Sons and Lovers Topic Tracking: Mother-Son Relationship Mother-Son Relationship 1: Her children, but more specifically William,

are the only bright spot in Mrs. Morel's frustrated, disgusted life. She despises the life she has with her husband and lavishes all of her love and attention to her son. Mother-Son Relationship2: A worried Mrs. Morel notices that William does not seem to be himself and tries to give him advice. She is concerned that he may turn out to be like his father, drinking and socializing too much. Mrs. Morel does not like the attention William receives from all the girls who call on him. Mother-Son Relationship3: Although Mrs. Morel is confident that William will so well in London, she is greatly saddened by his leaving. William's living in London depresses Mrs. Morel to such a degree that he is all she thinks about when he is not with her, but she consoles herself thinking that he is in Londonfor her alone. Mother-Son Relationship 4: When William leaves home for London again, Mrs. Morel is depressed and sad again. She misses her son so much that it hurts to see him leave. Both she and William know that the love they have for one another is strong to last their separation. Mother-Son Relationship 5: When Mr. Morel becomes sick, Mrs. Morel does not feel as badly as she should; she wants to feel bad that he is in pain, but her love and affection for her husband is replaced by her love for William. Mother-Son Relationship 6: Paul imagines that he and his mother will live together when he is old enough to earn money by himself and when his father has died. Paul loves his mother so much that he wants to be with her and spend all of his time with her. To live with his mother by himself is his greatest desire. Mother-Son Relationship 7: Mrs. Morel is greatly saddened by William's engagement to Gipsy. She feels threatened and scared that William's future wife will take her place as the woman he

loves most in his heart; she turns to Paul, her second son, for comfort and support. Mother-Son Relationship 8: Mrs. Morel cannot take William's death well. She shuts out the rest of her family from her life because she is in too much pain and hurt. Not only has she lost William, she has lost a part of herself. She has loved William so much, so passionately, that she has lost part of her soul when he dies. Mother-Son Relationship 9: Paul's nearly fatal illness makes Mrs. Morel realize how much he means to her and how much she loves him. After Paul recovers, she focuses all of her attention and love on Paul. He is all she has now, now that William has died. Mother-Son Relationship 10: Although Paul does not realize the seriousness of his relationship with Miriam, his mother certainly does, and she is jealous. As with William and his fiancee, Mrs. Morel feels threatened by the presence of a girl whom her son is very serious about. Paul, however, does notice that his mother is hurt that he spends much of his time with Miriam. Mother-Son Relationship 11: Mrs. Morel instinctively knows that Paul will become famous and known. More importantly, she feels that her destiny and her dreams will be carried out through Paul. She knows that Paul is capable of accomplishing all of her goals and her dreams. Mother-Son Relationship 12: When Mrs. Morel states that Paul does not seem to spend time with anybody but Miriam, Paul sees that she is hurt that he is spending time with a woman other than her. He feels bad that the time he spends with Miriam is making his mother suffer, and he hates Miriam for making his mother suffer so much. He attempts to convince his mother that she is the one woman who he loves the most and wants to come home to, but his mother is too hurt to believe him. Mother-Son Relationship 13: When Paul talks with Miriam about their relationship, he realizes that it is his mother whom he loves the most. He knows that he is the most important person in her

life. He tells Miriam that he will never love her as much as she loves him because he will always love his mother the most. Mother-Son Relationship 14: During Paul and Mrs. Morel's trip to the cathedral, Paul notices for the first time the temporality of their lives and wishes that he could have had more time with his mother. He berates the fact that he was the second-born son, wishing that he were her first-born, so that he would have had more time with her. Mother-Son Relationship 15: Mrs. Morel hates Miriam even more than she already does because of the way Paul is affected by her. She hates that Miriam is changing his will, his passion, his temperament. She can see that Paul will die of the excessive, passionate temperament he fosters when he is with Miriam. Mother-Son Relationship 16: Mrs. Morel is terribly tired of her involvement in Paul and Miriam's relationship and decides to stop intervening. She knows that Paul is an adult now and that there is nothing she can do to stop Paul from seeing Miriam. She feels that she can never forgive her son for sacrificing himself to love Miriam. Mother-Son Relationship 17: Paul tries persuading his mother that Clara is a better match for him than Miriam ever was, but his mother is deaf to his words. He tells his mother that her jealousy of his relationship with Clara is the only thing that stops her from liking Clara. Paul is too wrapped up in his involvement with Clara and with his mother's dislike of Clara to notice that his mother does not look well at all. Mother-Son Relationship 18: Paul has begun to realize how much his mother affects his life. Her deep love for him has made her a part of himself that when he wants to break free from his mother, he is unable to get away from her. His mother is ingrained into his very soul. Mother-Son Relationship 19: Paul declares that he will never marry as long as he has his mother to love. He does not envision himself marrying, despite his mother's assurances that he will want to marry when he finds the right woman.

Mother-Son Relationship 20: Clara sees that Paul is distancing himself from her because of his mother. She knows in her heart that he will never sacrifice his mother for her. Paul tells her that it seems that his mother will never die because she is stubborn and relentless in heart, mind and soul. Mother-Son Relationship 21: Paul suffers to see his mother in so much pain. He cannot take watching his mother turn into a limp, lifeless creature from a person of vitality and spirit. When he looks into his mother's eyes, he can see that she agrees that she wants to die to end all the pain she is in, yet her stubborn spirit and body will not allow her. Mother-Son Relationship 22: When Paul kisses his dead mother, he feels emotions he has never experienced from her: cold and harsh, unreceptive and loveless. He does not want to let his mother go from his life. Mother-Son Relationship 23: As much as Paul wants his mother to be with him, he decides that he cannot follow his mother. Even her spirit will guide him if he allows it to but he decides to break away from her. He knows he must separate himself from her to become a man of his own instinct and will.

Topic Tracking: Industrialism Industrialism 1: The mining company has set up villages in the valley for the miners and their families. The well-todo families andthe poor families each live in the valley designated for them: Bestwood for the well-to-do, and slums of "Hell Row" for the poor. Industrialism 2: Mrs. Morel despises the dreary and monotonous life she leads as a poor miner's wife. She wishes that she could leave this littleprovincial town for something bigger and better. Mrs. Morel cannot wait for her children to grow up so that she can escape the slums of this town when they are older. Industrialism 3: Mrs. Morel, confident that William will achieve a better profession than mining, is adamant that he will not become

a miner like his father. She knows that William is capable of more than her husband ever was, and wants William to pursue all that he can achieve. Industrialism 4: Now that Paul is of age to work, the valley he has loved and cherished so much as a child has become a place of work. He can no longer view the valley in the same way he once did: the valley loses its appeal of freedom, independence, and innocence. Industrialism 5: Paul finds a job at a company that makes surgical appliances. He is becoming part of the great industrial movement of England. Paul can now finally earn money for his family, for his mother especially. He feels proud that he can work and earn a salary like an adult. Industrialism 6: Paul enjoys himself at work. He finds companionship in the factory girls and his boss. However, he begins to witness a significant gender difference in men's and women's work. He sees that the men represent the work ethic and the women do not. Industrialism 7: The trains that transport Paul to work every day, along with many other people living in the countryside, symbolize the industrialized and non-established parts of England. The factory where Paul works is just one of the many places in industrialized Nottingham that represents culture and sophistication. Industrialism 8: Paul likes the feeling of men working, especially of men sitting on trucks. He feels that the physical work of men is thrilling and impressive, and makes him feel more invigorated and alive to see men at work. Industrialism 9: Arthur, the youngest Morel child, gets a job at Minton Pit, doing electrical work. He, as with Paul, enters the work force, doing a profession that requires skill and technical knowledge. That Arthur joins the industrial work force suggests the intensity of work in the industrial field.

Topic Tracking: Religion Religion 1: Paul prays for his mother's safety. In doing so, he prays that his father might be hurt or even killed so that he might never hurt his mother again. Yet guilt washes over him, and then he prays for his father as well. Morel ultimately can never quite get along with his family because he denies any single shred of religion,stability, compassion and love in his soul. Religion 2: Miriam, who possesses intense piety and religion, believes that her brothers and father are too vulgar, for they have no regard for church or God, whom she loves passionately. She only admires and respects those who attend church and therefore believe in the teachings of God. Religion 3: Miriam feels so deeply about nature that she is in her own little world of reality. To her, the natural world is a wonderful paradise like the Garden of Eden, and knowledge of the harsh, hateful things in life wrecks the beauty of nature. Religion 4: Paul is frustrated and angered at the way Miriam devotes herself so deeply and intensely to people, nature or ideas. He asks her in frustration why she feels she has to devote herself so much to whatever he says or does. Religion 5: The rose-bush Miriam shows to Paul eerily signifies their relationship. That Miriam is intensely loving and warm toward the beautiful, white roses and that Paul feels strangely "imprisoned" by them symbolize their feelings for each other and toward sex with the other. Miriam would devote herself to Paul, who would feel smothered by her intensity. Religion 6: Miriam prays to God that if He wills her to love Paul, she will undoubtedly follow his words and love Paul as much as she can. She will love Paul if God means for them to love each other. However, she feels ashamed that her feelings for Paul are so open and ardent when her sister chastises her. Religion 7: Paul declares to Miriam that she is a nun in every sense of their relationship. He has given her everything he possibly could in their relationship except passion. Paul feels that

he can never love her in a physical, sexual way because they love each other in a spiritual way, not a passionate way. Religion 8: Miriam fiercely tells herself that she will devote herself to Paul if their wills wish them to have sex. She tells herself firmly that she will give him the passion he wants and needs, against her wishes. She will sacrifice her virginity for him. Religion 9: When Miriam and Paul have sex, Paul notices that she looks strangely calm. After they have sex, Miriam decides that she is not ready to give herself sexually to him if he needs her. Themes Free Will Lawrence addresses the issue of free will in his novel, asking to what extent his characters' environment influences their characters' choices. Lawrence makes this explicit in his descriptions. For example, when Paul begins to look in the newspapers for work, the narrator writes, "Already he was a prisoner of industrialism He was being taken into bondage. His freedom in the beloved home valley was going now." The modern industrial world, specifically as it manifests itself in the effect mining culture has on the Morel family, shapes the characters' desires. Mrs. Morel, who believes she is morally better than the miners, is disgusted by what mining has made of her husband, and she pushes her children away from that work. She finds jobs for both Paul and William so that they will lead better lives than their father. The sons have difficulty making choices of their own. They are so driven to please their mother that they sacrifice their own pleasure and needs to satisfy hers. Neither can develop emotionally healthy relationships with women, and both struggle to balance their own wants with those of their mother. Another character who suppresses her will for the needs of another is Miriam Leivers, who sleeps with Paul to please him, even though she feels little sexual passion for him.

Sexuality By explicitly depicting human sexuality in his novel, Lawrence flouted the moral conventions of the genre and of society, and his notoriety grew. At least one publisher refused Sons and Lovers because of its sexual content. Lawrence's theories about human behavior revolved around what he called "blood consciousness," which he opposed to "mental and nerve consciousness." Lawrence contended that "blood consciousness" was the seat of the will and was passed on through the mother. This is obvious in Paul and William's bond with their mother and in Paul's tenacity and emotional volatility, which his mother also shares. Lawrence argued that modern society had somehow come to be dominated by mental consciousness and so was largely unconscious of its own desires. He wrote about his theories of human behavior inPsychoanalysis and the Unconscious (1921) and Fantasia of the Unconscious (1922), along with his theories about male-female relationships. His controversial novel, Lady Chatterly's Lover(1928), was accused of being obscene and pornographic, and its publishers were taken to court. Lawrence also flouted moral conventions in his personal life, eloping with Frieda von Richthofen Weekley, the wife of a professor at the University of Nottingham. Some critics have argued that Paul's relationship to his mother illustrates Freud's Oedipus complex and have characterized both Paul and Lawrence as being sexually tortured and repressed by the degree of their emotional intimacy with their mother. Class Lawrence's characters illustrate the class contradictions at the heart of modern industrial society. Capitalism pits classes against one another and even pits individuals of the same class against one another.Lawrence develops this theme by depicting conflicts among various groups and characters. For example, William

feverishly climbs the social ladder, only to discover that he is more alienated from his family the further up he climbs. His girlfriend, Lily, a pretentious and snobbish Londoner, holds herself above the working class and condescends to the Morels, treating them as "clownish" people and hicks. Even Mrs. Morel, a former teacher, has contempt for the work of her own husband and is disgusted by his miner friends, whom she considers lowly. The starkest contrast between classes, however, is illustrated in the relationship between Thomas Jordan, the capitalist factory owner, and his workers, whom he patronizes and quarrels with. Style Episodes Sons and Lovers is structured episodically. This means that the novel consists of a series of episodes tied together thematically and by subject matter. Structuring the novel in this manner allows Lawrence to let meaning accumulate by showing how certain actions and images repeat themselves and become patterns. This repetition of actions and images is part of the iterative mode. By using this mode, Lawrence can blend time periods, making it sometimes difficult to know whether an event happened once or many times. Lawrence is using the iterative mode when he uses words such as "would" and "used to." Point of View Point of view refers to the perspective from which the narrative is told.Sons and Lovers is told mostly from a third-person omniscient point of view, as the narrator has access to the thoughts of the characters and moves back and forth in time while telling the story. The first half of the novel focuses on Gertrude Morel and the second part focuses on Paul. However, although Lawrence strives to create a narrator that is impartial and presents material in an objective manner, the narrator occasionally makes editorial comments on the action, as he does in the first part of the novel after Mrs. Morel has been thinking that her life will be one

of continued drudgery. The narrator intrudes, saying, "Sometimes life takes hold of one, carries the body along, accomplishes one's history, and yet is not real, but leaves oneself as it were slurred over." Lawrence alternates between showing and telling in the novel. When he shows, he simply describes the characters' action and lets them speak for themselves. When he tells, he summarizes scenes and sometimes comments on them. The narrator's presence is most evident in the latter instance.

Major Characters Walter Morel: Father of Paul Morel, husband of Gertrude Morel. Works as a miner. His temper is susceptible to quick anger and emotion. When he was courting Gertrude, he was a handsome man and a fine dancer. His wife hates him because he gets to enjoy himself drinking while she stays home caring for the children. Gertrude's hatred for her husband begins with his excessive drunken fits and his temper. Morel does not have a closerelationship to any of his children. Gertrude Morel: Paul's mother. Intensely hates her role as Walter Morel's wife and wishes that she were not the wife of a miner. Hates that her husband drinks excessively and cannot control himself. She focuses all of her loveand attention from her husband to her two older sons. First she devotes herself to William and is very jealous of William'srelationship with his fiancee. She resents that William allows Lily to treat Annie like a servant. After William's death, she clings to Paul. She severely dislikes Miriam and believes that Clara is not good for Paul either. In the last few painful months of her life, she struggles to live for Paul. Paul and Annie give her morphia to stop her pain and die. William Morel: The first Morel child. Mrs. Morel transfers her affections for her husband to William. She is horrified when her husband cuts off William's blond curls. William is a gifted, intelligent and handsome child and teenager, easily finding jobs and earning a salary. Becomes involved with Bestwood and

London society and engaged to Louisa Lily Danys Western. Hates the way Lily treats his family, especially Annie. William dies before he can marry Lily, but he never truly loved her anyway. Annie Morel: The only daughter of the Morel family. Paul is very close and loving to Annie. Annie does not like Miriam; she can see how much their mother suffers when Paul is with Miriam and hates Miriam for that. Paul and Mrs. Morel are miserable when she marries and leaves home. Later, Annie and Paul conspire to give their mother morphia to help speed up her death. Paul Morel: Protagonist of novel. Quiet, shy, reserved by nature but intensely passionate and emotional. Knows French and enjoys painting. Enjoys staying home with his mother during the evenings rather than playing outside. When at work, Paul is absorbed by the activities and the people, especially the factory girls. Has an off-and-on relationship with Miriam Leivers for seven years. Hates and loves her at the same time. Miriam expects him to love her as passionately and deeply as she loves him, but Paul does not feel any sexual attraction to her. Ends relationship with Miriam and begins one with Clara Dawes, a married woman separated from her husband. He and Clara have a very sexual relationship. They end their involvement together when Clara decides that she wants to return to her husband. Miriam Leivers: The first girl Paul ever loved and had sex with. She is a beautiful, deeply intense and devoted girl whose feelings for Paul are as passionate as her love for God and church. She loves him more than he loves her. Paul gets frustrated and furious with the way she absorbs everything in her soul and cannot fathom why she has to treat everything with so much depth and intensity. Clara Dawes: The older, defiant woman with whom Paul has a sexual and passionate relationship. She is a married woman, but she is separated from her husband. At first, Paul felt that Clara left Dawes because she hated him, but he soon realizes that she does care for Dawes a great deal. Clara can satisfy him sexually in what Miriam could not. Yet Paul tires of Clara because he can see that she does not belong to him. Not only does Paul know that she

