Sons and Lovers Chapters Summary

Sons and Lovers - Chapters Summary
D. H. Lawrence

Chapter 1 - The Early Married Life of the Morels

Welcome to a neighborhood quaintly called "The Bottoms." It's not all that nice, and the neighborhood ends at a place known as "Hell Row." As you might imagine, that place isn't all that nice either.
The neighborhood is in the Northern English village of Bestwood, which used to be a place where donkeys and their owners pulled coal out of the ground from small mines called "gin pits." As the narrator tells us, though, larger mining companies eventually came in to push out these "gin pits."
The first character we hear about is Mrs. Morel, who isn't very happy about moving into The Bottoms. But she has little choice in the matter. She is thirty-one, has been married eight years, and her husband is a miner.
She also has a seven-year-old son named William, and a five-year-old daughter named Annie. It's the time of year for a festival called "the wakes." Mrs. Morel takes the kids to the festival. While there, William leads his mom around the fairgrounds, totally happy she's there. He's all proud of how ladylike his mother looks and acts, like, totally in love with her, you know?
Finally, Mrs. Morel gets tired and leaves for home. On her way home, she smells beer and quickens her pace, knowing her husband is probably at the bar. Waiting for her husband at home, she wonders about how there's nothing more to life than waiting for things.
She's pregnant with her third child, and is worried that she won't be able to afford it. She hates her endless struggle with poverty. After a while, her husband comes home from "helping" at the bar, and he's brought home some treats and a coconut for the family. He expects to be thanked, but Mrs. Morel accuses him of being drunk.
She remembers when she first met her husband Walter, who always loved to laugh loudly and who was a man of simple pleasures. And now he's a dirty boozehound. Not quite what she was hoping for, we're guessing.
The book tells us that Mrs. Morel was always more of an intellectual in nature, but having no one to talk about philosophy with, she tended to listen to others talking about themselves. When she first met Walter, she was attracted by how well he danced. He had that boom-boom pow. He was the complete opposite of her father, and therefore the opposite of Mrs. Morel herself. She felt sorry that Walter had to go down to work in the mines when he was only ten years old, and she found him noble for risking his life so easily.
Basically, she built up a big fairy tale around him, and before you knew it, the two of them got married. She quickly realized, though, that when she tried to talk to Walter about her deepest thoughts, he couldn't really understand what she was saying. This was the first sign that marriage wasn't going to be everything she thought. Um, yeah. You think?
Next, she realized that Walter lied to her about all his finances, saying he had money and property when he didn't. As if all of this weren't enough, she starts hearing from women in the neighborhood about what a flirt Walter was in his younger years. The women love to tell her this because they will use any opportunity to bring her down a peg. Girls certainly can be nasty about their gossipin' ways.
Later, she finds out that Walter has started drinking again, then she has her first child, William. It's pretty much all down hill from there, as far as the Morels' marriage is concerned.
One day, after being away with his buddy Jerry, Walter comes home drunk and angry. The two get in a real row, and Walter ends up throwing Mrs. Morel out the front door. We think Walter should really cool it on the physical abuse. Eventually Walter lets Gertrude back into the house, but when she sees her husband asleep, she knows instantly: this dude'll always have to have his own way. He'll never compromise. And isn't a little compromise here and a big compromise there what life is all about?

Chapter 2 - The Birth of Paul, And Another Battle

After that first night back on the old sauce, Walter's confidence starts to shrink, along with "his pride and moral strength" (2.1). He still goes to the bar on Fridays, but doesn't come home quite so drunk. He makes his own breakfast and brings his wife a cup of tea when he's done. Mrs. Morel, though, just criticizes the tea and makes him leave.
During this time, Mrs. Morel spends her days mostly going outside to the ash pit and talking to other wives. It's their regular Ash Pit and Dish Circle. One day, Mrs. Morel summons her neighbor Mrs. Kirk and asks for a woman named Aggie Bower. It looks like the baby is coming.
Not so fast. That itty bitty infant ain't coming out easy. Mrs. Morel experiences difficulty in giving birth to this kid, just like she has with her other kids. And Walter isn't home for the birth, of course. She figures he stopped at the pub.
When dude finally does get home, Mrs. Morel tells him to leave, though she actually wants him to kiss her. He wants to kiss her, too, but neither one of them will make a move. Ugh, relationships. Use your words, people.
After the birth, Mrs. Morel hangs out during the day with Mr. Heaton, the local preacher, a widower who likes to talk to her. Walter comes home and half-embarrasses Heaton with his rude miner-talk.
After Heaton leaves, Mrs. Morel and Walter have another argument. Are you getting the gist of their extremely functional relationship yet? One night, after Heaton has been over, Mrs. Morel goes out with the children. Walter has kicked William, and she'll never forgive him for it. The new baby seems to have a face that's always sad, and this weighs on Mrs. Morel. She begins to wonder what the future holds for her little boy, and suddenly decides to name him Paul. Probably not because she's obsessed with Peter, Paul, and Mary. That was us.
On another night, Walter comes home surly and wants to know if there's food. Mrs. Morel tells him to do things for himself—really, come on. But as he goes about doing that, he drops a drawer of kitchen stuff, and kicks it before it hits the ground, sending it flying into Mrs. Morel's face. Ouchies. She starts bleeding badly from her brow.
Walter feels terrible and tries to help her. The next day, Mrs. Morel tells William and Annie that she banged her head on a kitchen latch when a candle blew out. The children seem to know better, though. When Walter gets out of bed the next Sunday, he decides that he no longer cares what his family thinks of him. Whenever he enters a room in the house, the family shrinks away from him. When he goes to the pub, though, people welcome him like a brother and make a seat for him. So he starts going with the second option more and more often. (We saw this coming.)
The next Wednesday, Walter sneaks into the house, completely broke, and takes money from Mrs. Morel's purse to go drinking. Still, because Walter is a Grade A Class Act, he pretends to be offended when his wife accuses him of taking the money. Then he makes himself a hobo-style bindle, saying that he's going to leave the house forever.
Mrs. Morel is mad, but also a little frightened by the idea that Walter might go live with another woman and work in some other pit. At the end of the day, she depends on the little income he brings home. This is not a good situation for anyone. Mrs. Morel knows that she once loved her husband, and doesn't anymore. We're pretty sure they should get a divorce, but it doesn't look like things are headed that way, does it?

