It is hard to speak about Lawrence's techniques without mentioning his expanded field of inquiry in his characters' personal, psychological, and sexual lives was regarded as overtly sensational upon the novel's publication in 1913. Critic Julian Moynahan argues that Sons and Lovers (1913 edition) has three formal orders or matrices which blend with each other, and enrich one another.

The first matrix is conventional historical narrative "articulated in terms of historical sequence," and practical cause and effect, more or less the one that develops the plot line. The second is based on Freudian psychology, which explains the reasons for Paul's inhibitions in trying to love Miriam. The statement by the narrator about Paul's relationship with Miriam, "He wanted to give her passion and tenderness, and could not," participates as a statement of fact in the first matrix, but also in the second because Paul's inhibition is a neurotic symptom described...