SONS AND LOVERS

UK , 1960,102 minutes, Black and white.
Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, Heather Sears, Ernest Thesiger, Donald Pleasence, Rosalie Crutchley.
Directed by Jack Cardiff.

Sons and Lovers captures the spirit of D.H. Lawrence's somewhat autobiographical novel and remains close to many of the incidents and much of the dialogue of the book. The dialogue Incorporates much of Lawrence's philosophy of life, love, fulfilment, sex and religion.

Sons and Lovers shows us the Derbyshire mining life and its contrast with the city, here Nottingham. It shows us a dominating mother possessing her son. He, in turn, despises his father and gropes unsuccessfully to relate in a satisfying way to two women. One is the spiritual Miriam, who is a younger version of his mother, who wants to sacrifice herself for him only to possess him. The other is the sensual Clara who wants to be loved but finds Paul unable to give himself fully. The novel was tentative in so far as it concludes with Paul starting to face life, wanting to live and never to be possessed by anyone else. The film ends here also.

Wendy Hiller is superb as Mrs Morel, a complex woman who has married beneath her, who resents the mines and who smothers her son with love and ambition. Trevor Howard gives another excellent performance as the blustering, straightforward mining father who is treated as dirt by wife and son and who elicits our sympathy. Dean Stockwell is satisfactory as Paul with Heather Sears and Mary Ure good as Miriam and Clara.

There is brief but effective evocation of the mining town and its clear countryside. The film should really be seen before Women in Love and The Virgin and the Gypsy. It has in embryonic form many of the ideas that were to be developed in works such as these.

1. Who is the main character in the film, Paul or Mrs Morel? Why? What does the title indicate?

2. How was Mrs Morel's power over Paul illustrated in the film - his not going down the mine, his drawings, his relationship with Miriam?

3. Did Paul love his mother?

4. Did Paul love his father?

5. What was the relationship between Paul and Miriam - love? - their literary jokes, the spiritual relationship. Did Miriam really want to possess and mould Paul? Was she really another version of his mother? Why did the physical union between them push them further apart instead of uniting them?

6. Comment on the influence of mothers on their children, not only Mrs Morel on Paul, but Miriam's mother on Miriam and Clara's mother on Clara.

7. How did the love end look of love between his parents influence Paul's attitude to love and marriage? how did William and Louisa's love affect him? William says that even if Louisa is silly and she left him tomorrow, she still mould have made "him happy and changed his life, "Does real passion ever die?"

8. Why did Paul love Clara? Did her passionate love fulfil his love? Why did they ultimately separate? Why did Clara love Baxter? Why did she say that Paul did not give himself to her and she needed to be loved?

9. What kind of a woman was Clara - women's rights, her role as a separated wife in those times, her work, her laughter at the theatre, her relationship to her mother, her love of Paul?

10. Sons and Lovers is semi-autobiographical and shows Lawrence's dislike of the mining background in which he grew up. Is this communicated effectively in the film? the sheep, the countryside, the village contrasting with the mine machinery and the rows of houses, Arthur's death, Walter's hard work, drinking, fighting, his portrait, Mrs Morel marrying 'beneath her', the need to earn money?

11. Did Paul come through as an artist his paintings, the exhibition?

12. What was your feeling for Walter Morel by the end of the film? Did you understand him? Did you like him? Did you feel sorry for him? Why?

13. What was your feeling for Mrs Morel at the end of the film? Did you understand her? Like her? feel sorry for her? Why?

14. Do you think you gained any understanding of D.H.Lawrence's philosophy of life and love from the film? At an early stage Paul fays that Miriam, is part of God's work, is more religious than her mother. When she is afraid of his kissing her, he says that her being afraid in her purity is dirty. Her mother stresses that sex is a duty and a suffering by God's will, Paul attacks Miriam because their physical union was a sacrifice for her on his behalf and was nothing for herself; therefore, the union drove them further apart, Clara accuses Paul of being unable to give himself in love. Finally, Paul says he doesn't know what he wants, he rejects marriage with Miriam because she merely wanted to make things easier not better. She would possess him. He finishes by wanting to live and never belong to anyone again.
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15. What had Paul learned by the end of the film? What future had he?