remains the archetypal text. Gertrude Morel, disappointed by her alcoholic husband, pours her emotional and intellectual life into her son Paul. Lawrence dramatizes the "Oedipus complex" not as a clinical theory but as a lived tragedy: the mother’s love becomes a spiritual stranglehold, leaving Paul incapable of fully loving any other woman. The novel’s genius lies in its sympathy for both parties—Gertrude is no monster, but her devotion is a form of slow erasure.