Greed In Maupassant's The Necklace And The Rocking Horse Winner

Firstly, archetype is of the terrible mother, Hester, whom is haunted with the never-ending need for money; the more she got, the more she craved. As a result, it left her void of love towards anything or anyone other than money, which left her children, primarily her son Paul, feeling unloved and neglected. The author demonstrates this by writing, “She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them” (Lawrence 18). Hester is not an admirable woman, let alone mother, in any given way. She claims to be unlucky, yet the opening lines introduce her as beautiful woman, who married out of love, and has beautiful children.

In both these stories, the authors portray two very different yet alike women who have trouble accepting their fate and are trying to reject the life of women of their class. Mathilde Loisel and Louise Mallard are very alike because they dream of something they do not have, then their dreams come true, but destiny plays a fatal role in both stories, and ladies lose everything they had. In both stories, ladies have caring husbands, whom they do not appreciate .Unfortunately, the endings of

One of the emotional essentials of life is to be loved, and there are quite a few cases where material things can hinder receiving this much-needed love, the greatest culprit of all being money. D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The Rocking Horse Winner” tells of a boy, Paul, who desires love and affection from his mother, Hester, but she is so wrapped up in her concerns with money that she does not display any of this needed affection toward her son or any of her children. She has grown unloving and bitter due to her husband’s inability to meet her expectations, and she tells Paul his father is unlucky. Full of curiosity, Paul asks his mother what luck is, and she tells him, “‘It’s what causes you to have money. If you’re lucky you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky, you will always get more money” (Lawrence, 2). Paul is quite intuitive and interprets that the only way he can finally obtain love from his mother is if he is lucky, much unlike his father. He proudly shares with his mother that he is lucky, but when she does not take his word seriously, he falls into a blinded rage as he madly rides his rocking horse, hoping it will take him to where the luck is, “‘Now take me to where there is luck!’” (3). By riding his rocking-horse, he knows which horse will win the derby. The association of love with money brings about the idea of a love for money, or greed, which is one of the seven

In "The Rocking Horse Winner" D. H. Lawrence tells us about the traumatic downfall of an upper middle class family struggling to maintain appearances through habitual overspending. Both the parents with common jobs and "expensive tastes" (pg.646) exploit all their resources to give their family the best; however, it was only to retain their high status in the society. "The Rocking Horse Winner" depicts a common demon we all face; greed, society's need for more possessions and money often drives people to do drastic things.<p>The magnificently decorated house had always been haunted by the unspoken phrase, "there must be more money" (pg.646). "Nobody said it aloud. Just as no one says: We are

For every decision and action a person makes, he/she always has an intention and motivation to do so. Nora Helmer and Hester in the works A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence face choices related to finances. Due to the differences in severity and inspiration for money between the two, Nora can be used as a lens to better fathom the selfishness and greed of Hester’s actions in relation to riches. Moreover, the theme of money in A Doll’s House sheds light on this same theme in “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” especially as it pertains to these characters. While both Nora and Hester adore wealth, Nora’s attitude toward money is selfless, whereas Hester’s outlook is self-indulgent; this is seen through what the characters do with the money, how their perspectives develop regarding wealth, and how they are viewed by other characters.

She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them"(Lawrence 225). The quote creates an image of how cold the mother is towards her children. Hester stops respecting and loving her husband, once he is unable to provide her with all her extravagant taste. Hester blames their financial failure to her "unlucky" husband (Gordon 160). The situation makes her grow bitter. Hester's priorities are obviously not her children but her greed, which has made her unable to display any affection toward the children. The narrator tells the reader about the feelings of the mother towards her children as she says, "Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart IS a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody" (Bloom 323). Along with that the author shows the situation that is arising everyday within their family. For example, "the mother had a small income, and a father had a small income, but not nearly enough for a social position, which they had to keep up" (Lawrence 221).

There are many moral issues in society. Though not many people realize it, acts like selfishness and greed affect people in major ways. Throughout history greed has been a huge problem, as displayed in The Necklace many people live wanting to be accepted into society, although the bible is against greed and selfishness it is still an ongoing issue in society.

The love of wealth plagued man from the beginning of time and continues to today. Since the twentieth century in particular, materialism became increasingly common and cast in a positive light. Graham Greene and D.H. Lawrence, who were authors in this time period, addressed this tendency in their short stories. In “The Destructors” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” both authors utilize young boys from materialistic and prideful families to show the destructiveness of materialism, even for the seemingly innocent.

