Sons and Lovers Themes

Sons and Lovers Themes

Family

Hey, the book's called Sons and Lovers. So it's about family alright. Especially the weird webs of love and hate that form between people who've known each other their entire lives. Whether he's di...

Love

If there's one thing you need to know about love in this book, it's that it never shows up without its bedfellow, hate. Lawrence seems to believe that people can't feel love without feeling enmity...

Drugs and Alcohol

If you were to judge Lawrence's views on drugs and alcohol by this book alone, you'd guess that he didn't believe people could use such substances in moderation. In Sons and Lovers, Lawrence sugges...

Women and Femininity

As the title suggests, Sons and Lovers focuses primarily on sons, not daughters. Nonetheless, the book still delves deeply into questions of femininity, and how women are supposed to act. In it, La...

Men and Masculinity

Just as Lawrence delves deeply into the realm of women and femininity, he also provides us with a sneak peek into men's heads. (Read on with interest, ladies.) Sons and Lovers tells us a lot about...

Art and Culture

Paul thinks of painting as his great escape from the modern industrial world portrayed in Sons and Lovers. It's understandable, then, that his favorite thing to paint is natural landscapes. But not...

Technology and Modernization

Our cold, industrial modern world is rife with technology, from iGadgets to ATMs. But just as some older folks today feel that the technology we love is kind of evil, those people's parents and gra...

Pride

Everywhere you look in Sons and Lovers, characters are suffering from wounded pride or getting all up in arms about others' arrogance. Paul, Miriam, Mrs. Morel, Walter Morel, and Clara Dawes all ge...