“And without marriage we can do nothing?” he asked.
His mouth was lifted from his teeth with pain. She put her little finger between her lips.
“No,” she said, low and like the toll of a bell. “No, I think not.”
It was the end then between them. She could not take him and relieve him of the responsibility of himself. She could only sacrifice herself to him—sacrifice herself every day, gladly. And that he did not want. He wanted her to hold him and say, with joy and authority : “Stop all this restlessness and beating against death. You are mine for a mate.” She had not the strength. Or was it a mate she wanted? or did she want a Christ in him?
He felt, in leaving her, he was defrauding her of life. But he knew that, in staying, stifling the inner, desperate man, he was denying his own life. And he did not hope to give life to her by denying his own.
She sat very quiet. He lit a cigarette. The smoke went up from it, wavering. He was thinking of his mother, and had forgotten Miriam. She suddenly looked at him. Her bitterness came surging up. Her sacrifice, then, was useless. He lay there aloof, careless about her. Suddenly she saw again his lack of religion, his restless instability. He would destroy himself like a perverse child. Well, then, he would!
“I think I must go,” she said softly.
By her tone he knew she was despising him. He rose quietly.
“I’ll come along with you,” he answered.
She stood before the mirror pinning on her hat. How bitter, how unutterably bitter, it made her that he rejected her sacrifice! Life ahead looked dead, as if the glow were gone out. She bowed her face over the flowers—the freesias so sweet and spring-like, the scarlet anemones flaunting over the table. It was like him to have those flowers.
He moved about the room with a certain sureness of touch, swift and relentless and quiet. She knew she could not cope with him. He could escape like a weasel out of her hands. Yet without him her life would trail on lifeless. Brooding, she touched the flowers.
“Have them!” he said; and he took them out of the jar, dripping as they were, and went quickly into the kitchen. She waited for him, took the flowers, and they went out together, he talking, she feeling dead.
She was going from him now. In her misery she leaned against him as they sat on the car. He was unresponsive. Where would he go? What would be the end of him? She could not bear it, the vacant feeling where he should be. He was so foolish, so wasteful, never at peace with himself. And now where would he go? And what did he care that he wasted her? He had no religion; it was all for the moment’s attraction that he cared, nothing else, nothing deeper. Well, she would wait and see how it turned out with him. When he had had enough he would give in and come to her.
He shook hands and left her at the door of her cousin’s house. When he turned away he felt the last hold for him had gone. The town, as he sat upon the car, stretched away over the bay of railway, a level fume of lights. Beyond the town the country, little smouldering spots for more towns—the sea—the night—on and on! And he had no place in it! Whatever spot he stood on, there he stood alone. From his breast, from his mouth, sprang the endless space, and it was there behind him, everywhere. The people hurrying along the streets offered no obstruction to the void in which he found himself. They were small shadows whose footsteps and voices could be heard, but in each of them the same night, the same silence. He got off the car. In the country all was dead still. Little stars shone high up; little stars spread far away in the flood-waters, a firmament below. Everywhere the vastness and terror of the immense night which is roused and stirred for a brief while by the day, but which returns, and will remain at last eternal, holding everything in its silence and its living gloom. There was no Time, only Space. Who could say his mother had lived and did not live? She had been in one place, and was in another; that was all. And his soul could not leave her, wherever she was. Now she was gone abroad into the night, and he was with her still. They were together. But yet there was his body, his chest, that leaned against the stile, his hands on the wooden bar. They seemed something. Where was he?—one tiny upright speck of flesh, less than an ear of wheat lost in the field. He could not bear it. On every side the immense dark silence seemed pressing him, so tiny a spark, into extinction, and yet, almost nothing, he could not be extinct. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond stars and sun. Stars and sun, a few bright grains, went spinning round for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in a darkness that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted. So much, and himself, infinitesimal, at the core a nothingness, and yet not nothing.
“Mother!” he whispered—“mother!”
She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself He wanted her to touch him, have him alongside with her.