still wants her husband, he notices that Clara does not want to be with him when he is troubled or worried. Clara returns to her husband after Paul tells her that Dawes has been ill for some time. Baxter Dawes: Clara's husband. He also works at Thomas Jordan's. He and Paul have a tense, hateful relationship, yet they are bound to each other for some reason. After they fight each other a couple of time, they manage to form a companionship. Dawes and Paul are sympathetic to each other's suffering and worries. Minor Characters Arthur Morel: The last of the Morel children. He is wildly impulsive, antagonistic, emotional and temperamental. He recklessly joins the army at the advice of his friend but begs his mother to buy him out as soon as she can. The strict military regime does not discipline him enough. He has sex with his girl, Beatrice, before they marry. At first, Arthur distances himself from his wife and baby, but he soon realizes his role and responsibilities as a father. Mrs. Leivers: Miriam's mother whose personality and temperament is like Miriam's. Both feel deeply about nature and religion, and are devotedly pious to church and religion. Takes a liking to Paul. Edgar Leivers: Miriam's elder brother whose companionship Paul enjoys. Thomas Jordan: The elderly manufacturer whose company, Thomas Jordan & Sons, Surgical Appliances, Paul works at. Mr. Pappleworth: Paul's boss at Thomas Jordan's. Fanny and Polly: The factory girls at Thomas Jordan's. Paul enjoys talking to them. Louisa Lily Danys Western: The high-society, stupid fiancee of William's. Lily is very shallow and insipid; William has to buy her all of her necessities. The Morels treat her kindly, but she treats Annie like a servant. William does not love her, but he feels

that he is stuck with her. He declares that if he died suddenly she would not pine for him. After William dies, his declaration rings true; the Morels never hear from Lily again. Agatha Leivers: Miriam's elder sister who chastises Miriam for being so free and open with her feelings for Paul. Beatrice: Arthur's wife and mother of his child. Beatrice matches Arthur's impulsive and reckless nature. They have sex before they marry. Their child is born six months after their wedding. Leonard: Annie's husband. Characters Baxter Dawes Baxter Dawes is thirty-two years old and a big handsome man. He is Clara Dawes's estranged husband. He is a smith at the same factory as Paul, with whom he fights when Paul begins to spend time with Clara. Dawes is moody, argumentative, and defiant and is fired from his job after fighting with his boss, Thomas Jordan. Later, Dawes fallsill with typhoid fever. Paul visits Dawes in the convalescence home, and the two become friends. Later, Paul tells Dawes that Clara has always loved him, and he helps Baxter and Clara reconcile. Clara Dawes Clara Dawes, the estranged wife of Baxter Dawes, is a childless, full-figured, blonde-haired, and sensuous woman, and a friend of Miriam Leivers. She is proud and haughty, a supporter of women's rights, and is attracted to Paul's animality. Clara and Paul have a passionate love affair, but she eventually returns to her husband, nursing him back to health after he falls sick with typhoid fever. Although she was deeply attracted to Paul, she never felt truly connected to him.

Mr. Heaton Mr. Heaton is the Congregational clergyman who visits with Gertrude Morel after Paul is born. He is Paul's godfather and tutor. Thomas Jordan Thomas Jordan owns the factory where Paul and Clara and Baxter Dawes work. A strong-willed capitalist, he fires Baxter Dawes after fighting with him. He eventually takes Paul under his wing and introduces him to middle-class social life. Miriam Leivers The daughter of the family at Willey Farm, Miriam meets Paul when she is sixteen. She is serious, self-conscious, somewhat spiritual, and does not like sex, though she sleeps with Paul, hoping that it will make him love her. Miriam is like Paul's mother in that both of them are morally prudish and strongwilled. Even though Paul makes it clear he will not marry her, Miriam believes that their souls will always be together. Annie Morel A bit of a tomboy, Annie is Paul's older sister, and the two spend much time together in childhood. She becomes a junior teacher at the Board School in Nottingham, and marries her childhood friend, Leonard. When their mother lies dying, she helps Paul give her an overdose of morphine. Arthur Morel Arthur is Paul's younger brother and the favorite of Walter Morel, whom he resembles both physically and temperamentally. He joins the army but hates it. After his mother buys him out of the army, he returns home and marries Beatrice.

