Sons and Lovers

Kurne Williams

Mrs. Buffonge

Summary of Sons and Lovers (pages 1-25)

Date: 12^th January 2012

     The novel opens out with a description of “The Bottoms” neighborhood where the Morel family lives. The family is then introduced to the audience. Mrs. Morel (Gertrude) at present has two children namely William and Annie and she is also expecting her third child. We are later introduced to Mr. Morel (Walter) who is a miner and the sole provider of the family. The main action begins with William attending a wakes on the day the family moves into their new home. William returns home from the wakes in order to have dinner but hurriedly returns to the wakes. He is later joined by his mother and his sister Annie and the group spends some time together at the wakes. However Mrs. Morel tires of it and heads home with Annie. They are soon after joined by William whose enjoyment of the wakes ended when his mother left for home.

   

     Later on the children are put to bed while Gertrude awaits her husband’s return from the bar. The novel then takes us into her reflection of her life. It is revealed from this that she doesn’t want the child she is currently carrying and she despises her husband for his drinking habits. During her process of sewing her husband returns from the bar and an argument formulates about whether or not he was drinking. Gertrude leaves him and goes to bed.

   

     The audiences are then given a background view of their marriage through the literary technique of flashback. Knowledge of Gertrude poverty state growing up is provided. We are then introduced to her old friend John Field. One of the memories of their friendship that she remembers was where she tried to convince John to become a minister against his father’s will. John assisted in Gertrude realizing that being a man isn’t everything.  

      

     Another flashback reveals Gertrude actual meeting with Walter Morel at a Christmas party. Gertrude is asked to dance by Walter but he is turned down so instead the sit and talked. It is then told that they marry the follow Christmas. However like every other marriage it is only a bed of roses in the first 7 months. After this period things began to change as a result of Gertrude finding out that the house they were currently occupying was in face Walter’s mother’s house. That event birth her hostility towards him caused the separatism in their marriage. All her attention and affection was placed on her child instead.

     

     An important incident exposed in this chapter that increased her hostility towards her husband is when Walter cuts William hair when she is asleep. She developed a feeling of betrayal which remained with her throughout the years. The novel then moves back to another one of Walter’s drinking incident. Walter goes out with a friend named Jerry Prudy who Gertrude dislikes. They walked and talked stopping at every pub they could find along the way to Nottingham. This makes Walter very sick. After spending time in a field he returns home and the couple engages in a verbal fight. It ends up with Walter locking Gertrude outside in anger and falling asleep at the table.  Then after an hour of knocking on the door she succeeded in waking Walter up to open the door for her.

Literature Assignment

1 Have u ever been betrayed? Give an example of when you were betrayed? How did you feel? What did you do?

Yes and it was very devastating. It all started when I joined a particular educational institution with very high expectation of furthering my studies or as most people may say move up a notch in terms of academic achievements. Though negativity rang in my ears from all angles about this institution I ignored them and pursued in order to prove these individuals wrong. Unfortunately, I was the one proven wrong. At first, after getting to know my teachers I thought “how could such horrible rumors and scandal be spread about such a superb institution”. However that opinion didn’t last long. Though the institution has many other problems my betrayal story stems from various encounters with a particular teacher. From the unset I was told that he was incapable of teaching but since I’m not one to go with the rumor I decided to judge for myself and to be honest what I concluded was that he was a great pretender. He gave us all false hopes at introduction that we would develop new skill and learn numerous things about the subject from him and being the little naïve beginners that we were we believed assured by his qualifications. To make a long story short it was all a big fat lie.  He turned out to be laid back, selfish, deceptive and ineffectual in delivering to us. I was enraged at the betrayal but did nothing hoping to see a change which never came.

2 Have you ever felt that you were betrayed and in the end misunderstood the situation?

Yes, my sister asked me to take some money off of my phone and I said no as it was not enough and I needed it for a very important purpose. So I left my phone in my room and went to do something else. However, when I came back and checked the phone the money was finished. I was extremely angry as I thought it was her. So I inquired about it and asked her if she took the money, she was very upset that I accused her but I was too enraged to care. Later on when I checked my phone I realized that my phone accidentally sent a picture three times to my overseas cousin and that’s why the money came off. I apologized to my sister and that’s the end of the story.   