Chapter 3 - The Casting Off of Morel — The Taking on of William

The next week, Walter's temper is worse than ever. He starts using his money to buy all kinds of gimmicky medicines and vitamins. If only he'd lived in the age of Red Bull. Right on cue, Walter Morel gets sick and needs Mrs. Morel to take care of him. The problem is, he wants her to keep doing everything for him even after he gets better. So what does Walter start doing? He starts faking being sick. This is basically a case of Munchausen Syndrome.
Anyway, Mrs. Morel goes along with the ruse, and, for a while, the house is actually fairly peaceful. The sad reality is that Mrs. Morel only starts treating Walter better because she really doesn't care about him anymore. Seventeen months after Paul is born, Mrs. Morel has another baby. Little William grows bigger and becomes more active, while Paul gets thinner and more delicate, following his mother around like a shadow. What a nerd. (Don't get us wrong, we love nerds.) Paul is also prone to bouts of depression.
One day, a neighbor named Mrs. Anthony says that William ripped the collar of her son's shirt. She's pretty upset about this business, but Mrs. Morel defends William. He's her kid, after all. When she asks William about the incident that night, William claims that Alfred ran off with his "cobbler" (some sort of British chestnut-on-a-string thingy) and William chased after him for it and accidentally ripped off his collar when reaching for him. But just when things seem resolved, Walter comes home that night looking for William. It's clear that Mrs. Anthony has told him what happened, and he's ready to hit his son for it. Mrs. Morel scolds Walter for siding so readily against his own son. But when William enters the house, Walter jumps up to hit him anyway. Mrs. Morel leaps between Walter and William and tells her husband he'll have to fight her to get to William. This relationship just keeps getting better and better.
When the children are old enough to be left alone, Mrs. Morel joins a group of women in the "Co-operative Wholesale Society," and starts writing papers to read aloud at public meetings. The narrator tells us that some husbands don't like this club because it gives women too much independence. When William turns thirteen, Mrs. Morel gets him a job in the Co-op office. Walter says William will make more money in the mine, but Mrs. Morel says there's no way William's following his father into the pit. Soon, William starts to hang out with all the fancy people of Bestwood. He tells his younger brother Paul about all the pretty girls he meets. Sometimes, girls will come to the Morels' door and ask for William, and Mrs. Morel will give them a hard time. Like any good parent would, really. But she's going to have to let him have his own life eventually. Right? Right?
When he's nineteen, William leaves the Co-op office and gets another job in Nottingham for nearly double the pay. Both Mrs. And Mr. Morel brim with pride. Then he gets a job in London for four times the money, which is incredible. His mother doesn't know whether to rejoice or grieve, though, because she's worried about how hard he's working. Also, she's obviously creepily attached to the dude, so she doesn't want him to leave. As the days count down to William's departure, Mrs. Morel grows more depressed.

Chapter 4 - The Young Life of Paul

As the narrator informs us, Paul is small and built like his mother. (We're not really sure exactly what this means, but we're guessing we're supposed to think it's bad.) He's pale and quiet, and seems old for his age. He hangs out with Annie a lot, who has turned into a tomboy by this point in the book. Nice. That Paul's a weird one, though. One day, Paul burns Annie's doll, and seems to take some sort of sick pleasure in watching it melt and burn. This sounds like the kind of story that you hear about how serial killers spent their childhoods.
Anyway, like William and Annie, Paul dislikes his father. One day, he comes home and sees his mother with a swollen eye, and Walter standing nearby with his head down. William tries to go after his dad, but his mom tells them that enough is enough for one night. The family soon moves to a new house. It sits on a big hill, and the wind hits it very hard, giving it a spooky vibe. Cue horror film music here. Maybe it looks like this house? Paul starts to develop a private religion that's based on praying for his father to stop drinking. He also prays for his father to die sometimes, because he's wreaking such havoc on his life. Mr. Morel starts to become more threatening when he comes home from the pub. In response, the family basically stonewalls him. Still no good news on the familial relationship front in this novel.
Well, maybe this one thing: Walter becomes his best self when he has something to do at home, like mend his boots. In these cases, the children will actually join him and be happy. Paul and his mom's relationship grows ever more intimate. For instance, Paul knows his mother regrets that path she's taken in life, and it kills him not to be able to fill this void for her. To this end, Paul loves to sleep in the same bed as his mother. Someone call Freud for us, please?
Now, the book really starts to speak of Paul and Mrs. Morel's relationship in disturbingly romantic terms. When Paul brings his mother flowers, Mrs. Morel answers, "'Pretty!' […] in a curious tone, of a woman accepting a love-token" (4.149). Mrs. Morel clearly loves William the most; but when William moves to Nottingham for work, she has no choice but to turn to Paul as her new closest companion. That is, no choice if she's going to continue spending all her affection on her sons, thereby stunting their development, rather than on bettering her own relationship or life. The children of Paul's neighborhood are very close, since there are so few of them. At night, they meet by the one lamppost on their street to play. These days, Walter's hours at the pit aren't always great. He comes home in an ill temper when there's no work, and complains about how he's the only one in the family who isn't wasteful. William moves away, and since he has to spend a lot of money when he first arrives at London, he can't send much home. Therefore, the Morels are even poorer that autumn. William then comes home for five days that Christmas.
Like any young person totally unwise about money, William has spent every penny he has on Christmas presents. At least he's not selfish, right? When he leaves, the family goes into mourning. Stuff is a lot more awkward without him, on the home front. Later, William gets a chance to travel to the Mediterranean on his vacation, and his mother tells him to go. But he uses his vacation to come home instead, and she's secretly relieved and overjoyed by this.
Wow, Mrs. Morel: are you ever going to relax your vice grip on your sons' lives? Given what seems to qualify as character development in this book—i.e., characters face the same problems over and over again and make little to no progress—we're not too hopeful.

