Romanafen

“Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?”

Every once in a while I need to write an essay on T. E. Lawrence, and while this is not a good historical moment to write about a “white savior” figure associated with the Middle-East, fear not: I’m going to write about his mother. (Spoilers for Jane Eyre, oddly enough.)

I was recently rereading some information about T. E. L.’s background, and I realized I’d never fully appreciated that powerhouse who was his mother. I think in studies of T. E., Sarah Lawrence usually surfaces as the religiously strict, domineering parent who beat him rather mercilessly as a child and, thus, probably had a hand in his growing up to be so ascetic and concerned with overcoming pain. And all this may be true enough, but it’s an incomplete picture.

What struck me most in my recent reread was how alike mother and son were. T. E. himself remarked on this in a letter to Charlotte Shaw, who apparently said she didn’t see the (psychological) resemblance. They were both incredibly forceful people, bold, courageous, and committed to getting their way. They were also both highly conscientious and turned much of their forcefulness on themselves with exacting moral strictness, which they failed to live up to. Both must have carried a great deal of guilt and spent much of their lives in what might be described as penance.

One anecdote from Mack’s biography illustrates these characteristics in Sarah. When she was in her nineties, she broke her leg and insisted on getting in and out of her wheelchair unassisted, reportedly saying, “It’s good for me!” (p. 9). ( Read more... )