3 Look at the various Shakespeare plays that you have studied, why do the characters always seem to resort to violence, trickery and evilness?

One of the most common things amongst majority of the Shakespearean plays is the fact that the antagonist and his/her followers always seems to resort to violence, trickery or evilness. But the real question is why do they do this. The very word antagonist mean a person who is going to opposed to the protagonist (hero) and the most common way to come against someone is through violence, trickery and evilness. They do this because these means are beyond reasonable doubt going to get the results they want which is destruction, whether true reputation or the person themselves. Also it is believed that Shakespeare uses these tools to appeal to the readers emotions in that it makes readers sympathize or repel against a particular character or characters. This in turn adds excitement to the play since readers are more drawn to see the resolution of the play. Additionally it stems from history also and Shakespeare utilizes a lot of history or trends in his plays. Throughout history it is seen that whenever someone or a group is oppose to another person or group, violence, trickery and evilness is what is usually use to get the results wanted so many resort to these thing since they get results more than the clean way (e.g wars). That’s just how men are with their hearts desperately wicked and Shakespeare jus incorporated this into his writings.

4 Look at the background of the text and communicate what is going on in that era?

Winters Tale was written in the seventeenth century

The 17th century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and in that continent was characterized by the Dutch Golden Age, theBaroque cultural movement, the French Grand Siècle dominated by Louis XIV, the Scientific Revolution, and The General Crisis. This last is characterised in Europe most notably by the Thirty Years' War,^[2] the Great Turkish War, the end of the Dutch Revolt, the disintegration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the English Civil War. Additionally this century or period is also the time of Shakespeare’s death 1616.

5 what is the Elizabethan Theatre and give a background?

The History of the Elizabethan Theatre started with the Wandering minstrels who moved from one castle and town to to the next. Any strangers were treated with suspicion during the Elizabethan era, and this also applied to wandering actors, especially when many horrific outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague were occurring. The reputations of Elizabethan actors were that of vagabonds and thieves. Travelling throughout the era was restricted and required a license. Regulations restricting actors soon followed and Licenses were granted to the nobles of England for the maintenance of troupes of players. Thus the Elizabethan Acting Troupes were formed and the History of the Elizabethan Theatre started! 

 Also, according to Wikipedia The Elizabethan era was a time associated with Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry, music and literature. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished, and William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of plays and theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people.   

6 Come up with a picture of the world globe and state what the Theatre of the Absurd is?

    

     

World Globe Photos

A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and confusing situations, and plots that lack realistic or logical development.
According to one writer Theater of the Absurd came about as a reaction to World War II.  It took the basis of existential philosophy and combined it with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world which cannot be logically explained, life is in one word, ABSURD!
Needless to say, this genre of theatre took quite some time to catch on because it used techniques that seemed to be illogical to the theatre world.  The plots often deviated from the more traditional episodic structure, and seem to move in a circle, ending the same way it began.  The scenery was often unrecognizable, and to make matters worse, the dialogue never seemed to make any sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFzVJuVnvrk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_dcpQNHVHw&feature=related


 7 Give a synopsis of Williams Shakespeare?

It is not known for sure when William Shakespeare was born but from his baptism date it is assumed that he was born three days before his baptism which was on the26th April 1564. Williams Shakespeare was a playwright and a poet and was known to all as the greatest playwright to ever live. Shakespeare is referred to as this because his works have been a major influence on succeeding theatre. Shakespeare not only created some of the most accepted plays in Western literature, but he also changed English theatre by intensifying expectations about things which could be accomplished through characterization, plot, action, language, and genre. His works raise the status of theatres making them admired by people seeking entertainment and even intellectuals.

Shakespeare was the son of successful glover and alderman, John Shakespeare and Mary Arden the daughter of a successful landowner. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.Though very little is known of Shakespeare's schooling, it is assumed that he was educated at the grammar school in Stratford where he probably learned classics, Latin grammar and literature. This is believed by many especially Ben Jonson who commented that his works showed that he had knowledge on Roman comedy, ancient history and classical mythology.