Chapter 5 - Paul Launches into Life

As the years roll by, Walter Morel starts having accidents all the time. He's kind of an oaf, you see. One day, a lad in pit clothes comes to the Morels' door and says Walter has hurt his leg at work, so they've taken him away to the hospital. When she returns, she tells the family that Walter's leg is busted up pretty badly, with bits of bone sticking out of his leg. Gross.
The children realize that, despite their mother trying to minimize the severity of the whole mess for them, things aren't looking great for their father. As she sits in her rocking chair, Mrs. Morel is startled to find herself feeling a deep indifference to her husband and his pain. This failure to love her husband hurts her. We're honestly not sure why she's surprised about this indifference at this point in the book, because it's been evident both to her and to us before. Unsurprisingly, without the bane of all of their existences in the house, the family sans Walter does quite well. Since Walter can't spend all of their money on booze while he's in the hospital, the family is actually happy and peaceful. During this time, Paul proudly declares himself the new man of the house.
None of them will admit it, but they all felt a little regret when their father is ready to come home. By this point, Paul is fourteen and looking for a job. That might sound young, but as your grandpa probably told you a million times, boys were tougher back in the old days. Oh, and there weren't those pesky child labor laws to contend with. (Just kidding, those are great and very important laws to have around.) Paul's dream is to earn enough money to live on, to live in a cottage with his mother after his father dies. Um, what young boy in his right mind wants to move in with his mother when he grows up? We're really starting to worry about you, buddy. Oh, and Paul also wants to spend his life painting and going out whenever he likes. Now that's more like it, sir. To apply for a job, Paul copies a letter of application that William has written in "admirable business language" (5.76). Paul's handwriting, though, is terrible, and William gets impatient with him. William, meanwhile, befriends people of a higher station in life, and starts to fancy himself a gentleman. But he can't seem to handle the pace of change in London, and feels as though the ground under his feet won't stay still.
He starts to write to his mother of a young woman he (and apparently, every man he knows) has been after. Mrs. Morel, though, says he might not like the girl so much once he's won her from other men. Zing. While this is all going on, Paul gets called in for an interview with a manufacturer of surgical appliances. He's only written four letters, and gets an interview off of his third. If only it were that easy for a young person to land an interview these days.
His mother goes with him on the train to the manufacturer's factory. Paul is sick with anxiety about meeting strangers to be accepted or rejected, and we all know he can't go anywhere without his mommy. In these scenes, our friendly author D.H. Lawrence keeps dropping not-so-subtle hints about there being something romantic between Paul and his mother: "The mother and son walked down Station Street, feeling the excitement of lovers having an adventure together" (94).
They arrive at the town early, so they visit some shops before eventually going to Thomas Jordan's (the manufacturer's) office. Paul is intimidated by Mr. Jordan, who is a small man who speaks sharply. Jordan asks Paul if he wrote the letter of application, and Paul says yes, even though it was William's letter he copied. Afterward, Mrs. Morel takes Paul to a restaurant. Throughout the day, Paul is humiliated by how the more fashionable people are looking at him and his mother, especially women. Maybe he's developing a mite of common sense? Once all this is over, the narrator ironically notes that Paul "had spent a perfect afternoon with his mother." Shortly after, Mrs. Morel receives a picture in the mail of William's sweetheart. The young woman's name is Louisa Lily Denys Western. Mrs. Morel feels that the picture reveals too much of the woman's shoulders. Gasp—not the shoulders.
Watching Paul leave for work the first time, Mrs. Morel congratulates herself on sending two men (Paul and William) into the world of business. She feels that their accomplishments are her own, and that this partially makes up for all of her frustrated desires. We'd recommend living your own life, but, you know. Mrs. Morel has different ideas.
When Paul first gets to the factory, there isn't much going on. Eventually, a young clerk comes and gives him a tour of the dark, dirty building. Eventually, Paul's new boss, Mr. Pappleworth shows up and sits down with him. The man tells Paul to copy out all the letters. Paul likes copying the letters, but he writes very slowly and badly. When Pappleworth comes back, he makes fun of Paul's writing and orders him to write more quickly. Suddenly, a bell rings next to Paul's ear, and Pappleworth comes over and talks to someone through a speaking tube, which amazes Paul. We wonder what'd happen if we showed him an iPhone. It turns out that Paul's slow work is putting the whole factory behind, so Pappleworth does the rest of the copying himself. Not a good sign for his first day at work. Things don't get much better once he's settled into the job. Paul starts working twelve-hour days with a long commute. He starts coming home looking pale and tired. Soon, though, he decides he actually likes the factory and the people who work there.
Paul finds the men at the factory common, but gets on very well with the women, who find him gentle and respectful. Each day, the woman named Polly heats up his dinner for him. Who wants to heat up our dinners for us tonight? Anyone? Anyone?

Chapter 6 - Death in the Family

This chapter opens with a description of the youngest Morel child, Arthur, who is just like his father. He always complains about work and can never wait to get back to his leisure activities. Oh yeah, and he has a terrible temper, of course.
His mother often wearies Arthur with all her nagging, since he thinks only about himself. He hates anything that stands in the way of his amusement and self-interest. Over time, Arthur also comes to hate his father. Walter bullies him. And he's generally a pretty detestable guy, if we do say so ourselves. Once Arthur reaches adolescence, Walter's treatment of him becomes downright brutal. Mrs. Morel clings more and more to Paul as her only companion in life.
Right on cue, William becomes engaged to his brunette girlfriend in London. He buys her a very expensive engagement ring. All he talks about in his letters is how he and his girlfriend walk around town like big shots. This time around, he comes home for Christmas with his fiancée, but no presents.
Mrs. Morel welcomes the girl into her home coldly… not that we're the least bit surprised about that. William's fiancé, Lily, has an annoying habit of talking to William as if his family weren't around. William winces at this. After William leads Lily to bed, he comes back downstairs with a sore heart. He apologizes for her nervous behavior, but Mrs. Morel assures him that she likes the young woman. Yeah right, lady. When he's alone with his mother, William confides that he wishes Lily wouldn't put on such airs. He admits to his mother that his soon-to-be-wife isn't serious and can't think about deep things.
Why is he marrying her, then? Someone tell us, please.
Mrs. Morel probably loves to hear all of this smack talk about Lily. But she makes a half-hearted defense of Lily to her son, because it's the right thing to do, after all. William further admits that Lily's family doesn't have the same depth as the Morels, or the same principles.
In the coming days, William takes his siblings on his walks with his wife. It's clear that Paul really admires Lily, which doesn't sit well with Mrs. Morel. Obviously. Anytime any of her sons aren't paying attention to her, Mrs. Morel pretty much loses it. Kind of like this Siberian Husky. At Easter, William comes home alone and admits to his mother that when he's not with Lily, he doesn't feel anything for the girl. When he's with her, though, he loves her. Mrs. Morel tells him this isn't a very good love to base a marriage on. Well, duh.
As time passes, all of William's strength and money goes into keeping Lily supplied with expensive clothes and jewelry. Paul, meanwhile, gets a slight raise at Jordan's, but his mother still worries about his health. On his half-holiday, she invites him out to visit a family friend on a farm. When they get to the farm, the first person they see is a girl of fourteen. The young girl comes near him and he makes a small remark about some flowers. The girl's name is Miriam Leivers. She doesn't really know anything about what he's saying about flowers. She blushes. You know those early-20th-century British girls, they don't know anything about anything. Sigh.
Paul doesn't pay particular attention to her at first. Miriam feels resentful; she thinks Paul looks at her as a common girl. But she thinks herself to be refined, like Scott's "Lady of the Lake." When Paul and his mother leave through the beautiful fields, they both want to cry from happiness. Mrs. Morel starts talking about how she'd be a better wife to Edgar than Mrs. Leivers, which is gosh golly gee-darn awkward, if you ask us.
Later, William comes home on another visit with Lily. The two of them spend time walking with Paul and lying in the meadows. Paul gets flowers and threads them in Lily's hair. For some reason that no one understands, this makes William angry at his fiancée. William is irritable whenever Lily is around his family; he's more aware of how superficial she is at these times. Mrs. Morel and William both hate Lily for treating Anne like a servant, getting her to do her washing for her and such. Even as he complains about Lily, William talks about marrying her. His mother advises against it, but he says he's gone too far to break things off. Is that even possible?
Mrs. Morel admits that she loses sleep over the thought of William marrying Lily. She warns her son about how much a bad marriage can destroy your life (hint hint: she's talking about herself).
When William and Lily are gone, Mrs. Morel admits to Paul that she feels comforted by the fact that Lily will keep William too poor to get married. This makes us lol. The next time William comes home, he's not in great health. One day, he shows his mother a big red rash that he thinks his shirt collar has made on his throat. Mrs. Morel gives him ointment and he feels better and heads back to London. Soon, a telegram comes from London saying that he's ill. Mrs. Morel comes to see him, and realizes that he's delirious with sickness. A doctor comes to William's home and announces that he has pneumonia and some other strange type of disease… Something that has started in his throat and is moving up his face. Scary stuff.
The doctor can only hope that the sickness won't reach William's brain. Before we even know what's happening, though, William dies.
The family brings William home from London. Mr. Morel gets five friends to help him carry the heavy coffin. Mrs. Morel becomes visibly upset over the swaying of her son's coffin in the men's hands. The men are all strong miners, but they have trouble with William's weight. After this, Mrs. Morel "could not be persuaded […] to talk and take her old bright interest in life" (138). Paul tries to talk to her about his life, but she takes no notice. He asks her what's the matter, and she irritably answers that he knows what's the matter.
Finally, Paul also gets pneumonia while walking home with a Christmas box. People got pneumonia a lot back then. He's in bed for seven weeks. One aunt remarks that his illness might have actually saved his mother, since it took her mind off William.
When Paul finally recovers, Mrs. Morel is changed forever. As the narrator tells us, her "life now rooted itself in Paul" (6.486). As far as we're concerned, this woman was always rooting her life in her sons. But whatever. Walter and Mrs. Morel are gentle with each other for a while after William's death. Which is kind of nice. Peace. And quiet.

