Lawrence and Golding

Analytical Essay # 57426

English > Analysis
Literature > Comparative Literature
Literature > English

An analysis of the function and significance of landscape in literary works by D.H. Lawrence and William Golding.

2,025 words () | 9 sources | MLA | 2005 Canada

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the literary use of landscape in D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" and in William Golding's "Pincher Martin". The paper claims that both Lawrence and Golding manipulate landscape for a specific purpose in their works. The paper explores both of these novels, commenting upon the stylistic uses of landscape, a literary device that may be employed towards the fulfillment of a particular artistic theme. Both D.H. Lawrence and William Golding make use of landscape in this fashion. Citing many specific examples from the novels, and drawing upon a wealth of bibliographic resources, the paper is relevant to any discussion of Lawrence, Golding or twentieth century literature.

From the Paper:

"D.H. Lawrence's 1913 novel, Sons and Lovers, is set in the British Midlands at the turn of the twentieth century (Lawrence 9). This is a region in central England that was, at the time the novel is set, becoming highly industrialized. Factories, coal pits, and squalid row houses were plentiful. "We are in the northern Midlands at the turn of the century, seeing the daily life of the mining community through the eyes of one of its children, and seen with such intensity and clarity, especially in the first of three parts, that the reader feels in direct contact with life (Black 151). Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest is close by the busy industrial city of Nottingham, where Paul Morel obtains employment, and the river Trent, a significant piece of landscape in Lawrence's novel, swirls its way from the city through the wide-open country hills and vales. Sons and Lovers continually contrasts the sensuous, natural environment with that of the cold, drab monuments of industrial town and city life, providing the reader a vivid sense of the times."