At the age of eighteen Shakespeare married a woman by the name of Anne Hathaway who was older than him by about 8 years and they had three children together namely Susanna and a pair of twins called Hamnet and Judith but Hamnet died at the age of 11, reason still unknown.

 Shakespeare left Stratford for London to make his fortune roughly four years later. In 1595, Shakespeare was successful in being known as one the Lord Chamberlain's men, more senior members. This was an acting company which preformed often before the court. This theatre was later called the King’s Men and was the ones responsible for making Shakespeare an official playwright to the King of England. By 1597, Shakespeare wealth began to expand and about a year later he became a ten percent owner of the new purpose built theatre in London, the famous Globe Theatre where so many of his plays were later performed.

Play		Genre
Antony and Cleopatra(1600)		Tragedy
Othello(		Tragedy
Troilus and Cressida		Tragedy
Hamlet		Tragedy
Coriolanus		Tragedy
Richard III		History
King Lear		Tragedy
Merry Wives of Windsor		Comedy
Love's Labour's Lost		Comedy
Much Ado about Nothing		Comedy
All's Well That Ends Well		Comedy
Twelfth Night		Comedy
Romeo and Juliet		Tragedy
Henry IV, Part II		History
Measure for Measure		Comedy
Cymbeline		History
Taming of the Shrew		Comedy
Henry VI, Part III		History
Two Gentlemen of Verona		Comedy
Henry VI, Part II		History
Julius Caesar		Tragedy
Henry IV, Part I		History
As You Like It		Comedy
Timon of Athens		Tragedy
Henry V		History
Winter's Tale		Comedy
Henry VIII		History
Henry VI, Part I		History
Macbeth		Tragedy
Pericles		History
Merchant of Venice		Comedy
Tempest		Comedy
Comedy of Errors		Comedy
Titus Andronicus		Tragedy
Richard II		History
King John		History
Midsummer Night's Dream		Comedy

These plays were all written in the sixteenth to seventeenth  century.

     

Pride and the Prejudice

Character Sketch

 Mr. Bennet – Mr. Bennet is the father of five children his favorite being Elizabeth Bennet. Mr. Bennet is a very quite guy and keeps mostly to himself throughout the novel. Mr. Bennet does his duties of providing for his family effectively but when it comes to other matters he does not take on those responsibilities as effectively as they should be carried out.

Mrs. Bennet – she is the mother of the five sisters in the novel and she is obsessed with getting them all married off. Therefore she does things that make her appear ridiculous and annoying. From the novel we see that she was not very intelligent and people in general did not like being around her for very long.

Mr. Bingley – he is one of the wealthiest men in the novel and is in love with the Bennet’s oldest daughter Jane. Mr. Bingley is kind and considerate but can be seen as widely influenced by his friends and family.

Jane – she is the first born for the Bennet’s household and is seen as the most beautiful among the girls hence one the main reasons why Mr. Bingley first notices her. Jane like Mr. Bingley is very kind hearted and things of everyone kindly even when the opposite is quite obvious.

Mr. Darcy – he is also a very wealthy man in the novel. In the beginning he is seen as prideful since he did not want to mix with the people who were of a lower class than him but in the end he turns out to be the hero of the novel. Mr. Darcy is also in love with Elizabeth though this was not so at first. Later on in the novel readers see that Mr. Darcy is really very kind-hearted and supportive.

Elizabeth – She is the second oldest daughter in the Bennet’s household and the most intelligent amongst the girls hence one of the main reasons why Mr. Darcy fell in love with her. Elizabeth is brave and also caring but is seen as prejudice towards Mr. Darcy at first but then changes later in the novel.

Mr. Collins – he is the nephew of Mr. Bennet and is next in line to inherit from his uncle. Mr. Collins is very formal which was a bit annoying to the character in the novel.               

Elizabeth feels that there is a disadvantage for marriage like her father:

1)      What is the disadvantage that Elizabeth is talking about?

2)      How are children affected by difficulty marriages?

3)      Is it accepted today to stay in a marriage because of children?

