Society And Psychology In Conrad's Lord Jim And D. H Lawrence's Sons And Lovers

David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885-2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. His collected works,represent among other things,an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industerlization, some of the issues Lawrence explores is sexuality, emotional health, vitality,spontaneity and instinct. Lawrence was one of the first novelists to introduce themes of psychology into his works. There can be no argument that Lawrence's Sons and Lovers was a study of human relationships through psychology. It is a closely autobiographical novel set in the Nottingham- shire coal-mining village of Bestwood. Joseph Conrad English novelist and short story writer of Polish descent whose novel ( Lord Jim ) is my concern in this essay.

A writer of complex skill and striking insight, but above all of an intensely personal vision, he has been increasingly regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. Conrad's classic Lord Jim as a clinic in the psychology of the self, a novel whose characters are designed to reflect various degrees of integration of self-image and action and independence from the approval of others. Conrad's character construction anticipates the findings and theories of modern psychology, particularly those of psychological differentiation and to a lesser extent Jung and Freud. . Both writers have lived almost at the same age of modern novel, this is a reason why they share some characteristics or themes in their novels. The society at that time was passing through revolutionary changes in major fields of their lives,definitely this effected on the writings and choosing actual, representative characters in novels and also the themes. Both of the novels are a type of psychological novel which are also known as the ( stream of consciousness novels ) these novels probe into the working of human psychology at the conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels.

The plot is developed on these psychological levels. Psychoanalysis as a modern concept started to shape in nineteenth century by work of famous psychologists Sigmund Freud and generally developed and improved. According to Freud, the evolution of the mature love instinct begins as soon as the child has sufficiently developed a sense of “the otherness”3 of its surroundings to pick out its Yassir2mother as the object of its affections. At first this totally instinctive and unconscious affection begins as the natural result of the child’s dependence upon its mother for food, warmth and comfort. From the mother the child first learn how to express affection, and the maternal caresses and the intimate feeling which the child get from its mother by the easy analogies to love when the child feels a conscious passion for another individual of the opposite sex. Its mother, in a very real sense of the world, is its first love. The work of Lord Jim provides another kind of setting for novels used as a tragic sense. Lord Jim grew a full length novel as Conrad found himself exploring in ever greater depth. The perplexing ambiguous problem of lost honor and guilt,expiation And heroism.

Marlow leads his listeners into the shadowy recess of the human heart, with its forever unresolved and unpredictable capacities for good and evil. In discussing the structure of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, critics have offered roughly two different schemas. One emphasizes the “structural rift” between the section that deals with the Patna incident and its aftermath, on the one hand, and the one relating Jim’s new life in Patusan, on the other hand (Fincham 58). Fredric Jameson, for instance, notes that “a qualitative shift and diminution of narrative intensity” are observed as we move to the latter section of the novel (195). Jim is a prime condition now known as field dependency. creating intuitively based on his knowledge of human nature, Conrad gave Jim most of the personality characteristics that Herman Witkin and associate found several decades later to be associated with a condition they called field dependency. ( Jhon P. Anderson )Like the Patna’s main bulkhead, Jim has weak inner structures. His weakness stems from two related problems. The first is his lack of integration of self-image and actual behavior, and the second is his dependence on the approval of others. Jim’s integration problem is that early in life his actions do not live up to his self-image—his heroic ideals or expectations for himself, Jim’s self-image is a famous and heroic savior overcoming great danger that scares off mere mortals. By contrast, Jim’s actual actions early in life are those of a coward. ( P. Anderson. Jhon ).

Erikson believes that ego can deal with social crisis through creating a sense of trust and helping the next generation prepare for the future. (Schultz,1970,243 and Erikson in 1975,25)Erikson believed that the notion of the stages of personality development includes eight periods from childhood to the adulthood. However, for Erikson the stages during adulthood are the most significant ones and he puts a great deal of emphasis on the adolescent period, feeling it was a crucial stage for developing a person's identity (Schultz,1379,243)Sons and lovers a novel by D. H Lawrence has got lent itself well to Eriksonian criticism.

The novel deals with relation of people through different stages. The process of motherhood in the novel signifies the fact that Mrs. Morel finds fulfillment in her own relationship with her sons. It gives her pleasure and helps her overcome the pains that she might have had from her own experience as a mother. The novel is considered a psychological novel in terms of its close description of the relationships within it and their effect on the personalities portrayed. The main relationships to examine are between mother and son (Paul and Mrs. Morel ) boyfriend and girlfriend (Miriam, Clara and Paul )and also between Mr. and Mrs. Morel. It has long been posited by psychologists that the most fundamental and profound relationship in a man's life is that between himself and his mother. Paul's personality and growth are deeply influenced by his mother. Paul's deep wish to live alone with his mother and not to marry is also encouraging by Mrs. Morel possessiveness. His love towards his mother is mostly originated in his heart,and this kind of love is not just a son toward a mother, but also it has physical trace. Morel who forms the psychological barrier that Paul repeatedly comes up against in his relation between the women in lovers. Paul seeks his mother's love in return, however, in order to become independent man,he decided to escape from his mother's influence.

In the process of self development, he develops a spiritual love with Miriam and sexual one with Clara, he fails repeatedly since his understanding of love,intimacy,and marriage are clouded by the image of his mother. In both novels, the protagonists are experiencing mental conflicts, they have certain aims and they are ambitious but their attitudes and behaviors toward achieving these requirements are leading them to their brutal end. Jim and Paul are in a mental conflict within their self and with society, Jim is quitting every job as soon as he gets it because it doesn’t satisfy his ambition of being a hero,though he got his dream vision of heroism but still he aspire to ideals which in some cases he should think of well Yassir4before taking a decision, as Paul cant make any kind of love relation due to his strong attachment to his mother though he is aspiring for such a relation, he lives in a tightening and pushing conditions, the relation with Clara and Miriam on one side and his love to his mother on the other.

It is oblivious that psychological struggles are a common feature between Conrad's Lord Jim and Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, the writers are expressing the issues and statuses of people in that period, society has a major effect on the writings in every age. It is also important to mention that both novels are dealing with some other matters other than psychological ones, in Sons and lovers we see a good theme of feminism, transcendentalism, sentimentalism. In Lord Jim the write exposes to the effect of colonialism in colonized areas, the effect on politics, economic and culture, also a very important and significant subject is social discrimination which attracts the readers views from the beginning of the story.