Chapter 7 - Lad-and-Girl Love

Now that William's dead, Paul starts hanging out more at Willey Farm with the young Leiver boys. Miriam refuses to hang with him, though, since she believes she's a refined lady and whatnot. The narrator tells us that Miriam is like her mother, in the sense that both are very deep, "mystical" thinkers—your regular old loner types, you know. Miriam starts to watch Paul wistfully, because he's delicate and swift, not like the rest of the boys she knows. She also admires Paul's education, which makes her all the more worried that he'll see her as a "swine-girl" (7.4).
That's not the most attractive descriptor, we agree. She thinks that if only she could have him in her arms and make him depend on her, she could love him. This sounds a bit like how Mrs. Morel feels about her sons, doesn't it?
One day, Miriam becomes aware that Paul is watching her as she goes about her household duties. She becomes ashamed, because she doesn't want him to see her do this kind of "lowly" work. When the boys get home, Edgar scolds her for ruining supper. He and the boys make fun of her in front of Paul. Another day, Paul, Miriam, and Mrs. Leivers go out to examine a bird's nest. Mrs. Leivers encourages Paul to poke his finger into the opening of the nest. When he follows her orders, Paul comments on how warm the inside of the nest is, and compares it to having his finger inside the body of the bird. Like we said, this guy does and says stuff that seems a lot like what serial killers do and say during their childhoods. At least in the movies. Paul and Miriam fall in love, starting with their common affection for nature.
One day, Paul and Miriam go to a swing inside one of the barns. Paul tells Miriam to sit, but she wants him to go first, taking pleasure in giving something up for a man. Okay, Miriam. Finally, she agrees to get on, and he pushes her. She is suddenly afraid at the feeling of his "thrust" (7.113), and her fear goes "down to the bowels" (7.113). In case you didn't notice, the whole event is narrated in really sexual terms.
Pretty soon, Paul's sympathy splits between his mother, Miriam, and Miriam's brother. Miriam soon expresses her resentment about being a girl to Paul. She tells Paul that she wishes she could go out and do something great with her life. But only men are allowed to do all that. Paul doesn't really agree with what she says, but he does offer to teach her math. What a magnanimous dude.
She agrees, but their first lesson doesn't go well. Paul gets frustrated with her for being so dependent on him. Miriam has an emotional way of engaging with everything in life, even math. Paul thinks she should just use logic, but she can never be completely logical, and this frustrates him. No one can make him as happy or as angry as Miriam can. Now that sounds like love to us.
When Paul finally goes back to the factory after his illness, the conditions there are better. He's allowed to attend an Art School for one night each week, and can leave work earlier on Thursday and Friday evening. Whenever Paul comes home from hanging out with Miriam, he can feel his mother's disapproval. Mrs. Morel can feel the girl drawing Paul away from her. And she won't stand for that, will she?
She accuses Paul of dating or courting Miriam. But Paul denies it. After a brief argument, he kisses his mom's forehead and goes to bed. By the time he's nineteen, Paul isn't earning all that much; but he's happy. On a Good Friday holiday, he organizes a walk to a place called "the Hemlock Stone." A whole crowd of people comes out for the walk. When they reach the famous rock, though, none of them are all that impressed. Two guys carve their initials into it, but Paul doesn't, thinking that he'll find some more legit way to immortalize himself.
Miriam loves to be alone with Paul, but he soon runs ahead to join the rest of the gang. Miriam lingers behind, alone with Nature. Zen.
Soon, Miriam realizes that she's alone on a road she doesn't know. She runs ahead, and, turning the corner of a lane, runs into Paul. She has some sort of religious experience at this moment, realizing that she has to love Paul, and that he must belong to her. Intense, girl.
Paul is concerned about his mother, and this concern stabs Miriam, because she realizes that she might never take Mrs. Morel's place in Paul's heart. That's a super rational fear, if you ask us. We know all about the grip Mrs. Morel has on Paul.
She also starts to become more and more aware of the little insults Paul's family is paying her, and stops going to his house to ask for him on Thursdays. Paul is annoyed with her for not coming to his house. He says that if she won't come to his house, he won't meet with her at all. Sheesh, Paul. Need things on your own terms much? This effectively ends most of Paul and Miriam's hangout time. Mrs. Morel is happy about that, of course, but both of the children are unhappy. But then, for the first time ever, the family is going to take a vacation together. Paul has finally saved enough money for them to do this. They settle on a furnished cottage for two weeks. Miriam is invited to come.
The next day, they all pile into a carriage and drive to the cottage. During the trip, Paul sticks with his mother "as if he were her man" (7.450). All righty then. Miriam and Paul have many questionably romantic moments on the trip, but their "purity" prevents them from kissing or anything fun like that.

