What Defines Us As Human Beings?

The human being is certainly endowed with a power that makes him handle his life in relation to himself and to others. This power is central to people’s life, to which humans are always trying to give sense. Yet, the question of what makes life meaningful has to be answered personally. One cannot rely on others to determine what will be meaningful. Meaningful lives are for extraordinary people: great thinkers, artists, scholars, scientists, doctors, activists, explorers, national leaders…. Whereas to the moderate people, meaningful life can be simple in structure, personal, usable, attractive and familiar.

Every text shows signs of the time and the society it is produced in. D.H.Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers consider a range of options for where life meaning is anchored around a discussion of several relevant themes: family, education, art and culture, love, sex, obscenity, class conflict…. Most are well-known, even to the twentieth-century man. Human higher capacities, linked with tenderness, care, intelligence, reason and creativity, as well as commitments and relationships are – among other – vital ingredients to building up a sense for life.

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Social qualities and cultural values do not just shape the individuals’ daily lives, but also every text that is written. These writings then have the ability to influence thoughts and beliefs on what is right and wrong.

D.H.Lawrence’s ideas and visions in the perspective of New Historicism are useful to understand the world better and deeper. Since New Historicism stresses on the intimate relationship between literature, culture, and history, there is a constant interaction of history, culture, and ideology of the past with the present trends and situations.

As a result, the reading of texts is connected with the personal life history of the writer.

With respect to human conditions in today’s civilization, an examination of D.H. Lawrence's works in the new perspective is worthy of interest. The social, political and social conditions prevailing in Lawrence’s time firmly influenced his artistic mind and creativity.

D.H.Lawrence expresses the idea that man is living a lie, leading a life of falsity, negativity and deadness. The decline in human relationships, the tendency of human beings to destroy each other through war (World War I) are current tendencies of man’s greedy quest of wealth and power. This pattern can at any rate be reversed just if man connects with nature and its delicacy, thus experiencing a life of spontaneity based on sensitivity, affection and tenderness.

The point, then, is not to identify altogether new sources of conduct so as to try to explain or justify some of them. The choices should rather empower us to find and understand our own inclinations and tendencies. However, in case we disagree, we are called to plan for alternatives.