But no, he would not give in. Turning sharply, he walked towards the city’s gold phosphorescence. His fists were shut, his mouth set fast. He would not take that direction, to the darkness, to follow her. He walked towards the faintly humming, glowing town, quickly.
Endnotes
All quotations from the Bible are from the King James version, except where noted. All quotations from D. H. Lawrence’s letters are from The Collected Letters of D. H. Lawrence, edited by Harry T. Moore, Vol. 1, New York: Viking, 1962. Other biographical quotations are from D. H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography, edited by Edward Nehls, Vol. 1, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957-1959. In defining much of the dialect in the novel, I am indebted to the comprehensive annotations in Helen Baron and Carl Baron’s edition of Sons and Lovers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Chapter 1: The Early Married Life of the Morels
1 (p. 3) colliers: This is a term for coal miners. In a letter to his editor, Edward Garnett, dated March 1912, D. H. Lawrence refers to an early manuscript of Sons and Lovers as “the colliery novel.”
2 (p. 3) Bestwood: D. H. Lawrence fictionalized many of the place names in Nottinghamshire for this book. Bestwood is his name for Eastwood, a town in the north of England where he was born.
3 (p. 10) Colonel Hutchinson: Governor of Nottingham Castle during the Civil War (1642-1649) and a member of Parliament, Hutchinson signed the death warrant for Charles I.
4 (p. 10) Congregationalists: This political and religious group believed that all legislative, disciplinary, and judicial functions of the church should be vested in the local congregation. Like the adult Paul, Congregationalists reacted against orthodox religion.
5 (p. 12) Apostle Paul: A missionary for Christianity, Paul was one of the founders of the Christian church. Originally known as Saul of Tarsus, he converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus and changed his name.
6 (p. 14) She had never been “thee‘d” and “thou’d” before: These terms were part of nineteenth-century English dialect that gradually fell out of use. Although these terms would be part of Morel’s typical form of address, they carry with them the additional implication of courtship.
7 (p. 19) spear through the side: This is a reference to the Bible, John 19:34, in which a soldier pierces the side of the dead body of Christ with a sword and blood issues from the wound.
8 (p. 20) butty: Contractors for the coal mine, butties were assigned a length of coal along a seam to mine out. They were paid a set amount for the weight of coal they retrieved, out of which they paid all the expenses for the day-to-day running of the mine, including men’s wages and tool costs. In a manuscript of Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence wrote: “If their stall was a good one, and the pit was turning full time, then they got a hundred or two tons of coal out, and made good money. If their stall was a poor one, they might work just as hard, and earn very little. Morel, for thirty years of his life, never had a good stall. But, as his wife said, it was his own fault.”
9 . (p. 25) “Lead, kindly Light”: John H. Newman, a powerful member of the Church of England who converted to Roman Catholicism, composed this hymn in 18
33 during a period of homesickness: “The night is dark, and I am far from home ... I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears / Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!”
Chapter 2: The Birth of Paul, and Another Battle
1 (p. 35) safe working: The term refers to a coal stall in which dangerous gases were not present. In safe workings miners could use green or yellow candles, which threw light that was much stronger than that of the safety lamps they used when combustible gases were present.
2 (p. 38) wedding at Cana: In a miracle recounted in the Bible, John 2:1-11, Christ and his disciples attend a wedding at Cana in Galilee at which Christ turns water into wine.
3 (p. 41) Joseph: This figure from Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible was the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. When his ten older brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery, Joseph gained the favor of the pharaoh by interpreting the pharaoh’s dream of seven lean cattle swallowing seven fat cattle and seven lean ears of corn swallowing seven fat ears of corn. In time, Joseph became food administrator and saved his family from famine.
4 (p. 47) “The Child’s Own”: The Sunday School Union published this monthly magazine from 1852 to 1923.