Chapter 8 - Strife in Love

Arthur Morel (remember him? we know we haven't heard much about the guy in a while) gets a job at an electrical plant. He doesn't drink or gamble, but always finds a way to get into fights. Paul complains about Arthur never coming home. Paul is clearly growing more irritable with age. The shining spirit of his childhood is leaving him, and this bothers Mrs. Morel. She's always looking for something to worry about when it comes to her sons.
They soon receive a letter from Arthur saying that he got fed up with one of his coworkers and enlisted in the army on a whim. He's a little bit impulsive, you might say. He also took money from the army for enlisting, which basically means they own him for the next few years. With Arthur gone, Paul spends more time at home.
But one day, Paul meets Miriam walking with another girl (a blonde, dun dun dun…) at a place called Castle Gate. The woman's name is Clara Dawes, and she shows little interest in Paul. Paul asks who she is, and you can already see a spark of romantic interest in him. We find out that Clara is separated from her husband, Baxter. And that she has taken up the cause of women's rights since the separation. You go, girl. The next time Paul visits Miriam, she's alone at her home. She starts asking him about Clara, trying to figure out if he finds Clara attractive. But Paul won't take the bait. Miriam asks him specifically what he likes about Clara. He says he appreciates her form, at least through an artist's eye. He starts to get irritated by Miriam's brooding, and wonders if Miriam likes Clara because Clara has something against men.
He suddenly accuses Miriam of making him feel too spiritual. He wishes he could kiss her on a totally spiritual level. When Paul goes into the barn, he finds his bicycle's front wheel punctured. He starts working on the wheel, and Miriam brings him a light. At this moment, she suddenly wants to run her hands over him.
He straightens up with his back to her. She runs her hands down his sides and says he's very fine. He laughs, but his blood rises to a flame at her touch. Finally, some touching.
Miriam tests the bike's brakes and knows they're broken. She tells Paul he should fix them, but he waves her off. He rides home very quickly on a dangerous road, as if recklessness were some sort of revenge he was taking on her.
Then the book gives a description of how the Leivers share the Morels' pew at church. Paul adores sitting between his two great loves, Miriam and his mother. This love triangle is starting to get a little old, isn't?
Paul eventually demands to know why his mother doesn't like Miriam. Mrs. Morel replies that she doesn't know, but that she's tried and tried to like the girl. Paul feels the same way as her when he's with Miriam. He feels like she doesn't want them to be two people, but wants them to unite into one. He and Miriam almost broach the topic one day, the topic of their love, but Paul retreats into superficial conversation instead. Wuss.
Briefly, we get a comedic scene to remind us that Walter Morel is still alive. He comes out of his washtub looking for a towel, and Mrs. Morel calls him chubby, even though she knows he's still got a young man's hard body. Paul hangs out with Miriam and co. some more.
Mrs. Morel chides Paul for being too obsessed with Miriam some more. Paul tells his mother that he doesn't love Miriam, but there are certain things he can only talk about with her. Like what? his mother wants to know.
He tells his moms that she and Miriam are interested in different things because she (his mother) is old. He immediately regrets saying this, and suddenly realizes that he is everything to his mother, and that she is a supreme being for him. He assures his mother that he'll never love Miriam as much as her.
As he bends to kiss her, she throws her arms around his neck and buries her face in his shoulder, crying. Mrs. Morel says something about how she's never had a husband, not really. Which sort of implies that she wishes Paul were her husband. Weird. Paul strokes her hair and presses his mouth to her throat (still weird). His mother talks about how Miriam exults in taking him away from her. As they part, Walter stumbles in and they all get into a bad fight.
Mrs. Morel, ever the delicate flower, faints. Paul helps his mother to bed, and tells her not to sleep with Walter. But she insists. Paul goes to bed and realizes that he still loves his mother more than anyone. Oh dear.

Chapter 9 - Defeat of Miriam

You can guess what this chapter is about from the title. It's obviously Mrs. Morel that's doing the defeating, too. So, yeah. Paul resolves never to be with Miriam. Over time, Miriam senses his distance and starts to give up on the idea that she can sacrifice herself to Paul's love. One day, Paul does go to hang out with her at her house. While there, he acts like a total jerk to her. For instance, he tells her that she can't approach anything she loves without trying to suck the life out of it. Which is a bit harsh, don't you think?
Finally, Miriam asks him why he's sad. He says he isn't sad, only normal. She persists, and he gets mad at her for asking. He picks up a stick and starts thrusting it into the earth (sexual imagery?). She asks him to stop doing it (yup). He suddenly tells her that they need to break off their "friendship." He's tired of the whole "will they or won't they" game. We are too.
It's another week before Paul goes back to Willey farm. He starts taking comfort in hanging with Miriam's mom. I guess he's really got a thing for moms, not just his own. In Miriam and Paul's next conversation, Paul says it's not fair for him to visit her without intending to marry. Miriam just wishes other people would stop saying things and leave them alone. Paul asks Miriam if she thinks they should marry. Ball's in your court, Miriam. But she won't let him get away with asking-her-to-marry-him-without-really-asking-at-all, and says no. When they resolve not to be alone together, they realize that their lives won't actually change all that much. Before long, though, they're back alone again. What is with these two?
Paul continues to give Miriam French lessons. One day, he messes up a romantic passage, and Miriam can feel the tension between them. She still clings to the belief that she's his main need in life. Miriam wants to prove that Paul needs her, so for some reason she invites him to Willey farm to come meet Mrs. Clara Dawes (the girl Paul had a crush on, of course). Basically, Miriam thinks that if she puts a lower quality woman in front of Paul, he'll run back to her (Miriam). Paul gets excited about meeting Clara, though. It's totally possible this plan could backfire.
Paul leaves to go see Edgar in the fields. He talks to Edgar about Clara and makes fun of her negativity. They both agree (a little too emphatically) that they don't like her. We think Paul and Edgar doth protest too much.
Paul goes back to hang with Clara and Miriam. He enjoys some witty repartee with Clara, as she's an independent, feminist type, and he's, well, a man of his times. Like, when the three of them go for a walk, Paul mentions how nice it'd be to be an old-school knight. And Clara says that he'd probably want all women to be shut up in their homes while he was off knighting it up. Haha.
After this, Paul takes his mother to Lincoln. She looks frail sitting across from him in the railway carriage. He makes a joke about his mother being his girlfriend when they're out for dinner. Under the circumstances, it's not remotely funny. At one point, though, he actually gets angry at his mother for getting old, and not in a joking way. After a while, they get happy again over tea. He starts to tell her about Clara. Mrs. Morel wants to know why he likes her. He admits that he likes Clara's defiance, and probably wants to break her. Yikes.
Mrs. Morel doesn't know what she wants for Paul, but she does know it's not Miriam or Clara. We also find out at this point that Annie is getting married.
The wedding happens pretty much right away. Arthur comes home and looks great in his army uniform. No one really cares about any of this. Paul promises his mother that, unlike Annie, he'll live with her forever and never marry. Mrs. Morel says she doesn't want to leave him with no wife. He says she's only fifty-three, and still has plenty of time left. Cue the foreboding music.
After Annie's married, Mrs. Morel buys Arthur out of the army. He is wild with joy, and becomes affectionate to her after this. One night, a woman named Beatrice comes over to smoke cigarettes with Arthur. She wants a puff of his, but he offers instead to blow smoke from his mouth into hers. Things get childhood flirty, and the two of them make out. To no one's surprise, Paul and Clara and Miriam hang out some more.
Next, we read a letter from Paul to Miriam explaining they can never be physically intimate because they're just too different. In the letter, he calls Miriam a nun, which totally tears at Miriam's heart. She seals the letter and opens it one year later to show her mother. She writes back and says that their relationship would have been beautiful except for one little mistake, which she doesn't name. She asks, though, if the mistake was hers.
Now, Paul's twenty-three and unattached. He's still a virgin, but he's been strongly stimulated by his relationship with Miriam. Often, as he speaks to Clara, he feels himself getting aroused. But he feels that his heart still belongs to Miriam. Paul's got ninety-nine problems, and women are at least three of them.

