The Day The World Ended

A detailed Summary of The Day The World Ended

Relationships have, and always will contain many different levels. These levels can produce somewhat of a state of confusion in ones life, and have many different impacts. But when a change and a transformation takes place, one can reach a point of clarity and a new found direction. In the comparison of two novels, we see several relationships portrayed along these lines, and how the two main characters transform to find what is most sacred to them. Paul Morel is the main character in D.H. Lawrence's novel "Sons and Lovers." The story charts his early life from when his parents married, and the subsequent birth of their four children. During this time, the three women who have the greatest impact on Paul's life are his mother, Miriam and Clara. Each woman displays a definite influence on Paul, but all three are shown in different times of his life. This influence goes on to shape the life of Paul. In conjunction to this, the story of "The French Lieutenants Woman" and the main character in that story, Charles, will be compared showing similarities and differences of the relationships of women in his life.

In the story "Sons and Lovers" from the very beginning their was a connection between Paul an

Next, there is Clara. She plays the role of the last female figure of importance in Paul's life. Clara is the estranged wife of Baxter Dawes, one of Paul's colleagues. The relationship with Clara is most definitely limited to a physical one. His mother's influence can again be seen in this relationship. In the novel, Mrs. Morel's arms are described as "very handsome, strong arms," this is a feature, which he finds very attractive in Clara. As with all the women in Paul's life, there was something about Clara that he did not like. He feels physically stifled as he felt inwardly stifled by Miriam. Despite this dislike of her, he still lusts for her, and aches to see her. "Her ear, half hidden among her blonde hair, was near to him. The temptation to kiss it was almost to great." This leads to the fact that for Paul, sex is what is intimate. This proves that Paul's relationship with Clara is purely physical, as shown by many of the descriptions he says of her.

In the relationship between Clara and Miriam, with Paul, things are proven to be pretty different, but if you add the important aspects of them together, they create something in the relationship that Paul had with his mother, but more sexual. His three types of relationships with his women are physical, mental and emotional. He and his mother were almost sexual, with her wanting to hold on to him for so long, but would be stated as a purely emotional relationship. With Paul and Miriam things were mostly on the mental level, they really understood each other. As far as Clara goes, it was definitely physical, showing the signs of lust. When you look at Charles' relationship you will see that he and his fiance show no real signs of being any "real" type of relationship when looked at from the view of Charles. He never lusts for her, or becomes mentally in tact with her, it could be best described as a social relationship. The rich, handsome powerful man marries the young beautiful women, it happens in a lot of stories. It is totally different between him and Sarah. Her social stance means nothing to him. He is chasing her for the passion. It would be best described as a very physical, very sexual relationship. To sum it all up, there are two men, with relationships with different women that exist on all different levels. These relationships make the lives of the men temporarily confusing. Things begin to change for them. These women play a role in their transformation from boy to man, or, man to boy. In the end, this transformation leads them off in a different direction from where they were. Could it be fate? I'll leave that up for you to decide.

d his mother. It was seen that a

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Approximate Word count = 1808
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels