Sons and Lovers Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 72 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Sons and Lovers.

Sons and Lovers Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 72 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Sons and Lovers.
This section contains 593 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Sons and Lovers Study Guide

Free Will

Lawrence addresses the issue of free will in his novel, asking to what extent his characters' environment influences their characters' choices. Lawrence makes this explicit in his descriptions. For example, when Paul begins to look in the newspapers for work, the narrator writes, "Already he was a prisoner of industrialism . . . He was being taken into bondage. His freedom in the beloved home valley was going now." The modern industrial world, specifically as it manifests itself in the effect mining culture has on the Morel family, shapes the characters' desires. Mrs. Morel, who believes she is morally better than the miners, is disgusted by what mining has made of her husband, and she pushes her children away from that work. She finds jobs for both Paul and William so that they will lead better lives than their father. The sons have difficulty making choices of their own. They...

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This section contains 593 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Sons and Lovers Study Guide
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Sons and Lovers from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.