Chapter 10 - Clara

Paul is starting to grow ambitious about his painting. The wife of his boss, Miss Jordan, takes an interest in his career and even invites him to dinners that other artists attend. One day, while he's washing up, his mother comes running in with a letter and shouting. She hugs Paul (probably while he's naked, ick).
She says that Paul's painting has won first prize in a contest. His prize includes twenty guineas, which was a lot in 1913. Paul gets dressed and comes out of the bathroom, suspicious, and examines the letter a long time before he believes it. His mother tends to talk about the accomplishment as theirs instead of his. Again, we're not surprised.
Walter mentions that his dead son William would have been just as great as Paul now is. Uh, thanks, Dad. With Paul and Annie's help, Mrs. Morel starts wearing nicer clothes. Now the only person in the family who isn't moving on up in the world is Walter. Paul declares one day that no matter how fancy he gets, he'll always love the common people best, because they give him warmth. How sweet. Or something.
Arthur comes out of the army to get married. At first, he chafes at his responsibilities as a father. He's irritable with his young wife, who loves him. But then his grit comes out. He buckles down, works hard, and takes on his responsibilities. Paul starts to fall in with political groups through his association with Clara. One day, he's asked to deliver a message to Clara, and he visits her for the first time at her house. She flushes to see him at her door.
He goes into the house and sits down in a kitchen full of white lace, which Mrs. Radford (the house's owner) is working with. Mrs. Radford asks if Paul is "going with" Miriam. Paul starts to stammer an answer. The woman interrupts and says Miriam is a very nice girl, though a bit too much above everyone for her liking. With Paul's help, Clara goes back to working with Paul at Jordan's. One day, he picks up a book near her workbench and realizes she reads French. When he asks her about it, though, she's indifferent to the question. Paul hates her coldness, since he's a crazy hothead.
Another day, he sits down next to her and tells her he's just realized that he's her boss and that she should call him "sir." She turns it back on him by saying that she'd like him to go away, sir. He gets angry at her superiority, but you can tell that he also kind of likes it.
As things go on, the Morel household starts to fall apart. Arthur's getting married, Mrs. Morel isn't well, and Walter ends up in a job that pays less money. Oh, and our boy Paul keeps thinking he owes his life to Miriam, and constantly feels her moral judgment. For Paul's birthday, Clara sends him a nice volume of poetry. He's stunned by the gift. There's a note inside that says Clara feels isolated, and is happy to give him a present. So the two of them start walking together openly, and everyone can see something's going on between them.
Paul, however, continues to convince himself that his relationship with Clara is one of friendship. He keeps telling himself that he can't be with either Clara or Miriam. Maybe if he keeps saying it to himself, it'll become true. This whole time, Miriam remains convinced that Paul will come crawling back to her after he's finished being young and stupid. We think the only person Paul is likely to come crawling back to is his mother. Clara and Miriam pretty much stop hanging out; as a result, Paul rarely sees Miriam. One day, Paul tells Clara one day he can't go to a concert with her because he's going to Willey Farm. Clara acts cold to him about this, so he tries to explain to her why he can't be with Miriam.
He says he wants a give-and-take, not to be kept in someone's pocket. He says Miriam wants him so much that he can't give himself to her. Yes, we think this is kind of a messed up thing to say. Clara does too. She says it's crazy that he's known Miriam for so long and doesn't know her at all.
The truth is, Clara says, that Miriam just wants Paul and not his soul. That stuff is all in Paul's head. Take that, Paul. Feminism. Or something.

Chapter 11 - The Test on Miriam

Like an animal in heat, the arrival of spring makes Paul realize he needs to be with Miriam. The obstacle of physical contact with her remains pretty daunting, though.
For the first time, Paul seems to make a direct connection between his inability to be with Miriam and his connection to his mother. Way to go, Paul. Some progress at last. Now, Mrs. Morel feels that her only role in Paul's life is housework, and she's pretty pissed about it. But Mrs. Morel begins to give up on him, and accept the fact that Miriam will own him. Miriam, not her.
One night, Paul tells Miriam that he's twenty-four and ready to marry. He doesn't have any money, but wants to marry anyway. He asks Miriam if she loves him; she won't admit it, and this really angers him. Finally, he draws her to himself and kisses her.
She stares into his eyes with blazing love. He almost pulls away, but she tells him to kiss her. He asks her if they'll be happy, and she says yes with tears coming to her eyes. He asks if they'll ever have sex, but she says not now. At this, his clasp on her slackens.
She tries to press his arm back around her. He tightens his grip again and asks why it is that they can't have sex. Um, quit pressuring the girl, dude.
Miriam is worried about what will happen if they have sex. Like, maybe Paul won't find it satisfying and will go away forever. After she thinks about it for a long time, though, she decides to submit to his advances like a religious sacrifice. Paul and Miriam start courting each other like lovers. Finally.
One day, Paul climbs a cherry tree and starts ripping cherries off of it. Miriam comes out and sees him. He throws some cherries at her, laughing. Paul asks her if she wants to hang out among the trees, where no one can see them. He says he wishes the darkness were thicker. After he comes down to the ground, he leans back against a tree and pulls her to him. He seems like a stranger to her at this moment, but she submits to him. You guessed it: they have sex.
Shortly after this encounter, Miriam's grandmother falls ill, and Miriam has to go mind the house for her. Eventually the grandmother goes to Derby to stay with her daughter, and Miriam stays alone in the house. Paul visits her. For the rest of their time there, they treat the house as though they're man and wife. One thing he doesn't like about Miriam: how, in his mind, she acts like she's doing him a favor every time they have sex. Of course, the two keep having sex anyway.
Miriam says she'd be more able to get into the sex if they were married. Next thing you know, Paul's back home, telling his mother he won't be going to Miriam's anymore. What. Mrs. Morel is shocked, and doesn't know what to think. There's a quietness about Paul that makes her wonder what's going on. Gradually, Paul stops asking Miriam to have sex with him. He's happy whenever he's around Clara again.
He also starts to spend more time with his guy friends. Eventually, Paul tells Miriam that he's going to stop seeing her. Miriam wants to know why. He says he can't help it.
She wants to know if he's tired of having sex with her. He doesn't give her a satisfying answer, though, and just repeats that he wants to break off their relationship. For the first time, Miriam openly insults Paul—she says he acts like a four-year-old. We agree with her, at least a little bit.
Paul remains calm and says Miriam can now go off and lead an independent life. Miriam admits to herself that her bondage to Paul has kept her life stunted. However, she's still confident that if Paul grows up to be a real man, he'll come crawling back. After they part ways, Paul goes by a pub, flirts with some other girls, and then comes home to tell his mom that he and Miriam are over. So that's that. Right? Wrong.

