D. H.Lawrence’s Treatment of Nature in Sons and Lovers

In the wonted vein of the Pre-Raphaelite poets, Lawrence has given highly poetical and colorful accounts of the diverse aspects of nature. His description is marked by diverse aspects of nature. His description is marked by a singular beauty and a richness of poetic quality. The following vivid account to the sun-set is a clear pointer to Lawrence’s keen sense of colour and profound descriptive power: “The sun was going down. Every open evening the hills of Derbyshire were blazed over with red sunset. Mrs. Morel watched the sun sink from the glistening sky, leaving a soft flower-blue overhead, while the western space went red, as of all the fire had swam down there, leaving the bell-cast flawless blue. The mountain-ash berries across the field stood fierily out from the dark leaves for a moment.” The passage quoted above pellucid exemplifies Lawrence’s keen sense of analogy, metaphor and simile.

Another distinctive feature of Lawrence’s description of nature is that the feeling and emotions of some of the important and complex characters of the novel have been revealed in terms of the objects of nature. This symbolic representation of the human feelings is what constitutes a novel contribution of Lawrence’s to the domain of English fiction. Thus Lawrence has mentioned a few plants and flowers which are suggestive of Miriam’s dormant but passionate desire for life. She figures as a very complex character in the novel. The complexity of the thoughts lying embedded in the inner recesses of her mind, the subtle and delicate nuances of her fallings and sentiments have been most artistically revealed in the scene where she expresses her reactions to the daffodils: “The cheeks of the flowers were greenish with cold. But still some had burst, and their gold ruffle and glowed. Miriam went on her knees before one cluster, took a wild-looking daffodil between her hands , turned up its face of gold to here and bowed down, caressing it with her month and