Literature At Home

Sons and Lovers is one of a myriad of novels by D. H. Lawrence where he brilliantly examines the antagonism between spirituality or emotional attachment and sexuality or carnal attachment as part of an essential element of his philosophy of life—  ‘the religion of blood’ . As also suggested by Sigmund Freud, a human being’s main task is to keep these two key attributes in harmony. An imbalance of any of these attributes can cause disturbance in the progressive development of a person and/or his or her relationship as is seen firstly in the relationship between Paul and Miriam owing to the latter’s excessive spiritual musings and later on between Paul and Clara— a topsy-turvy. Unable to reciprocate Paul’s overt sexual needs Miriam ends up introducing Paul to her friend Clara in a bid to hopefully fulfill these needs. Clara is a suffragette, who is separated from her husband and temporarily lodged with her mother which results in her engaging in a passionate sexual relationship with ...

“ The idea of nature contains, though unnoticed, an extraordinary amount of human history.” — Raymond Williams  Blake’s poem “The Book of Thel” deals with a psychological issue of purposelessness which is metaphorically projected as a journey from Innocence towards Experience. Blake’s own engraving portrays a young Girl standing under a drooping tree. In front of her blossoms a plant of a young couple. The young girl Thel in her ‘unfallen’ or innocent state, resides in the pristine valley of Har. Thel is an angel who is the youngest daughter of Seraphim. Kathleen Raine views Thel as a fairy because fairies are spirits of vegetation and in the engraving she stands amidst flora. Other interpretations suggest that the word Thel, having its Greek root can imply ‘will’ or ‘desire’ and the poem presents her desire for wisdom. Thel asks questions about her importance and the impermanence of beauty in the world and complains “no one hears my voice” but the lily and the cloud responds and...