RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

U
a burden. Thank the mother for this. The sensation of him as
a burden can be apprehended when once Morel broke his leg and
had to stay for some time at a hospital.
The family feels
relieved over the fact that the father is not at home.
They
would do well without the father.
In fact it would be better not
to have him back.
Paul says
'I'm the man in the house now,' he used to say
to his mother with joy. They learned how
perfectly peaceful.the home could be. And they
almost regretted — though none of them would
have owned so such calou.sness— that their father
was soon coming back, (p.112 - My underlining)
Again here the motive at the back of the author's mind in this
son-father hostility is Oedipal.
The rivalry is once more
provoked by the mother.
From this point on. Morel's significance in the novel
diminishes considerably.
He almost does not participate directly
in any event of the family.
He is only mentioned through
sentences which in fact have no great importance.
What actually
happens is that most of the characters of the novel can be said
to be rising in life whereas Morel, instead of growing, declines
more and more.
It seems that the overdose of spite and
authoritarism his wife has given him makes of him a kind of cloth
which shrinks more and more each time it is washed to become clean.
2. Mother and Sons; Lovers in Conflict
As soon as Morel loses importance, his wife turns to her
sons (her daughter seems not to be so important since Mrs Morel
is more a mother of men than of women).
And her authoritarianism
is different from that one she uses with her husband.
She seems