Chapter 12 - Passion

Over time, Paul begins to make a living off his art. It's not a great living, but there's potential for him to make more money. One day, he tells his mother he's going to become a famous painter who people talk about. We say: you follow your dreams, dude. Ever fickle, Paul doesn't waste much time before making a move on Clara. He takes her in his arms for a moment, then feels shy and runs away from her. Smooth move, Paul.
Later, they go to a movie, and he takes her hand. She doesn't resist, but doesn't exactly squeeze back either. Paul really starts to pine over Clara when she's not around. He starts to hate his weekends because he won't see Clara until Monday. He feels like he's on drugs when he thinks about Clara.
Oh yeah, that's love, all right. One afternoon, Clara just comes out and asks Paul why he left Miriam. He tells her it's simply because he didn't want to marry. Clara's silent for a moment. She asks if Paul doesn't want to marry Miriam in particular, or doesn't want to marry anyone at all. He says: both.
Then Clara compares her age with Paul's, and reminds him that she's six years older. He says it doesn't matter. They kiss some.
Paul asks her why she hated her husband. She just turns and kisses him some more. Then the two of them start to walk down the bank to a river. They come upon two men fishing and walk past shyly. When they're out of sight, he lays down his raincoat and has sex with Clara on top of it. This is all described by the narrator in not-so-subtle terms. When the sex is over, Clara seems unsure of herself. Paul tells her not to worry. He is madly in love with her.
They stop in at a teahouse on the way home. An old woman gives them flowers. When they leave, Paul wants to make sure Clara doesn't feel like she's done something wrong. When Paul gets back home, his mom browbeats him for being late. Her face is all white, and Paul realizes that she's getting older and sicker. He tells her he's been with Clara, and his mom says Clara's a married woman and people are going to talk. He says he doesn't care. But Mrs. Morel says it's Clara he should be worried about. People weren't exactly kind to women who have extra-marital relations back then. During this time, Paul still walks with Edgar and Miriam after church, and one day finds himself alone with Miriam. It satisfies his ego to know he's the most interesting topic of conversation to her. Miriam says it must be hard on Clara's reputation for her and Paul to always be seen together. She also says it's a shame that Paul can do as he likes because he's a man. Paul says it's superficial for a woman to worry so much about her reputation. He just doesn't get how it's different for men and women. Typical man, right?
Miriam finds out that Clara is coming over to meet Mrs. Morel, and realizes that things have moved quickly. She hates the thought that Paul's family might accept Clara. She says she might pop by the Morels' house to say hi to Clara. It angers Paul that she just invites herself over like this, but he says "okay" anyway.
When Clara arrives at the Morels' house, Paul cringes at how tiny and frail his mother looks beside Clara. Mrs. Morel feels sorry for Clara, knowing that no woman will keep Paul.
Guess everyone's feeling sorry about everyone at this stage. Paul takes Clara into a room and shows her all the family photos. She feels like she's being taken into the family. Mrs. Morel and Clara start to talk about people they know in Nottingham, and Paul knows they'll get along. Walter comes down from an afternoon nap and is surprisingly gallant in his greeting to Clara.
Then Miriam shows up, and she knows, just by looking at 'em, that Paul and Clara are in love. Now things get really awkward. Miriam isn't great at hiding her displeasure. We understand. Breakups are hard.
In church, Miriam sees Paul doing all the things for Clara that he used to do for her. Paul knows that she sees this, and takes some sort of sadistic pleasure in hurting her. Ugh.
Clara accuses him of not being able to give up Miriam. He says there's nothing to give up; they'll only ever be friends. Paul asks his mother if she likes Clara. Mrs. Morel says yes, but also says that Paul will get tired of her. Paul goes up to his bed and cries into his pillow, biting his lips until they bleed. Paul and Clara hang out more times. Mushy mushy.

Chapter 13 - Baxter Dawes

Paul's in a pub one night and sees Baxter Dawes, Clara's estranged husband. Paul knows from talk around town that Baxter's life is falling apart. Baxter and Paul are confirmed as enemies. There's a strange sort of intimacy between them, kind of like the way that there's intimacy between Batman and the Joker. Paul offers to buy Baxter a drink, which is customary because Paul is the superior employee at Jordan's. Baxter wants nothing to do with his offer. Paul and Baxter rag on each other a while. It's insinuated that Baxter knows what goes on between Paul and Clara. Eventually, the two start really fighting.
The bouncer throws Baxter out of the bar, even though he tries to argue that Paul started the conflict. See, Mr. Dawes is actually getting thrown out because he has the lower reputation of the two. Paul doesn't want his mother to get wind of this encounter with Dawes. But keeping the secret makes him feel ashamed around her. He doesn't see Mr. Dawes for days after that. But one day, Paul nearly collides with him as he's running up the stairs at Jordan's. Paul says sorry and rushes on, though but wants to make something of it, telling Paul that he'll answer for what he did at the pub. Eek.
Dawes ends up grabbing Paul by the arm, and Mr. Jordan comes running out of his office, telling Dawes not to come into work half-drunk. Dawes says he's no more drunk than Jordan himself, which is a big no-no. Shmoop does not recommend talking to your boss that way. Jordan tells Dawes to get back to work before he fires him. The two get into a kerfuffle, and Dawes ends up assaulting Jordan, who presses charges against him. One day, Paul is hanging out with Clara, and she asks him if he'll always be at Jordan's. He says no—he'll move abroad eventually. This is news to Clara.
That spring, they go to the seaside and live as man and wife. Mrs. Radford sometimes visits them. She realizes that he likes to be alone during the day, and wants her by night. He admits this is true. He asks her if she'd ever like to get married. He says he'd marry her and have children, but she admits she doesn't want a divorce from Baxter, though she doesn't know why. For a moment, Paul and Clara hate each other, though they laugh.
Clara then goes to live with her mother in a place called Mapperly Plains. One night, as she and Paul are walking along, they run into Baxter again. Clara now tells Paul that he knows nothing about her as a person, that he talks on and on about the cruelty of women when he should talk about the cruelty of men. Paul is angry at the accusation that he knows nothing about her.
Over time, Paul and Clara start to realize that having sex with each other never really achieves what they want it to. At best, one of them takes pleasure while the other doesn't. One night, as Paul is walking away from Clara's, Dawes appears and punches him in the face. Dawes basically kicks the living daylights out of him. When he regains consciousness, Paul washes his blood off in a lake. He realizes he's filled by the urge to see his mother. Yep, his mother. Not Clara. Or Miriam.
Later, he wakes up in his mother's arms. He admits that Baxter Dawes was the one who hurt him, though he insists that he's not in much pain, which is a lie. He has a dislocated shoulder and some bronchitis settling in. Now his mom is very old and pale. We find the situation pretty stressful, too.
The Morels decide to tell everyone Paul was in a bicycle accident. After this, Paul avoids Clara, but also his mother, since something seems to be between them now. Paul decides to go away for a few days with a friend of his named Newton. For those days, Paul forgets every woman in his life and just enjoys himself. When he goes to see his mother at Annie's, he discovers that Mrs. Morel is sick. He finds out she has a tumor. Her prognosis isn't good.
Mrs. Morel has had the tumor for a long time, and she's been suffering all alone with no one to take care of her (this is a nice guilt trip for Paul). Two doctors visit Mrs. Morel. Dr. Jameson says it's just a tumor and they can "sweal it away." Paul has to leave for work on Monday, and he makes his mother promise him not to get any worse before he's back. He cries all the way to the train station. In the afternoon, he takes another walk with Clara. When he tells her the news, she clutches him to her chest and tells him to try and forget his trouble. Two months pass, and Mrs. Morel isn't all that much better. She just wants to go home.
So they rent a motor-car to drive her home. She is jolly on the trip, but everyone knows she's dying. What will our boy Paul do with out dear old mom, we wonder?

