Lawrence's Mother example essay topic

'Last Words to Miriam' - An Interpretation Submitted By: Jeet Kumar Gupta 2001115 D.H. Lawrence's Son's and Lover's is a study of human relationships. Gertrude Morel, because of her turbulent and odd relationship with her husband, ends up developing deep emotional relations with her two eldest sons'. The second eldest in particular, Paul, is the receiver of most of this deep emotion. Because of these feelings and the deeper-than-usual emotional bond between the two, Paul has difficulty being comfortable in his own relationships. Paul's relationship with Miriam is plagued by his mother's disapproval, jealousy, and Miriam's own spirituality.

Paul's relationship with Miriam is one where the love is not allowed to flourish. Although there is no doubt that there is love between the two, the forces around them create tension that suppresses it. Miriam believes herself not nearly as beautiful as she really is. Because of this she is always looking for things to love her. In the case of Paul she believes that if Paul was to need her, if she could take care of him, 'if he could depend on her, if she could, as it were, have him in her arms, how she would love him. ' However, this is never allowed to happen.

Paul's mother Gertrude already occupies this space in his life. Thus the relationship between the two is a struggle for an identity. The relationship is a struggle between Paul and his mother and Paul and Miriam. The main conflicts between Paul and Miriam are between physical-spiritual differences and his mother. We have already discussed direct interpretations for this poem in class. I would like to present here an alternate interpretation for this poem.

Miriam - Virgin Mary. For Catholics, the figure of Mary represents purity, submission to the will of God, perfected femininity, the Church, ideal motherhood, and the new Eve. ' Last words to Miriam' can be looked upon as the last words that Lawrence has to say to his mother. Dissolution of images is a psychological phenomenon which we encounter in our everyday lives. We have instant liking or disliking for a person because we associate that person with someone who we already know.

Lawrence has the image of his mother dissolved with the image of Miriam as he is writing this poem. Yours is the sullen sorrow, The disgrace is also mine; Your love was intense and thorough, Mine was the love of a growing flower For the sunshine. Lawrence's Mother has a very bad relationship with his father. The dark sorrow is the sorrow that his mother is in all through her life being married to his father. Lawrence hates his father and it's a disgrace for him to be called his child. His mother's love was deep and Lawrence needs his mother's love like a flower needs sunshine to grow.

You had the power to explore me, Blossom me stalk by stalk; You woke my spirit, you bore me To consciousness, you gave me the dour Awareness - then I suffered a balk. Lawrence has great influence of his mother in his writing. He acknowledges the fact that his mother helps his creativity reach new heights. 'You woke my spirit' - She is the one with whom he wants to explore his spiritual being. But, then he realizes that how much his mother affects his life and because of her he is not being able to live his own life. The pause after Awareness is to signify a time period.

The awareness is not of a moment but it's a prolonged awareness. Lawrence has been living in a nutshell all his life, then the shell breaks open and he realizes all what he has been living with all his life. Body to body I could not Love you, although I would. We kissed, we kissed though we should not. Paul imagines that he and his mother will live together when he is old enough to earn money by himself and when his father has died. Paul loves his mother so much that he wants to be with her and spend all of his time with her.

To live with his mother by himself is his greatest desire. This is the place when he displays his oedipal feelings. Lawrence believes that a relationship is not complete till it is emotionally as well as physically complete. He believed that physical intimacy with the person you love is the way by which Nirvana could be attained. Lawrence says that he could not have physical intimacy with his mother but that was the only way through which their relationship could be complete. Every time he kisses his mother his oedipal feelings become stronger and he is stuck in a dilemma owing to the social norms.

We find reference to this in the novel when Paul kisses his mother on the neck. You yielded, we threw the last cast, And it was no good. You only endured, and it broke My craftsman's nerve. Here Lawrence is talking about his breaking away with Miriam because of his mother. She never liked Miriam and was jealous of her. Lawrence refers to Miriam as his craftsman's nerve because of the inspiration that she gave him to write.

You (his mother) yielded, we (Paul and Miriam) threw the last cast. You (his mother) only endured and it broke my craftsman's nerve (Miriam). He says that his mother was the reason because of which he gave his relationship with Miriam the last test. The relationship could not pass the test and everything shattered to pieces. No flesh responded to my stroke; So I failed to give you the last Fine torture you did deserve. Paul has begun to realize how much his mother affects his life.

Her deep love for him has made her a part of himself that when he wants to break free from his mother, he is unable to get away from her. His mother is ingrained into his very soul. As much as Paul wants his mother to be with him, he decides that he cannot follow his mother. Even her spirit will guide him if he allows it to but he decides to break away from her. He knows he must separate himself from her to become a man of his own instinct and will. Lawrence realizes all this in the end and is accusing his mother for making him the man he has become and for all the pain, suffering and agony he has caused to Miriam.

He is unable to cause any torture to his mother because of all the love he has for her. His hands will not allow him to hurt his mother even if he wanted to. Another interpretation to these lines could be from the time when his mother is ill from a tumor. Lawrence strokes her hair but there is no response from her. You are shapely, you are adorned But opaque and null in the flesh; Who, had I but pierced with the thornedFull anguish, perhaps had been cast In a lovely illumined mesh Lawrence is physically attracted to his mother. He says that even though she is beautiful and attractive, still her body is opaque, he can't see through her body to find the fullness of his being.

Illumination here refers to the enlightenment of the soul. Even though there is a way to attain enlightenment through her, but the way to realization goes through her body. Like a painted window; the best Fire passed through your flesh, Undressed it, and left it blest In clean new awareness. But now Who shall take you afresh? Fire is the symbol of passion and knowledge. Fire is a purifier.

A painted window is opaque, one cannot look through it. Lawrence believed that the only way they could attain the fullness of their being was by resorting to physical means. This was impossible because of the taboo of incest that society has coined. But now when her husband and elder son were gone, there is no one except Paul who can help her attain Nirvana. But the only way of doing so being blocked, there remains no way. Lawrence questions that how and with whom will his mother now realize and release herself.

Now who will burn you free From your body's deadness and dross? Since the fire has failed in me, What man will stoop in your flesh to plough The shrieking cross?' Burn you free'. Ashes are a symbol of end. But here they mean the end of a being in his material body and his soul being absorbed by the soul of all souls. Like a phoenix rises from its ashes, a being rises after he becomes absorbed into another being. Burning free here does not refer to death.

We get this clue from the fact that Christians don't burn the dead, they bury them. Lawrence tells his mother that there is no one who could free her from the cycle of life and death. There was no one who could help her free her bonds. Lawrence believed in monogamy. He uses the word 'stoop' for the act of some other man who digs into his mothers' flesh.

We find a hint to existential philosophy here. The cross symbolizes the realization that a being has mistakenly wandered on the path to a radical judgment which is the death of his inauthentic existence and finds him called to traverse just this path as the path to grace and salvation. This reference makes the meaning 'Plough the shrieking cross' clear in the context we are talking.