Summaries and Critical Commentary

Abstract

Summary The novel opens with a brief historical survey of the development of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfield and the building of the miners’ houses called ‘the Bottoms’. The first ‘scene’ shows the children’s excitement at the Bestwood wakes and Mr Morel’s return with a coconut. A retrospective view sketches in Mrs Morel’s girlhood, her meeting with her future husband and the first few months of their married life. Disillusionment follows as Mrs Morel discovers the lies he has told her about his financial position. The first child, William, is born, and conflict between the mother and father reaches a climax in Mr Morel’s cutting off of the boy’s curls. Mr Morel, who had become a teetotaller on marrying, reverts to his old drinking habits, and the chapter concludes with an extended episode narrating his day’s excursion to Nottingham and, on his return, the quarrel between him and the pregnant Mrs Morel, which ends with her being locked out of the house for several hours.