In the short stories being ill content with life leads to even deeper misfortunes. After the plot twist readers can examine the quote by Doyle where he states “She had a liking for new experiences, and was gracious to most men who wooed her” (2). Lady Sannox seems like a thrill seeker going for different men and in the end karma paid her a visit. Her dissatisfaction with what she has is arguable reminiscent of Mathilde when Maupassant writes, “She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them”(2). In both stories the ladies desires to be adored and their ill content with what some might call lofty life’s left them battered and in shambles. It can be concluded that if Mathlide was more grateful for the life she’s been provided with, she wouldn’t have seeked fancy jewel’s which the plot twist punished her for .Also if Lady Sannox stayed faithful to her husband, Lord Sannox wouldn’t have reacted so violently.Since the plot twist of both stories role display the downfall of two characters who never made peace with who they were and suffered for it, it can be said that serve very similar moral

The most common element found within both pieces of literature is that both women seem to be greatly selfish.

Despite physical beauty, greed can create an ugly personality that affects relationships with others. Elle Woods, worked her way up from nothing more than living as a pretty girl to get into Harvard, in the movie Legally Blonde. While Glinda, of Wicked, used her high social status to remain in power by tromping down others. Glinda the Good is known as the epitome of ‘goodness’ but she stepped on other to work her way up. Elle Woods however, was ambitious and worked hard to better herself and built her way up to prevail as powerful. Both of these women may seem nothing more than beautiful, but they arose above what people thought they could become to ensue as powerful, although in extremely different ways. Glinda’s greed left her well liked, but also isolated, depressed and alone, while Elle Woods’s ambition gave her a happier future and more successful life.

Certain individuals have a drive that can lead them to achieve what they desire most. In the Short story “The Rocking Horse Winner”, D.H Lawrence showcases this through character motivation and symbolism. He further this using pursuit of desire, and how if you take it to a certain extent it can result in tragedy if the individual chooses not to conform. Paul wants to please his mother because his mother feels that there family has no luck, but Paul proclaims that he is lucky. Paul suddenly becomes consumed with this sudden spree of good luck and feels this is the only way he will be able to gain to the affection of his mother. D.H Lawrence reveals that Paul has a certain flaw that turns him to believe that the only way he will be able to gain his mothers love and affection is by winning money in the horse races. He leads this pursuit of desire to the standards he thought he wanted to, but not to the standards that would have achieved what he wanted, which leads to his down fall. When individuals desire love from another, they may choose to conform their beliefs and actions to that person. At first they may feel successful, however if they sacrifice everything, in pursuing this kind of goal, they may pay a heavy price instead of gaining there hearts desire.

Throughout history, many people struggle with greed. Greed is defined as a selfish desire for something. Throughout the story each character faces there own form of greed, whether they know it or not each action impacts each other and leads to the death of the mother’s son. In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the author D.H lawrence uses a rocking horse, wealth, and lack of family intimacy to illustrate to the reader the disastrous problems with greed.

When describing Hester Prynne, Van Doren exclusively utilizes meritorious diction with positive connotations that assist in uplifting and glorifying Hester’s innately amiable character. While addressing Hester’s physical appearance, words such as “delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace” are employed to shine her in divine light and express the soft warmth that emanates from her being (Van Doren). As a result of Van Doren’s angelic illustration, the audience is compelled to envision a radiating halo about Hester and to regard her as a gracious blessing rather than a formidable curse imposed upon society. Furthermore, the use of “abundant” and “rich” to describe Hester’s hair and complexion respectively accentuate her natural beauty and portray her dainty femininity (Van Doren). The vividness and extremity of the word choice on the favorable end of the spectrum enhance Hester’s visual appeal contrasting her with the “bleak” Puritan community, further influencing the reader to distinguish her as a living goddess. Cumulatively, Van Doren’s implementation of praiseworthy diction idolizes Hester by extolling her elegance and allure.

These feminists aimed to defend their silenced voices. One motive for the dissent of inequality could have resulted from the strict government regulation of conformity. Everyone was trained to evade individualistic thinking, which in turn, led to the questioning of leaders. “It was an age in which the human intellect had taken a more active and a wider range than for many centuries before,” (149). This quote illustrates the possibility of a change in people’s mind regarding the injustice towards women. Hester represents the story’s population that thinks freely. She is not content with fulfilling the pre-determined destiny of a silent wife under Christ, and demonstrates it by challenging that role and attempting to reorganize the archaic system in which she lives. The women of the town are outraged by her actions, demonstrating that they are afraid that if women start acting out of passion, the entire structure they depend on would dilapidate. Hester made it clear that it is possible to survive outside of prejudice, which is still exemplified today. She displays that the idea of feminism and the reasons leading up to it have not changed for decades.