The Oedipus Complex in D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers

I've been a big fan of D. H. Lawrence since my first year of college. I loved his novels Lady Chatterley's Lover; Women in Love, and The Rainbow. The novel that I couldn't quite get my arms around was Sons and Lovers, the strange story about a mother who smothered her son with her possessive love and treated him like a substitute for her abusive husband. When I was reading it, I kept thinking, "Is it just me, or does this really seem like The Oedipus Complex going on in this relationship?" I wanted to see what the critics said, and what Lawrence himself thought. Were his parents like the ones depicted in Sons and Lovers? That is what this critical essay is all about. At the end of the essay, I've included some of my photos of Lawrence's house in Eastwood, England where he was born and in New Mexico where his ashes are interred. The painting on the book cover is by Dominique Van Rentergem.

Louise Hathaway is a pen name of a husband and wife writing team. They write in several different genres including murder/ mystery; romance, travel, time travel, and literary criticism.