Class consciousness, aspirations and the quest for upward mobility in Sons and Lovers

D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, besides having been analyzed for its complex psychological relationship and autobiographical elements, mainly stresses on a social aspect: class consciousness, social and monetary aspirations and the quest for upward mobility seemed to be very much on the minds of Lawrence and his fictional characters, much as these priorities dominate thinking in contemporary America. Lawrence’s significant parallels between characters and narrative techniques, as Helen Baron in his introduction to Sons and Lovers states,

“Powerfully intensify the characters’ consciousness of each other and of their surroundings.”(p.xv)

       Gertrude bears a strong class-consciousness in her. She had a relationship with John, a man of her same class with much property, but he betrayed her by marrying a woman of forty for property. However, she finds in Walter Morel something different that she could not find in her previously known persons; and a strong possibility of making prosperity, though he is of her lower class.

He [Walter] seemed to her noble. He risked his life daily, and with gaiety. She looked at him, with a touch of appeal in her pure humility.

But soon her dreams of upward mobility get shuttered when she finds that he is an excessively drunk, and his house is rented from his own mother. And as a result,

At last Mrs. Morel despised her husband. She turned to the child; she turned from the father. He had begun to neglect her; the novelty of his own home was gone.

Furthermore,

Now she ceased to fret for his love: he was an outsider to her. This made life much more bearable.

Toward the end of the Victorian era, even working-class mothers aimed at a higher standard of culture, achievement and social standing than that into which they were born. Mothers, like Gertrude, held their sons close to them, creating virtual images of themselves in their sons, saturating them with those values they themselves cherished, including the notion of upward mobility from humble origins.

In accordance with his mother’s desire, Paul has already been recognized as a painter who proudly declares his mother as his supreme aspiration:

"I can do my best things when you sit there in your rocking-chair, mother,"

          Gertrude also becomes so proud of her son that when “on the walls of the Castle gallery” she finds "Name--Paul Morel--First Prize", she reflects to other women of upper class,

"Yes, you look very well--but I wonder if YOUR son has two first prizes in the Castle."

          Thus, Paul’s mother grows in him a class consciousness but he is so unduly constrained by his mother's overriding dominance and they grow such a complex relationship that his relationship with Miriam deteriorated. He opts for a reversal of his prior goals of class-improvement, and attaches himself to an older woman, Clara, of purely proletarian origins. In this way, Paul's initial intent to rise in society is foiled at this stage of the novel. Indeed, there is a distinct relationship between Paul's ego of attachment to women, and his social mobility. However, after his mother’s death he again becomes conscious of his class:

“But no, he would not give in. Turning sharply, he walked towards the city's gold phosphorescence. His fists were shut, his mouth set fast.”

      Unlike the women of the time, men were trapped, in late Victorian society, frequently by their mothers, sometimes by societal constraints and, in spite of educational reform, were constantly struggling to improve their lot, yet generally failed to do so.

Gertrude’s class consciousness leads the conflict between her and her husband. When William is thirteen, Morel wishes to take William to “pit” or mine, but Gertrude has already engaged him “in the "Co-op." office”. Gertrude attacks Morel,

"If your mother put you in the pit at twelve, it's no reason why I

should do the same with my lad."

Lawrence's characters illustrate the class contradictions at the heart of modern industrial society. Capitalism pits classes against one another and even pits individuals of the same class against one another.

For example, William feverishly climbs the social ladder, only to discover that he is more alienated from his family the further up he climbs.

On his departure for ___, his mother feels,

Now he was going away. She felt almost as if he were going as well out of her heart.

His girlfriend, Lily, a pretentious and snobbish Londoner, holds herself above the working class and condescends to the Morels, treating them as "clownish" people and hicks.

These people were to her, certainly clownish--in short, the working classes. How was she to adjust herself?

Even Mrs. Morel, a former teacher, has contempt for the work of her own husband and is disgusted by his miner friends, whom she considers lowly.

"A mean, wizzen-hearted stick!" Mrs. Morel said of him.

The starkest contrast between classes, however, is illustrated in the relationship between Thomas Jordan, the capitalist factory owner, and his workers, whom he patronizes and quarrels with.

In the concluding part of our discussion, it has been evident that Lawrence shows the class conscience of the society in Sons and Lovers in the decades leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. “Lawrence’s masterpiece reflects”, as Helen Baron comments,

“the problems of transition between the agricultural past and the industrial future, between one generation and the next, and between childhood and adolescence.”