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RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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61<br />

mutual acceptance between them.<br />

Paul identifies with his<br />

mother. Everything done means pleasure. They are always<br />

pleasing each other.<br />

They accept each other as a normal rule.<br />

There is no ruler in the strict sense.<br />

reader's knowledge of what is going on;<br />

Only there is the<br />

Mrs Morel is 'punishing'<br />

herself for not having loved Paul since he was conceived.<br />

Thus<br />

she must commit herself (with pleasure) to her love for the boy.<br />

Mrs Morel even thinks aloud near her son and it is as if he were<br />

not her son but a part of herself in front of her, like a mirror:<br />

So she talked to her son, almost as if she were<br />

thinking aloud to him, and he took it as best as<br />

he could, by sharing her trouble to lighten it.<br />

And in the end she shared almost everything with<br />

him without knowing (p.111).<br />

Life has always been hard for lower class people.<br />

It is an<br />

old practice for poor families to throw their children into the<br />

world early in their teens, so that they can help at home.<br />

The<br />

Morel family is not different.<br />

William is the first one who gets<br />

a job in town, then goes away to London and, for a while,<br />

sends money to his mother. However, as soon as Gypsy appears<br />

in his life he stops supporting his family.<br />

Now Paul, at the age<br />

of fourteen, is thrown into the world to work in order to help<br />

his family. He applies for a job at the Jordan's office (a<br />

factory which deals with surgical appliances) and gets it.<br />

The<br />

most interesting point in this passage of the novel is that Paul<br />

applies for the job and it is his mother who guides him into this<br />

business.<br />

She feels responsible for her son's first job,<br />

therefore, she must command his initial steps otherwise her poor<br />

child will feel lost.<br />

Before Paul enters Mr Jordan's room where<br />

he will be interviewed, a very funny scene occurs.<br />

Paul follows<br />

his mother shyly as if afraid of being 'punished' for his<br />

application.<br />

Mrs Morel looks like an enormous chicken protecting

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