novel gradually introduces an unhappy marriage which develops into the wife's possession over her sons lives. The disturbing relationship between a mother and her son is controversial and is not often discussed. Lawrence portrays in-depth problems that face families with troubled marriages. It shows the reader how a mothers search for true love in her sons can lead to a very dysfunctional life, not only for herself, but the sons and their lovers she has affected.
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Sons and Lovers starts out describing the relationship between a drunken collier, Walter Morel and his wife Gertrude, who refers to her life as being "buried alive". Since Morel and his wife do not get along, she devotes all of her time to her first son William, neglecting Walter and other children; Paul, Annie, and Arthur. When William dies young, Mrs. Morel dedicates her whole life to her second son Paul. The novel continues on with the life of Paul and his unsatisfying love affairs with Miriam and Clara due to his overbearing mother.
The main theme of this novel is Mrs. Morel's obsession with her sons, and Paul's inability to truly love and marry another woman. Gertrude is so unhappy with her marriage that she turns to her sons for love and satisfaction. When William passes away she devotes her whole life to Paul. The love between Paul and his mother, I feel is not normal and prevents Paul from ever experiencing true love. He feels that since his mother has given him so much love, no other woman will ever be able to live up to her standards. The quote, "Being sons of mothers whose husbands had blundered rather brutally through their feminine sanctities, they were themselves too diffident and shy", displays Paul's extreme difficulty in giving himself to his first lover, Miriam. .
When Gertrude becomes sick and Paul and Annie give a drug to speed-up her death, I thought Paul's issues with love were finally about to come to an end.
