The Snake & Sons and Lovers by D.H.Lowrence - Research Paper Example

? COMPARITIVE STUDY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS IN D. H LOWRENCE’ THE SNAKE &SONSAND LOVERS An Artistic work, whether it is a novel, a poem short storymay contain the prevailing moments in the life of the writer along with the emotions he drew from it. A study to analyze the auto biographical elements in a work wants a thorough understanding of the life of the writer. There are numerous writers in English who consciously or not put their life in their works. It is possible only through a profound assessment of the influential powers of the writer. D H Lawrence is a famous English writer who set his life and emotions directly in his writings. Writer of passion, he represents a romantic strain in novel; perhaps his works belong to the prophetic order than aesthetic. They expose with tenacity the primacy of man’s primitive impulses and the benignity of the natural life. Sigmund Freud viewed art as a “substitute gratification “ or in other words fulfillment of ‘libidinous desires “. Here is an attempt to bring out such elements from the work of D H Lawrence by comparing his famous poem “The Snake and the novel Sons and Lovers.”. These two works can be analysed on the basis of psychological approach to literary criticism D H Lawrence feels that art is an ‘experience ‘and puts him in the tradition of those writers who feels that the richness of a work of art may be measured by the completeness and intenseness of the felt life. Graham Hough claims that for Lawrence, form is the embodiment of an experience and a form not lived through an experience was impossible for him”. This conception of art places Lawrence outside the tradition represented by such writers as Henry James, Flaubert and Joyce. There writers hold the idea that the artist must remain detached from life in order to see it clearly. On the other hand Lawrence art is more kinetic. The novel ‘ Sons and Lovers ‘depicts the real characters in his life, but the poem The Snake, the real emotions he had drawn from his experiences especially attitude towards sex. The story in Sons and lovers is told so convincingly and with such a profusion of realistic detail that it reads like, and is often mistaken for an authentic biography. The story of the marriage and the married life of Walter Moral and Gertrude is a transcript of the marriage and married life of the novelists own parents. His mother’s married life was a continued battle between with her husband. Lawrence letter to Ratchet Aunad Taylor confirms this. He describes vividly his dying mother (I wish she could die tonight).and recalls the unhappiness and tension which prevailed in the family. The short career and the premature death of William in London is the life and death of Lawrence’ elder brother. Paul is Lawrence himself, Miriam is Jessie Chambers. The lives of the miners in the Nottingham coal mines is faithfully portrayed in the novel and innumerable little incidents in the story are taken from the novelist own life. Lawrence had two sisters and his fictional counterpart Paul has one Lawrence himself became a writer while Paul achieved distinction as a painter. Paul Morels relationship to himself and his art is less apparent to the reader than his relationship to the woman in his life namely his mother and Clara Dowes. . All the formative influences in Paul’s life radiates from his mother. The emotional bondage between the mother and the son becomes evident when Mrs. Morel tells her son that she had no husband at all, Paul naturally becomes his substitute. Paul says “I am the man in the house “. The Snake and the “The Sons and the Lovers are to be compared on the basis of the view of sex. Alfred Klifner discusses the Oedipal Elements in the novel. Sex, in Lawrence opinion is of sovereign importance. When we examine the poem Snake we can see Freudian aspects of love in it. He, like fraud attached importance to the role played by the unconscious. The men and woman in his works are jets of emotional energy drawn from the vast dark side of unconscious impulse. He call snake a King in ‘exile’, uncrowned. Lawrence is however hopeful that sex will regain the importance that has lost and so he says that the snake is due to be crowned. Lawrence antichristian view is also obvious in his poem. Lawrence always feet that Christianity has outlived its usefulness and must be got rid of. “The voice of my education said to me ….” This is the result of his strict Victorian Childhood, his difficult father, or from the cold pragmatic realism of a Sicilian farmer. Here we can see a shift to moral consciousness. According to Lawrence the mind should be liberated from the bondages to enjoy the real freedom. “The voice in me said, If you were man you would take a stick and break him now…”. But Man’s first reaction is one of love and admiration for sex. But soon his reason interferes and chokes his healthy interest in sex. Brian Finney specifically examines about the novel when writes “ Normally there are at least two love affairs ,one demeaning and one exalting “ In this scheme , Miriam represents . Although she gives herself to Paul sexually, she does so reluctantly, sacrificially and without passion. Almost as soon as Sons and Lovers appeared, there were critics who saw in it the startling endorsement of Freudian theories about the Oedipus complex. Lawrence has not read Freud’s theories when he wrote this novel. Of course this does not weaken the case of those who saw a dramatization of Freudian theory in the novel. But rather strengthens it for Lawrence here intuitively arrived at the finding of Freud. Though he has disagreed with the later on the Psychoanalyst’s concept of subconscious, both of them might convey the same message but their methods differ. Where Lawrence particularizes so passionately, Freud generalizes. Thus Lawrence is a writer who put his being and thoughts into his artistic works more than any other famous English writers. Work Cited Lowrence D, H. 1913, Gerald Duckworth &Compny, U K Lowrence D, H. 1921, The Snake (Lyric) http://www.termpaperslab.com/ www.novelguide.com/ Chris Semansky, Critical Essay on Sons and Lovers, in Novels for Students, Gale, 2003. Read More