D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)Part The 20th LiteratureD.H. LawrenceD. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature.D.H. Lawrence, 1906Life He was the fourth child of a struggling coal miner who was a heavy drinker. His mother was a former schoolteacher, greatly superior in education to her husband. Lawrences childhood was dominated by poverty and friction between his parents. Lawrence spent his formative years in the coal mining town of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. The house in which he was born, in Eastwood, 8a Victoria Street, is now the D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum. His working class background and the tensions between his parents provided the raw material for a number of his early works.The young Lawrence attended Beauvale Board School (now renamed Greasley Beauvale D. H. Lawrence Primary School in his honour) from 1891 until 1898, becoming the first local pupil to win a County Council scholarship to Nottingham High School in nearby Nottingham. He worked as a clerk in a surgical appliance factory and then for four years as a pupil- teacher. After studies at Nottingham University, Lawrence matriculated at 22 and briefly pursued a teaching career. Lawrences mother died in 1910; he helped her die by giving her an overdose of sleepingmedicine.Writing CareerIn 1909, a number of Lawrences poems were published by Ford Max Ford in the English Review. The appearance of his first novel, The White Peacock(1911), launched Lawrence into a writing career. In 1912 he met Frieda von Richthofen, the professor Ernest Weeklys wife and fell in love with her. Frieda left her husband and three children, and they eloped to Bavaria. Lawrences novel Sons and Lovers appeared in 1913 and was based on his childhood . In 1914 Lawrence married Frieda von Richthofen, and traveled with her in several countries. Lawrences fourth novel, The Rainbow (1915), was about two sisters growing up in the north of England. Lawrence started to write The Lost Girl in Italy. He dropped the novel for some years and rewrote the story in an old Sicilian farmhouse near Taormina in 1920. During the First World War Lawrence and his wife were unable to obtain passports and were targets of constant harassment from the authorities. They were accused of spying for the Germans and officially expelled from Cornwall in 1917. The Lawrences were not permitted to emigrate until 1919, when their years of wandering began.Lawrences best known work is Lady Chatterlys Lover, first published privately in Florence in 1928. It tells of the love affair between a wealthy, married woman, and a man who works on her husbands estate. The book was banned for a time in both UK and the US as pornographic. Lawrences other novels from the 1920s include Women In Love (1920), a sequel to The Rainbow. D.H. Lawrence died in Vence, France on March 2, 1930. He also gained posthumous renown for his expressionistic paintings completed in the 1920s.D.H. Lawrence Tomb in TaosMajor worksSons and LoversSons and Lovers is a 1913 novel by D. H. Lawrence. The modern library placed in ninth on their list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.Major CharactersPaul Morel, The protagonist of the novel. He is sensitive, temperamental, artistic (a painter), and unceasingly devoted to his mother. William Morel William, Mrs. Morels “knight,“ is her favorite son. Gertrude Morel Mrs. Morel is unhappily married to Walter Morel, and she redirects her attention to her children, her only passion in life. Miriam Leiver Miriam is a virginal, religious girl who lives on a farm near the Morels, and she is Pauls first love. Clara Dawes Clara is an older women estranged from her husband, Baxter Dawes. Unlike the intellectual Miriam, Clara seems to represent the body. Her sensuality attracts Paul, as does her elusiveness and mysteriousness. Walter Morel Morel, the coal-mining head of the family, was once a humorous, lively man, but over time he has become a cruel, selfish alcoholic. His family, especially Mrs. Morel, despises him, and Paul frequently entertains fantasies of his fathers dyingThemes- Oedipus complex Sigmund Freuds most celebrated theory of sexuality, the Oedipus complex takes its name from the title character of the Greek play Oedipus Rex. In the story, Oedipus is prophesied to murder his father and have sex with his mother (and he does, though unwittingly). Freud argued that these repressed desires are present in most young boys. (The female version is called the Electra complex.) D.H. Lawrence was aware of Freuds theory, and Sons and Lovers famously uses the Oedipus complex as its base for exploring Pauls relationship with his mother. Paul is hopelessly devoted to his mother, and that love often borders on romantic desire. Lawrence writes many scenes between the two th