Chapter 3: The Casting Off of Morel-The Taking On of William
1 (p. 55) barm-man: Barm is the fermented froth produced in brewing alcoholic beverages and used to leaven bread or to ferment beer; a barm-man was a salesman who distributed barm to households, going from door to door.
2 (p. 55) cobbler: Seashells or horse chestnuts were threaded on a string to make a cobbler, a tool in a boy’s game that a player won by breaking an opponent’s cobbler, or conker, by hitting it with his own.
3 (p. 58) Women’s Guild: An offshoot of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (see note 4 below), the Guild was a national organization that grew into its own during the 1890s. It supplied the early feminist movement with many influential leaders. Due in part to the vocal efforts of groups like this, women thirty years and older received the right to vote in 1918 and women twenty-one and older in 1928.
4 (p. 58) Co-operative Wholesale Society: Founded in 1863 on the principles of social reformer Robert Owen, the CWS provided discounts to members on goods bought and a dividend on all purchases. The CWS began manufacturing products in 1873 and was also involved in insurance, banking, publishing, and education; it is still a powerful organization in Britain.
5 (p. 59) Mechanic’s Hall: Started in the 1820s, this foundation offered artisans and skilled workers the opportunity for self-education.
6 (p. 61) Board school... Nottingham: In 1870 the Elementary Education Act put the national system of board schooling in place. Board schools were state-run and free to all children aged five to thirteen. High schools were private schools that sometimes offered scholarships to children of the lower classes.
7 (p. 63) as rich as Croesus: The last king of Lydia (560-546 B.C.) and conqueror of western Asia Minor, Croesus acquired great wealth through trade.
8 (p. 63) Lafayette: The Marquis de Lafayette, Marie Joseph (1757-1834), was well known in England in the early 1900s. He was a statesman and officer and friend to George Washington. Lafayette fought on the colonists’ side during the American Revolution, was commander of the National Guard during the French Revolution, and was instrumental in bringing about the adoption of the tricolored French flag.
9 . (p. 63) transpires: Originally this term meant “to exhale, to pass in a state of vapor” from the Latin roots tran, “across,” and spirare, “to breathe.” Around 1810 the term began to appear in American usage with the meaning “to occur.” Though this meaning was initially considered to be incorrect in Britain usage, it slowly came into common use.
Chapter 4: The Young Life of Paul
1 (p. 66) Band of Hope: This Christian youth society was founded in 1847 to teach working-class children the virtues of thrift, cleanliness, hard work, and self-control, as well as the “evils” of drink.
2 (p. 75) kicking against the pricks: The meaning here is “rebelling.” The phrase is a reference to the Bible, Acts 9:5, in which Saul, on the road to Damascus, falls to the ground and hears the voice of Christ say, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”
3 (p. 76) knits the sleep: This is a reference to Macbeth (act 2, scene 2), by William Shakespeare. Macbeth refers to “the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, the death of each day’s life.”
4 (p. 86) And he thought ... that the moon should be turned to blood: In the Bible, a blood-red moon is often a sign of the coming apocalypse; see the Bible, Joel 2:30-31; Acts 2:19-21; and Revelation 6:11-13.
Chapter 5: Paul Launches into Life
1 (p. 98) Disability Fund: The Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 mandated that workers injured on the job receive compensation.
2 (p. 104) Charles I: The king of England and Scotland from 1625 to 1649, Charles I was beheaded for many alleged intrigues and disloyalties during his reign.
3 (p. 109) Castle on its bluff of brown, green-bushed rock: The medieval castle in Nottingham, built by the Normans and nearly dismantled by 1660, stands on bedrock riddled by caves and tunnels.
4 (p. 122) “You remind me of Elaine in the ‘Idylls of the King”: In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Lancelot and Elaine, part of his ten-book “Idylls” poem cycle (1859), Elaine loves the knight Lancelot “with that love which was her doom.” She dies from the immensity of her love and, by her request, her body is placed in a boat and set on the river to float toward Camelot. The legend inspired the Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse to paint the scene in 1888.
