T H E S I S

17
presents the Freudian imbroglio in almost classic completeness".
(TDS 39). R. Aldington not only believes that Sons and Lovers
takes the Oedipus complex as its theme, but that Lawrence himself
was a victim of this psychological problem. John Middleton
Murry presents a theory to the effect that Lawrence was “a pitiable
victim of the Oedipus complex“, and H.T.Moore refutes Murry
in this manner:
“The clinical view of Lawrence as a lifelong victim of the
Oedipus complex, with all conventional outcroppings of
that affliction, including homosexuality, is easily dismissed."
(TIH 8if) (3)
I do not think it is so easy to dismiss this subject. Certainly
the main fact is that Sons and Loversf closely autobiographical
is, as R.E.Pritchard says,
“an attempt (Lawrence *s attempt) to present and master the
agonies and sexual disorientation consequent upon his *0edipal1
feelings for his mother, (the novel) betrays the involvement
in - or lack of detachment from - the experience
presented by its author.“(BOD 32)
I agree with G. Hough when he says that the book is really
a special case, a peculiar relation to reality and it “is a catharsis,
achieved by re-living an actual experience.”(TDS 36)
But \ihat kind of catharsis did Lawrence need? As we can see
through Sons and LoversT having come so close to incest, Paul
(Lawrence) feels that Miriam (Jessie), as his mother’s representative,
must be purged of sexuality. Paul wants to purge, to purify
Miriam. This is Lawrence the puritan, seeking purity and
avoiding dirtiness, from the very beginning. For the Puritans,
for his mother and for himself sex was still dirty and they almost
displayed a horror of sexual life. The most one can say is