D.H. Lawrence : The Influence of Frieda

Frieda was the single largest influence on Lawrence after the death of his mother. She was five years his senior, the mother of three children and the wife of his former French professor. After his mother’s death, Lawrence had little confidence left in him and was ill with pneumonia. Frieda helped him come out of that hopeless phase of his life. After meeting her he realized that ‘slowly the world came back’. He rewrote Sons and Lovers with her. Henceforth all his major works and the poems of Look ! We have come Through ! bear the influence of this new liberated life with Frieda. Single handedly she got Lawrence out of the shackles of the claustrophobic mother love and helped him achieve his full potential as one of the finest writers of modern times. This paper tries to trace the transition and growth of Lawrence under the influence of Frieda.