FIGURING THE FATHER IN D.H.LAWRENCES 'SONS AND LOVERS': A PSYCHOANALYTICAL READING (Pages 87-94) by Dr. Anita Konwar in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Psychoanalysis is a method of treating mental disorders by investigating the conscious and unconscious elements in the mind. The estimation of a character is not possible unless we look into his or her inner world. Psychoanalysis helps in discovering truths about behavior in order to understand a particular character, it can give some insight into why people act in certain ways. Literary criticism has always been attracted by Sigmund Freud’s and Jacques Lacan’s figuration of the father as a symbol of authority. The father is seen as the model for the child. The child tries to imitate the father in order to become powerful and dominating like him. But Freud’s father is also the child’s rival. Criticism in general and D.H.Lawrence criticism in particular has used and analysed the implications of this rivalry. Jacques Lacan associates the father figure with the Law, which is the social restriction on incest. The objective of the paper is a theoretical analysis of the father figure in D.H.Lawrence’s popular novel Sons and Lovers in the light of the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Keywords: Psychoanalysis; conscious; unconscious elements; behavior; symbol of authority; rival; father figure; Law; incest.