Chapter 14 - The Release

One night when Paul is in Sheffield, a doctor tells him that they have another patient from Nottingham named Dawes. Paul is shocked to hear the news. He decides to visit Baxter, feeling that they share a very close bond in their mutual hatred. When Paul looks at him, he realizes that they're both afraid of the men they become when they're around one another.
You soon realize the narrative has actually jumped backward here, and Paul is talking to Mr. Dawes before they take Mrs. Morel home in the motor-car. Paul tells Dawes that his mother has cancer. Paul jokes about Dawes's condition, and Dawes can detect the misery in Paul's voice. He asks if Mrs. Morel is far gone, and Paul says yes. Paul gets up to go and leaves Dawes a half-crown (a lil bit o' money). Dawes doesn't want it.
The next time Paul sees Clara, he tells her about Dawes being laid up in the hospital. Dawes's illness frightens her deeply. Why? We're not sure.
The next time Paul and Clara walk together, they have a strained conversation about Dawes. No one, ever, is surprised by this awkwardness. Clara goes to visit Dawes, but the two of them don't reconcile. All this while, poor old Mrs. Morel gets more and more frail. Days, months, and weeks pass.
Time really gets on in this book, doesn't it? These days, Paul only really goes to Clara for sex. He's clearly using it to distract himself from his mom's illness.
We feel a little sorry for Paul at this point. Only a little, though, given his general jerkiness, and hopelessness as a human. One day, Paul forgets Clara's birthday. He can only talk to her about his mother, and she feels depressed by him. Paul talks about how his mother clings to life and refuses to die.
Then he visits Dawes again, as always. For the first time, he mentions being with Clara, and says this is why he didn't visit Baxter the Sunday before. He also reveals that Clara is tired of him. Paul admits that he's going to go away when his mother dies, to start a new life. That's a good sign, we guess?
Dawes asks Paul about a scar on his mouth, forgetting that he was the one who put it there. Miriam eventually visits the Morels, and is pained to see the toll that Mrs. Morel's illness has taken on Paul.
The Morels start having friends over at night and staying up late to laugh away their problems. Mrs. Morel can hear them through the floor, and is comforted. Paul reveals to Annie one day that he's going to give their mother all of the morphine they have to try and kill her. Annie tells him to go ahead, but it's not clear whether either one thinks the other is joking.
This is all kind of uncomfortable. The next day, Paul thinks his mom is dying. She isn't. Psyche.
Then Walter gets up for work and thinks that his wife will soon die. He asks Paul if he should stay the day at home, and Paul tells him it'll be fine and to go to work. Walter doesn't want to, but Paul insists.
Finally, Paul leaves the room and goes to a neighbor's house. A while later, Annie comes running across to the neighbor's and announces that their mother is dead. Paul loses his mind and runs into the house to grab his dead mother, wailing. Yup, that's pretty much what we were expecting from him.
He was not fooling us with any of that "I really want my mom to die" business. Walter comes homes and doesn't notice that the blinds are down. Paul tells him about his wife's death. Walter, charming as ever, goes on as if nothing has happened. But grief does weird things to people.
After the funeral, Walter inappropriately talks to Mrs. Morel's relatives and expounds on how much he always tried to do for her, saying that no one could call him a bad husband. Right.
Paul hates his father deeply for this, knowing that he'll go give this same spiel in the pubs. In the wake of his mother's death, Paul starts wandering around. He hasn't slept with Clara in months. Then Dawes visits Paul at the seaside.
The two are starting to get oddly chummy with each other. Like sharing drinks and talking about their girlfriends/wives chummy. Only their girlfriends/wives happen to be the same person. Paul says he thinks Clara wants Dawes back, and says that even when he (Paul) was with Clara, Dawes was always there in the background. Suddenly, the instinct for them to murder each other returns, and they pretty much avoid each other for a while. The next day, Paul and Dawes both go to meet Clara at the train station. Then they all go back to the seaside cottage to hang out together. Partway through the conversation, Clara realizes that Paul might be trying to fix her up with her husband again, and this angers her. She feels like he's taken what he's wanted from her (cough cough sex cough cough) and is now giving her back.
Finally, Paul goes to catch a train, leaving Dawes and Clara alone in the cottage. They ask each other if they want to get back together. Clara embraces him, pulling his face into her shoulder. She begs (or commands, depending on your perspective) him to take her back. Guess this is happening now.

Chapter 15 - Derelict

Paul hardly sees Clara again after she goes with Dawes to Sheffield. Neither Paul nor Walter can stand the empty Morel house, so both go to live in different places. Paul can't paint after his mother's death. He can't do much of anything, really.
To numb the pain, he starts drinking and knocking around the town. This isn't going to end well, is it? Let's find out. Maybe there's a chance for our man Paul yet.
One night, Paul stumbles drunk into his apartment and stares into the fire. He wonders about his mother's struggle and what it was all for. He realizes he's destroying himself, and starts to resist it.
He tells himself that his mother is in him, and that he has to stay alive for her sake. He also tells himself he can either paint or beget children, which would carry on his mother's legacy. One day, he runs into Miriam at church and they go for a walk together. Then he leads her back to his apartment building for supper. That sly dog.
She says she knows about him breaking things off with Clara, then drops a bomb and says she thinks that they should be married. Paul asks why, and she says it's because he's falling apart.
He says he's not sure that marriage would do him much good. He knows that Miriam wants to own him completely, and thinks that this will suffocate him. They banter back and forth being all emo for a while. Miriam keeps hoping Paul will really express a profound interest in marrying her, but he won't take charge like that. Paul similarly keeps hoping Miriam will take charge of the sitch. In the end, neither one will compromise, so they part.
If they had Facebook in those days, they might be "In a relationship," but clearly, "It's complicated." Once Paul's alone again, he gets all dark and twisty.
He whispers "mother" out loud a few times. He almost wants to kill himself to be near her again… Oh boy.
At long last, he decides that he won't give in to death. So he turns with clenched fists and walks quickly back toward the town. We wish you the best, good sir.
We don't believe you'll achieve it, with what we've seen of Paul so far. But hey, people can change. Right?

Sources: Text - Shmoop. For more information read the book.

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