Marriage is the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc (dictionary.com).  In the book entitled Pride and the Prejudice by Jane Austen it is clearly seen that marriage can be very difficult and have many disadvantages. The marriage between Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet is a typical example of this. One of the major disadvantages of difficult marriage is the fact that majority of the times the children are affected negatively and Elizabeth the second eldest daughter shows this in the book. Though, today it is accepted for a person to stay in a marriage for the children sake no matter how difficult it is.

In the book it can be seen that the marriage between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is difficult and complicated. From the way in which the couple relates to each other readers are led to believe that an arranged marriage took place.  Mr. Bennet was seen as only tolerating Mrs. Bennet as she was seen as noisy and foolish and Mr. Bennet prefer to be away from her therefore detached himself from his family. Also, their marriage also caused lack of communication between the two therefore they have no knowledge of what is preferred by each other and decision concerning the children differ. For example when Mrs. Bennet wanted Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins and said that she would disown her if she didn’t Mr. Bennet said the direct opposite.  

Moreover, children involved in these marriages are usually negatively affected. For instance in the book one of the daughters, Lydia went away and got eloped with Mr. Wickham. This probably was as a result of her parent not lack of attention for her. Usually, in these sort of marriages the children especially the females lack the love and attention they seek from their father and this causes them to seek the attention elsewhere even if it means running off with a man whom she hardly knew. This is what happened to Lydia. Also, children who witness these marriages usually end up with negative views about marriage and refuse to be married.   Furthermore, children lose their respect for their parents in these marriages since no real example is set before them to follow.

Couples involved in these types of marriages usually stay together for the children’s sake. Even today this is accepted in society. The reason why many of these couples stay in the marriage or are even encouraged to do so is because children who are victims of divorce are sometimes believed to be worse off than those who parent chose to stay together. However this can also be a disadvantage to the children because the constant fights or verbal abuse can still have psychological effects on the children. So sometimes it is better for the parents to separate that to let the children suffer through.                

          

Elizabeth feels that there is a disadvantage for marriage like her father:

1)      What is the disadvantage that Elizabeth is talking about?

2)      How are children affected by difficulty marriages?

3)      Is it accepted today to stay in a marriage because of children?

Marriage is the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc (dictionary.com).  In the book entitled Pride and the Prejudice by Jane Austen it is clearly seen that marriage can be very difficult and have many disadvantages. The marriage between Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet is a typical example of this. One of the major disadvantages of difficult marriage is the fact that majority of the times the children are affected negatively and Elizabeth the second eldest daughter shows this in the book. Though, today it is accepted for a person to stay in a marriage for the children sake no matter how difficult it is.

In the book it can be seen that the marriage between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is difficult and complicated. From the way in which the couple relates to each other readers are led to believe that an arranged marriage took place.  Mr. Bennet was seen as only tolerating Mrs. Bennet as she was seen as noisy and foolish and Mr. Bennet prefer to be away from her therefore detached himself from his family. Also, their marriage also caused lack of communication between the two therefore they have no knowledge of what is preferred by each other and decision concerning the children differ. For example when Mrs. Bennet wanted Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins and said that she would disown her if she didn’t Mr. Bennet said the direct opposite.  

Moreover, children involved in these marriages are usually negatively affected. For instance in the book one of the daughters, Lydia went away and got eloped with Mr. Wickham. This probably was as a result of her parent not lack of attention for her. Usually, in these sort of marriages the children especially the females lack the love and attention they seek from their father and this causes them to seek the attention elsewhere even if it means running off with a man whom she hardly knew. This is what happened to Lydia. Also, children who witness these marriages usually end up with negative views about marriage and refuse to be married.   Furthermore, children lose their respect for their parents in these marriages since no real example is set before them to follow.

Couples involved in these types of marriages usually stay together for the children’s sake. Even today this is accepted in society. The reason why many of these couples stay in the marriage or are even encouraged to do so is because children who are victims of divorce are sometimes believed to be worse off than those who parent chose to stay together. However this can also be a disadvantage to the children because the constant fights or verbal abuse can still have psychological effects on the children. So sometimes it is better for the parents to separate that to let the children suffer through.