5 (p.125) an Arabian Nights: In The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories originally in Arabic and commonly known as The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade entertains her husband, Schahriah, with tales in order to delay her execution.
Chapter 6: Death in the Family
1 (p. 140) The Lady of the Lake: In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King,” the Lady of the Lake is an obscure, supernatural figure who steals Lancelot in infancy and raises him in her impenetrable castle in the middle of a lake. King Arthur grasps his magical sword Excalibur from her hand rising from the water.
“The Lady of the Lake” is also a long narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott (1810) that tells of the varied fortunes of the suitors of Ellen Douglas, a young woman who lives with her father by Loch Katrine.
2 (p. 142) Whitsuntide: This English and Christian holiday on the seventh Sunday after Easter celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles on Pentecost.
3 (p. 144) a little thing of Annie Swan’s: The best-selling Scottish author Annie Swan (1859-1943) was sentimental, easy to read, and moralistic. She departed from her usual style to write under the names Mrs. Burnett Smith and David Lyall.
4 (p. 147) Goose Fair: An annual Nottingham event that dates from the sixteenth century and may have originated as early as the thirteenth century, the Goose Fair is held in early October. The fair has always attracted vendors, sideshows, and circus-like amusements and provided ten days of merriment until 1876, when it was restricted to only three or four days in the interest of civic peace, law, and order.
5 (p. 149) erysipelas: A patient who contracted this inflammatory skin disease, usually through an open wound, was in danger of blood poisoning, pneumonia, and rheumatic fever. Before the widespread use of antibiotics, erysipelas was often fatal.
6 (p. 153) Oh, my son—my son: This is a reference to the Bible, 2 Samuel 18:33, where David mourns the death of his son Absalom. Paul Morel echoes the cry later in the book, “Oh, my love—my love.”
Chapter 7: Lad-and-Girl Love
1 (p. 159) a Walter Scott heroine: Scottish poet and novelist (1771-1832) Sir Walter Scott wrote in the Romantic period and specialized in complicated plots involving aristocratic lovers and Scottish peasants; see also note 1 in chapter 6.
2 (p. 159) Ediths, and Lucys ... Guy Mannerings: All are characters from the novels of Sir Walter Scott (see note abov
e). Edith is from The Lord of the Isles (1815), Lucy Ashton from The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), Rowenas and Brian de Bois Guilbert from Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy from Rob Roy (1817), and Guy Mannering from Guy Mannering (1815).
3 (p. 160) “Colomba,” or the “Voyage autour de ma Chambre”: French novelist Prosper Mérimée published the novel Colomba in 1841. (He also wrote Carmen, which was later turned into an opera by Georges Bizet.) Voyage autor de ma chambre is a novel by Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852).
4 (p.162) Skegness: D. H. Lawrence spent a month at Skegness, a resort town on the east coast of England, recuperating from his first attack of pneumonia in the winter of 1901-1902.
5 (p. 162) King Cophetua’s beggar-maid: According to legend, the African King Cophetua was impervious to love until he saw a beggar maid. He fell instantly under her charm and asked her to be his queen. The legend inspired the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones to paint “King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid” (1884), which now hangs in the Tate Gallery in London.
6 (p. 164) the other cheek: The reference is to the Bible, Luke 6:29: “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.”
7 (p. 167) tam-o‘-shanter: Originally, Scottish plowmen wore a cap known as the tam-o’-shanter, and it was later modified as a headdress for girls and young women. The tam-o‘-shanter as we know it is made of a soft wool with a flat top, and the circumference is about twice that of the headband.
8 (p. 169) It’s because ... is inside really: D. H. Lawrence describes the philosophy of the Impressionists, a late-nineteenth-century school of French painters who were concerned with the study of light and its refractions. Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cezanne are perhaps the best-known painters of the group. Although the young Paul lacks the vocabulary and education to recognize a strain of Impressionism in his own art, he comes to it later (see page 329) Some critics have compared D. H. Lawrence’s prose style to that of an Impressionist painting.
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