How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She was puritan, like her father, high-minded, and really stern. Therefore the dusky, golden softness of this man's sensuous flame of life, that flowed off his flesh like the flame from a candle, not baffled and gripped into incandescence by thought and spirit as her life was, seemed something wonderful, beyond her. (1.82)
When she first sees Walter Morel, Gertrude (Mrs. Morel) is totally swept off her feet. Walter is the total opposite of what she expects from a man. While her life has mostly been reserved and intellectual, Walter loves to dance and laugh without any kind of restraint. Unfortunately, this love of a good time will eventually be Walter's (and Gertrude's) undoing. Dun dun dunnn.
Quote #2
Whereupon he got up and went out of the house, returning presently and crossing the kitchen with averted face, hurrying upstairs. As Mrs. Morel saw him slink quickly through the inner doorway, holding his bundle, she laughed to herself: but her heart was bitter, because she had loved him. (2.247)
After Walter makes an empty threat to leave Mrs. Morel forever, he comes back into the house and slinks shamefully upstairs. Mrs. Morel can only laugh at his clumsiness. But the moment is actually super sad, because Mrs. Morel realizes that she no longer loves her husband. She still has vivid memories of loving him, though, and it makes her bitter to think of how far their relationship has fallen.
Quote #3
Nevertheless, there was a state of peace in the house for some time. Mrs. Morel was more tolerant of him, and he, depending on her almost like a child, was rather happy. Neither knew that she was more tolerant of him because she loved him less. (3.14)
As time passes, Mrs. Morel builds up a friendly tolerance for her husband. Sadly, she can only tolerate him because she no longer expects much from him. And the fact that Walter doesn't notice her dwindling love for him spells doom for the relationship. The truly tragic part is that these two people will still live another couple of decades sleeping next to one another every night, and never say a word about their misery.
Quote #4
They called the baby Arthur. He was very pretty, with a mop of gold curls, and he loved his father from the first. Mrs. Morel was glad this child loved the father. Hearing the miner's footsteps, the baby would put up his arms and crow. (3.21)
Unlike every other person in the Morel family, Arthur loves his Walter. Over time, Arthur will see Walter for what he is and start hating him, too. But at this early stage, we have an example of the unconditional and irrational love that children possess for their parents. As Lawrence shows us, though, while love might be unconditional at first, it has to be earned if a person plans to keep it for the long haul.
Quote #5
Again rose in her heart the old, almost weary feeling towards him. She had never expected him to live. And yet he had a great vitality in his young body. Perhaps it would have been a little relief to her if he had died. She always felt a mixture of anguish in her love for him. (4.114)
Mrs. Morel loves her son Paul very much, but she also experiences a slight regret at the fact that he survived his sickly childhood—if he hadn't, that'd have been one less mouth to feed in the Morel home. In this passage, then, Lawrence is showing us that even motherly love can be very complicated and contradictory… no matter how straightforward we think it's supposed to be.
Quote #6
"Pretty!" she said, in a curious tone, of a woman accepting a love-token. (4.149)
When Paul gives his mother a flower, Lawrence decides to compare the two of them to lovers. It might be easy to just glide by a little statement like this, but the truth is that Lawrence is getting at something very profound (and possibly creepy) here. He's asking every one of us: how deep does the love between a parent and child go? How deep should it go? We might think that there should be no limit to how much a parent can love their child, but lines like this suggest that there must, in fact, be some limits.
Quote #7
The mother and son walked down Station Street, feeling the excitement of lovers having an adventure together. (5.92)
If Lawrence only compared Paul and Mrs. Morel to lovers one time, we could write it off as a clumsy oversight. But when Lawrence does this sort of thing over and over, we have no choice as readers but to accept the fact that he is obviously trying to make a deeper point. We think the point is: maybe mothers and sons can sometimes be too close.
Quote #8
Paul looked into Miriam's eyes. She was pale and expectant with wonder, her lips were parted, and her dark eyes lay open to him. His look seemed to travel down into her. Her soul quivered. It was the communion she wanted. He turned aside, as if pained. (7.244)
Paul loves Miriam, and Miriam loves Paul. There's no doubt about that. The problem is that Paul wants to love Miriam while remaining his own man, while Miriam wants the two of them to basically merge into a single person. And Paul's mother has taught him that he must be independent to achieve great things in the world. Conundrum.
Quote #9
She felt she could bear anything for him; she would suffer for him. She put her hand on his knee as he leaned forward in his chair. He took it and kissed it; but it hurt to do so. He felt he was putting himself aside. He sat there sacrificed to her purity, which felt more like nullity. (11.2)
Paul and Miriam face the same basic conflict over and over again. Miriam wants to merge with Paul and form a single union, while Paul can't help but withdraw from this kind of intensity. He also hates the fact that Miriam wants to be so passive in their relationship. He wants her to show some sort of initiative, to step up and claim him as her own. But she'll never do this. She wants to sacrifice herself to him, because that feeling of sacrifice is what makes her feel like she's better than other people. This is a pretty sticky bind, folks. No wonder they never unravel it.
Quote #10
If she could rise, take him, put her arms round him, and say, "You are mine," then he would leave himself to her. But dare she? She could easily sacrifice herself. But dare she assert herself? She was aware of his dark-clothed, slender body, that seemed one stroke of life, sprawled in the chair close to her. But no; she dared not put her arms round it. (15.126)
At the end of the novel, Lawrence tells us in plain English what he's been dancing around throughout the entire text of Sons and Lovers. Paul wants Miriam to step up and claim him, but Miriam wants Paul to step up and claim her. Ultimately, it's these two characters' stubbornness that keeps them apart.