As sons grow, the relationship often shifts from one of dependence to one of mutual discovery or painful separation. MOTHERS AND SONS in LITERATURE - Jude Hayland
explores why there are relatively few books about this bond compared to other family dynamics. It argues that literature needs to better reflect how masculine strength is rooted in vulnerability to these foundational relationships. The "Son as Archivist" : The article "Moms, Memories, Materialities" TandFOnline
In literature, is the high priest of Oedipal fiction. His masterpiece, Sons and Lovers , is a thinly veiled autobiographical account of Gertrude Morel, a brilliant, disappointed woman married to a drunken coal miner. She turns her emotional and intellectual hunger toward her sons, particularly the artistically inclined Paul. Lawrence writes: “She was a woman of stern determination… and when her children were growing up, she transferred her fierce will to them.” Paul becomes a surrogate husband, a lover in all but physical fact. His subsequent relationships with other women (Miriam and Clara) are doomed because he cannot escape his mother’s emotional orbit. When she finally dies, Paul is left in a terrifying freedom—a son who has been so fused with his mother that his own identity is a vacuum.
