RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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rather than in his male body, she sometimes forgets this
spiritual love and stimulates Paul to see her as a woman.
This
may happen unconsciously but Miriam contradicts herself when she
takes Paul's hands or in similar attitudes.
These are times
when Paul repels her (he cannot feel her as a female).
It is by
this time that Mrs Morel's control over Paul's love is menaced.
And feeling menaced, Mrs Morel becomes hard (and jealous) to
Miriam. Thus, she concentrates her distaste for Paul and
Miriam's affair in reproaching her son. She is cruel to the
point of making sarcastic remarks concerning Paul and Miriam's
relationship. Paul resents her because of this. He is not able
to feel that his mother is deeply jealous and afraid of losing
him to a strong enemy:
Always when he went with Miriam, and it grew late
he knew his mother was fretting and getting angry
about him — why, he could not understand. As he
went into the house, flinging down his cap, his
mother looked up at the clock. She had been
sitting thinking, because a chill to her eyes
prevented her reading. She could feel Paul drawn
away by this girl. And she did not care for
Miriam (p.199).
Her thoughts represent the way she herself has been treating
her son since he was a baby.
The mother's identification with
Miriam is entirely stated here, as she thinks:
'[Miriam] is one of those who will want to suck
a man's soul out till he had none of his own
left,' she said to herself, 'and he is just such
a gaby as to let himself be absorbed. She will
never let him become a man; she never will'
(ibid. - My underlining).
Mrs Morel's anger and jealousy towards Miriam mean her fear of
losing Paul to another Mrs Morel. Miriam and the mother are the
same. They both want to devour the boy's soul.
Neither of them
will let him become a man.
Paul, dependent as he is, will
always have this conflict: as if he were in a quicksand, trying