Students
Teachers & SchoolsStudents
Teachers & SchoolsWomen 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, Lawrence provides us with different models of what a woman can be like, from the battle-hardened Mrs. Morel to the spiritual and somewhat naïve Miriam. What many of these models boil down to, though, is the (then?) timely conflict over whether or not to be submissive to a man.
In Lawrence's view, the greatest enemies of women are often other women.
Sons and Lovers is a sexist book because it presents a negative view of Clara Dawes' feminist politics, and a positive view of Miriam's submissiveness to men.