The first part of the novel focuses on Mrs. Morel and her unhappy marriage to a drinking miner. She has many arguments with her husband, some of which have painful results: on separate occasions, she is locked out of the house and hit in the head with a drawer. Estranged from her husband, Mrs. Morel takes comfort in her four children, especially her sons. Her oldest son, William, is her favorite, and she is very upset when he takes a job in London and moves away from the family. When William sickens and dies a few years later, she is crushed, not even noticing the rest of her children until she almost loses Paul, her second son, as well. From that point on, Paul becomes the focus of her life, and the two seem to live for each other.
Paul falls in love with Miriam Leivers, who lives on a farm not too far from the Morel family. They carry on a very intimate, but purely platonic, relationship for many years. Mrs. Morel does not approve of Miriam, and this may be the main reason that Paul does not marry her. He constantly wavers in his feelings toward her.
Paul meets Clara Dawes, a suffragette who is separated from her husband, through Miriam. As he becomes closer with Clara and they begin to discuss his relationship with Miriam, she tells him that he should consider consummating their love and he returns to Miriam to see how she feels.
Paul and Miriam sleep together and are briefly happy, but shortly afterward Paul decides that he does not want to marry Miriam, and so he breaks off with her. She still feels that his soul belongs to her, and, in part agrees reluctantly. He realizes that he loves his mother most, however.
After breaking off his relationship with Miriam, Paul begins to spend more time with Clara and they begin an extremely passionate affair. However, she does not want to divorce her husband Baxter, and so they can never be married. Paul's mother falls ill and he devotes much of his time to caring for her. When she finally dies, he is broken-hearted and, after a final plea from Miriam, goes off alone at the end of the novel.
Major Characters
Walter Morel: Father of Paul Morel, husband of Gertrude Morel. Works as a miner. His temper is susceptible to quick anger and emotion. When he was courting Gertrude, he was a handsome man and a fine dancer. His wife hates him because he gets to enjoy himself drinking while she stays home caring for the children. Gertrude's hatred for her husband begins with his excessive drunken fits and his temper. Morel does not have a close relationship to any of his children.
Gertrude Morel: Paul's mother. Intensely hates her role as Walter Morel's wife and wishes that she were not the wife of a miner. Hates that her husband drinks excessively and cannot control himself. She focuses all of her love and attention from her husband to her two older sons. First she devotes herself to William and is very jealous of William's relationship with his fiancee. She resents that William allows Lily to treat Annie like a servant. After William's death, she clings to Paul. She severely dislikes Miriam and believes that Clara is not good for Paul either. In the last few painful months of her life, she struggles to live for Paul. Paul and Annie give her morphia to stop her pain and die.
William Morel: The first Morel child. Mrs. Morel transfers her affections for her husband to William. She is horrified when her husband cuts off William's blond curls. William is a gifted, intelligent and handsome child and teenager, easily finding jobs and earning a salary. Becomes involved with Bestwood and London society and engaged to Louisa Lily Danys Western. Hates the way Lily treats his family, especially Annie. William dies before he can marry Lily, but he never truly loved her anyway.
Annie Morel: The only daughter of the Morel family. Paul is very close and loving to Annie. Annie does not like Miriam; she can see how much their mother suffers when Paul is with Miriam and hates Miriam for that. Paul and Mrs. Morel are miserable when she marries and leaves home. Later, Annie and Paul conspire to give their mother morphia to help speed up her death.
Paul Morel: Protagonist of novel. Quiet, shy, reserved by nature but intensely passionate and emotional. Knows French and enjoys painting. Enjoys staying home with his mother during the evenings rather than playing outside. When at work, Paul is absorbed by the activities and the people, especially the factory girls. Has an off-and-on relationship with Miriam Leivers for seven years. Hates and loves her at the same time. Miriam expects him to love her as passionately and deeply as she loves him, but Paul does not feel any sexual attraction to her. Ends relationship with Miriam and begins one with Clara Dawes, a married woman separated from her husband. He and Clara have a very sexual relationship. They end their involvement together when Clara decides that she wants to return to her husband.
Miriam Leivers: The first girl Paul ever loved and had sex with. She is a beautiful, deeply intense and devoted girl whose feelings for Paul are as passionate as her love for God and church. She loves him more than he loves her. Paul gets frustrated and furious with the way she absorbs everything in her soul and cannot fathom why she has to treat everything with so much depth and intensity.
Clara Dawes: The older, defiant woman with whom Paul has a sexual and passionate relationship. She is a married woman, but she is separated from her husband. At first, Paul felt that Clara left Dawes because she hated him, but he soon realizes that she does care for Dawes a great deal. Clara can satisfy him sexually in what Miriam could not. Yet Paul tires of Clara because he can see that she does not belong to him. Not only does Paul know that she still wants her husband, he notices that Clara does not want to be with him when he is troubled or worried. Clara returns to her husband after Paul tells her that Dawes has been ill for some time.
Baxter Dawes: Clara's husband. He also works at Thomas Jordan's. He and Paul have a tense, hateful relationship, yet they are bound to each other for some reason. After they fight each other a couple of time, they manage to form a companionship. Dawes and Paul are sympathetic to each other's suffering and worries.
Overall summary of Sons and Lovers/儿子与情人整体概要
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