Gertrude Morel Gertrude Coppard Morel is the first protagonist of Lawrence's novel. Refined, intellectual, and deeply moral, she comes from a family of professionals. Her father was an engineer and her family long-time Congregationalists. She marries Walter Morel when she is twenty-three years old, attracted to his swarthy good looks, humility, and animated personality. After the birth of her first child, she falls out of love with her husband and begins to actively despise him, looking for fulfillment in her relationships with her children, particularly her sons, William and Paul. The intensity of her emotional bond with these two makes it difficult for them to develop romantic relationships. She dislikes William's girlfriend, Lily Weston, and is jealous of Paul's friend, Miriam Leivers. After William dies, she pins her hopes for the future on Paul. She wants him to be successful and to escape a working-class miner's life. Though she is deathly ill, she hangs onto life, because she cannot bear to part from her son. Paul eventually helps her die by giving her an overdose of morphine. Paul Morel Paul Morel is the protagonist in the second half of the novel. Although his mother regrets being pregnant with him because she does not believe the family can afford another child, she grows to love and protect him after he is born. Paul is frail, sensitive, and artistic and develops a very close bond with his mother, hating to disappoint her. The women he courts, Miriam and Clara, can never replace the bond he feels with his mother, and when she dies, Paul feels their souls will be forever bonded. Paul's search for identity is tied up in his capacity to separate himself from his mother, and to understand the extent with which he is shaped by his family and community life. Walter Morel Walter Morel is Gertrude's husband and a coal miner. He is rugged, handsome, sensuous, and very practical, deriving much of

his joy in life from working and being with his fellow miners. Although he pledges not to drink, he begins to after the birth of their first child. The Morels quarrel regularly, often over Walter's drinking. Gertrude grows to loathe not only Walter's drinking but his crude and unsophisticated behavior as well, and she enlists her children in hating their father. After his wife dies, he becomes a broken man, full of regret and fear. William Morel William Morel is the first son, and Gertrude Morel's favorite child. He is smart, beautiful, and popular with other children. When he turns 13, his father suggests that he work in the mines, but his mother finds an office job for him. Later, he moves to London, where he finds a good job with a good salary. Like Paul, he cannot develop a satisfying relationship with a woman because he is so close to his mother. He dates and then breaks up with Lily Weston, a pretentious and helpless woman. When William dies, in his early twenties, his mother becomes withdrawn and reclusive. Jerry Purdy Jerry Purdy is Walter Morel's best friend and drinking buddy and is very much disliked by Mrs. Morel. Mrs. Radford Mrs. Radford is Clara Dawes's mother. She is refined and statelylooking, yet pushy. She convinces Paul to find a job for Clara at Jordan's. Louisa Lily Denys Weston Lily is an attractive yet intellectually-limited girl whom William courts in London. She acts helpless and makes many demands on William, but she behaves as if she were royalty. Williams grows to dislike her, and she forgets all about him shortly after he dies.

Beatrice Wyld Beatrice is a flirtatious girl who marries Arthur when he returns from the army.

Objects/Places The ash-tree: The ash-tree is located outside the Morels' second home. The children come to associate the ash-tree with the dark, forbidding footsteps of their father coming home in a drunken fit. The children hate the tree; Morel loves it. Paul is frightened by the shrieking noises the tree makes at night. Mrs. Morel's umbrella:William gives his mother an umbrella for Christmas the first year he is in London. Mrs. Morel cherishes the umbrella deeply. Later, Paul and his friends go for a walk when one of his friends breaks the umbrella. Bird's nest: Mrs. Leivers insists that Paul see this nest made by a jenny wren. Mrs. Leivers is intensely fascinated by this nest, but Miriam loves it all the more when Paul admits that the nest is striking. Miriam's swing: Miriam finally faces her fear of Paul's rejection and asks him if he wants to see the swing on her family's farm. When Paul rides it happily, Miriam sees how his face is flushed and his eyes are sparkling. She offers to let him ride again- it is the first time she gets to spoil a man. Miriam's rose-bush: Miriam shows Paul the beautiful rose-bush she finds in the woods. She becomes so absorbed in the beauty and the fragrance of the roses that Paul cannot stand to see her so emotional and passionate. Clara's wedding ring: Clara absentmindedly takes her ring off and spins it. Paul watches her spin the ring with fascination.