RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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It hurt the boy keenly, this feeling about her
that she had never had her life's fulfilment
and his own incapability to make up to her hurt
him with a sense of impotence, yet made him
patiently dogged inside. It was his childish
aim (ibid.).
The fact that Paul is ill provides the definition of his
love for his mother and hate for his father.
Paul only wants his
mother to take care of him, to nurse him.
He cannot even stand
his father's proximity to him. His mother is all he wants. This
possessive love allows one to think that love is sometimes too
selfish, for it does not allow strangers to interfere in the
relation.
It is at this point that Lawrence becomes mixed with
Paul, and presenting Paul's wish to sleep with Mrs Morel, the
author seems to express his own desire to sleep with his mother.
Lawrence interferes in Paul's feelings with his personal
opinions.
The reader gets confused then: is it Paul or Lawrence
expressing this exasperated love for the mother?
Paul loved to sleep with his mother. Sleep is
still most perfect, in spite of hygienists, when
it is shared with a beloved. The warmth, the
security and peace of soul, the utter comfort from
the touch of the other, knits the sleep, so that
it takes the body and soul completely in its
healing. Paul lay.against her and slept, and got
better; whilst she, always a bad sleeper, fell
later on into a profound sleep that seemed to
give her faith (p.87).
It seems here that Lawrence is speaking, quite without irony, and
unaware of the 'Oedipal' dimension of all this.
Paul and his mother complete each other in thoughts and
actions.
Since he is her 'shadow' or counterpart, or twin-soul,
all he does is for her and vice-versa.
Up to now there is no
domination, or rather there is a kind of 'happy marriage' going
on. Paul submits to her and submits her to his love. She is
dominated and dominates in her love.
There is what I call a