What Use does Sons and Lovers Make of the Oedipus Complex

Things Uses that Sons and Lovers Make of the Oedipus Complex

 It was Freud the modern psychologist who built up the theory of ‘Oedipus complex’ on the basis of the ancient myth of Oedipus Rex of Thebes. To explain his theory he says that a mother’s love for her son and a son’s love for his mother are fundamentally based upon the attraction between apposite sexes. Lawrence was quite well aware of Freud’s theory about Oedipus complex at the time he wrote sons and lovers. Mrs Morel as we have seen at the time of reading the novel seems to have a kind of Jocasta complex towards her two favorite sons William and Paul. Being disappointed in her marriage to Walter morel she deliberately directs all her passions towards her sons urging them on to success in life. Her passionate

intense attachment for them however arouses in life. Her passionate intense attachment for them however arouses a reciprocal and unhealthy dependence in her sons. This furious love first destroys William then threatens to destroy Paul for it keeps the boys from being able to form wholesome and natural relationships with other women. They are not only Gertrude morel’s son’s but also her lovers in the true Freudian sense. Thus the novel is actually an extended study of the Oedipus complex and its operations an examination of the morel boys neurotic behavior as Sons and lovers.

 

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