The Daughter-In-Law - D H Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence, in full David Herbert Lawrence (1885.-1930.) is one of the most influential English writer of the 20th century. His diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. In his work he confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. The Daughter-In-Law, (1912) written around the same time as his best novel, Sons and Lovers, explores a similar theme - the suffocating mother love that can leave a man emasculated. The story is integrated into a mighty portrayal of the 19th-century working class residents in Eastwood, the mining town near Nottingham, England with its unique colorful dialect. A young miner Luther Gascoigne has been married to the attractive, socially superior Minnie for only six weeks but their relationship is already in deep trouble. Not only does his wife find him a weak mummy's boy, but she learns that he got another woman pregnant shortly before their wedding. While Luther collapses into drunken self-pity, Minnie keeps on fighting for her man.