Sons and Lovers: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Over the next few weeks, Mr. Morel falls ill, and Mrs. Morel must nurse him and care for the household and the children alone. The neighbors make food for her and help where they can, and Mr. Morel’s colleagues put aside money for her from the mine’s profits, but it is a very hard time in her life. This period softens Mrs. Morel towards her husband slightly, but, in general, her affections for him have completely waned and she is able to tolerate him more because she has become indifferent to him. Instead, she begins to focus all her energy on William. Mr. Morel feels himself alone and abandoned while Mrs. Morel plans joyfully for William’s future.

Although Mr. Morel returns to his old self after a while, he feels that his “authority” in the home has dissipated. Mrs. Morel hardly notices him even when he tries to assert himself. Paul, who is a toddler now, is afraid of his father and will not let Mr. Morel hold him. This upsets Mrs. Morel, who is pregnant with another child. She gives birth to another son, called Arthur, and this child immediately bonds with Mr. Morel.

Domestic life continues as usual for the Morels. Paul grows into a rather wan, delicate child, who occasionally has “fits of depression.” One afternoon, when Mrs. Morel goes out to buy yeast from a man who is selling it in the lane, she is harassed by one of her neighbors who claims that William has ripped her son’s collar. As the yeast man passes, he recites passages from the Bible to the fighting women. Mrs. Morel confronts William, but William explains that he tore the boy’s shirt by accident. When Mr. Morel comes home, he too has heard about the incident from the neighbors and is ready to beat William as punishment. Mrs. Morel gets between them and fiercely defends her son.

Around this time, Mrs. Morel joins the “women’s guild” in the town. She enjoys this because of the intellectual work it gives her to do and the children like it because it makes their mother happy. Some of the husbands in the community object to this organization because it leads the women to criticize their lives and how they are treated at home, but the Morel children love to hear about the guild meetings from their mother.

When William is thirteen, Mrs. Morel gets him a job at this Co-op. Mr. Morel objects to this and complains that he went down the pit when he was around William’s age, but Mrs. Morel is adamant that William will not grow up to be a miner. William is a bright, athletic lad and Mrs. Morel is proud of him. When he is seventeen, Mr. Morel makes a drunken bet that William could beat anyone in the village in a bike race and, although Mrs. Morel is horrified and anxious about the race, William returns victorious and presents the prize to her.

On top of his job, William works as a tutor and schools his pupils at home. He is an extremely impatient teacher, however, and rages when his students make mistakes. As he grows into a man, William remains close to his mother. They flirt playfully together, and William teases Mrs. Morel about the job she has done sewing up one of his work shirts. She claims that he looks as handsome as King Solomon, but William complains that people will be able to see through all the patches.

William grows into an ambitious young man. He gets to know all the wealthy people in the town and socializes often at dances and billiard games. He has many girlfriends, whom he compares to flowers and describes to his younger brother Paul, whom he nicknames “Postle.” Mrs. Morel disapproves of these girls and sends one away, believing she is a “brazen hussy,” when she comes to the house looking for William. She dislikes William’s social life and the fact that he loves dancing. At Halloween, when William buys a costume and dresses up as a Highlander, Mrs. Morel refuses to see him in it and, unknowingly, hurts her son’s feelings. Although he carries on with his night and has fun, William had been most excited about showing the costume to his mother.

As William grows up, Mrs. Morel begins to worry about him and wonder if he will be as successful as she has hoped. She frets about this a lot because her hopes and dreams are tied up in her son’s future and her belief that he will become a great man. William begins to study languages and loses some of his youthful vigor. Although he is pursued by many girls, he never has a real relationship and, by nineteen, he has become quite a serious young man and seems to be growing restless in the town. Finally, he accepts a job in London and prepares to leave home.

Mrs. Morel is devastated by the news of her son’s departure. She loves to take care of him at home, watching him progress into adulthood, and she feels that her whole life is bound up with William’s fate. She conceals her misery from her son, who is bursting with excitement about his new life, and the family spend William’s last day at home together.

Mrs. Morel bakes him a cake as a leaving present and, while she is cooking, William shows Paul his love letters from all the various women who have fallen for him. William brags that, despite all this attention, he has never yet been tied down. Mrs. Morel warns him that, one day, he will find himself attached to a woman whom he cannot break away from. William dismisses this idea, however, and leaves home the next day.