Abstract

As one of the modernists among the English writers in the 20th century England, D. H. Lawrence employs the symbols in his works to reveal the characters’ complicated thoughts and feelings. The study of how the setting used as symbols in Sons and Lovers can help readers understand main characters’ inner psychological activities and a series of distorted human relationships, which reflects the negative physical and mental influence on human beings brought by western industrial civilization and reveals the author’s purpose of seeking for harmonious human relationships and intact personality. This paper mainly analyzes the symbols from two aspects: the natural world and the man-made world, with the focus on how the settings depicted in this novel are served as the symbols to contribute to the the theme as well as the characterization of the fiction.

Key words: D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, symbol, industrial civilization, human relationship

摘 要

劳伦斯是英国十九世纪现代主义作家，在其作品中运用大量象征揭示人物复杂的思绪和情感变化。该论文对《儿子与情人》的场景描写的象征研究有利于帮助读者更好的理解主人翁的思想情感及彼此之间扭曲的人际关系，展示西方工业文明对当时的人们身心的负面影响，以及作者对和谐人际关系和完整人格的追求。该论文主要从两个方面分析作品中场景描写的象征意义：自然界场景描写和人造世界场景描写，从这两个方面可以很好地揭示作品主题及作品中人物性格表征。

关键词：D.H.劳伦斯；《儿子与情人》；象征；工业文明；人际关系

1. Introduction
D. H. Lawrence is one of the most original and controversial English writers in 20th century. He is considered as one of the “make” of modern English fiction. His first novel is Sons and Lovers (1913). His other enduring works are the Rainbow (1915), Women in Love (1920), The Lost Girl (1920), and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928).
Sons and Lovers, containing many autobiographical details, is Lawrence’s masterpiece and also his most popular novel. It tells the story of a miner’s family---the Morel family. Mrs. Morel is disillusioned with her husband, a coarse and hard-drinking miner. Therefore, she places all her expectations on her sons, especially Paul. As Paul grows older, his relationship with another two women involves him into a fatal conflict of love and possessiveness caused by his mother.
In Sons and Lovers, setting, characterization, language and structure are all endowed with symbolic meanings. In literature, symbol is one of those words often used in a confusing manner. The confusion is increased by different scholars using the word to mean very different things. To sum up, the symbol is the means of literary creation by means of specific images or objects in the real world, such as color and sound to pin authors’ thoughts and feelings indirectly. Symbol can lead to readers’ rich imagination and has multiple meanings, so it can give ordinary things great artistic power, which is artistic charm of the symbol. Settings in this novel, such as plants, animals, buildings, are served as the symbols to contribute to the theme as well as the characterization of the fiction.