The Rocking Horse Winner Literary Analysis

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story by the English novelist, essayist and literary critic D.H. Lawrence. It represents how the author cautions about the negative effects of materialism, as it can never fully satisfy the human need and will eventually end in tragedy and unhappiness. Lawrence does so through the archetypes of the terrible mother, the hero, and the anti-wise old man.

In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, by David Herbert Lawrence, there is this family, as the family wants to keep their economic status, the mom want’s to have money all the time. The Mom has a mental mindset of the family being rich, as she believes that she has money, but in reality, the family is not rich and they have no money as they are in debt. The mom is unhappy as the parent's marriage is unsatisfactory, the mom thought she was lucky before she got married to her husband, so she thinks that her husband gave her bad luck. Both parents have no luck. The mom does not like her own children. The mom tells his son Paul, that she and Dad have no luck. This short story has many secrets that various of the characters keep from one another. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the theme is a Moral Obligation as Hester the mom does not like her kids and only her and the kids know, Paul keeps from his mom that him, uncle Oscar, and Bassett have been betting on horse races and that the “Rocking-Horse” gives Paul luck.

In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” we are introduced to a woman who author D.H Lawrence states, “was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them.” When I dive into the psychology behind that statement, I come up with a thought that this beginning draws similarities to Lawrence’s own upbringing with his coal miner father and schoolteacher mother. Similarly the mother in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is disenchanted with her marriage and the way her life

Hester tells Paul that luck is “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 money. But if you’re lucky, you will always have money.” (236) This pushes Paul to desperately seek out luck so that his mother will be grateful for her life and provide her family with the love and affection that they so rightfully deserve. Paul believes his rocking horse is full of magical powers, which will help him achieve the luck he needs to gain his mother’s love. While Paul rides his rocking horse, the horse predicts the winning horse and ends up making Paul an appalling amount of money. Paul gives his winnings to his mother who squanders it on unnecessary materialistic things. He realizes that he must win more money to win his mother’s affections. He becomes mad and frantically searches for the next winner of the horse races. On Paul’s last ride to find the last winner of the horse race, he falls of the horse and eventually dies.

Paul is infatuated with luck for after being convinced that luck is the bane of his father and family he feels as if he is responsible for maintaining his family 's happiness with the success that his luck brings. Whispers that creep through his house are whispers of depression and doubt that plague Paul driving him forwards thus he states, “I started it for mother. She said she had no luck, because father is unlucky, so I thought if I was lucky, it might stop the whispering" (Lawrence 8). Paul finds himself encumbered with the burden of maintaining a family 's happiness. As an adolescent hoping to please his mother Paul must push himself past the limit of the

In “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence, an immense amount of attention is poured towards the focus of money. Today, who someone is depends drastically upon the amount of money they have. Sadly, money determines who you are before you even realize it. The same idea is developed into this story. An essay says, “While his father is a hard worker, he does not bring in enough money to satisfy the expensive tastes of the latter’s wife. Because of this, Paul’s mother resents her husband and makes it clear that she wants more monetary benefits out of life” (Pierce). Although she may not realize it, Paul’s mother is beginning to demand so much of her husband that it not only wears out her husband, but continually rubs off onto Paul. Paul becomes so bothered by the thought that his family has little to none money, and his only desire is to change that feeling for his family. He begins to realize that he wants nothing but money for his family so they can experience life in such a way that they are able to enjoy what they have and obtain more. As Paul is growing up amid such an issue, he begins to realize that no matter what he is doing, he is constantly being reminded that his family is destitute. “He was looking so extraordinarily foolish for no other reason but that he heard the secret whisper all over the house: “There must be more money” (Page 1248). Given the circumstances, everything that Paul did reminded him subtly about the family issue. Because of

In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” the mother is quite obsessed with the fact that she does not have enough money, even though she spends lavishly on materialistic things. She whispers to herself constantly about not having enough money, thus giving Paul the impression that he needs to do something in order to make her happy. The story mysteriously unfolds with Paul riding a magical horse that gives him prophetic visions of which horse would win the Epsom Derby. At first it seems like an interesting idea, but eventually Paul obsesses over money exactly like his mother. In the very end of this story, Paul dies from convulsions. Paul chooses the winning horse in the race, but he ends up losing his

The author depicts a common demon the human race faces that is greed and society's need for more possessions and money. This is projected throughout the story showing that Paul's family enjoyed living in style yet always lived beyond their means. There is never enough money, causing a great deal of anxiety in the house (Lawrence 221). The family believes that they are

When a person is lucky, it does not have to mean that they are fortunate with money. Luck is the chance for things to go the way you want them to go with out having any control over the situation. In The Rocking Horse Winner, Hester, the mother seems to believe that luck is strictly having money, and when there is no money, there is no luck. Hester's idea of luck meaning money brings forth the two ideas of greed and death throughout the story.

237). By riding his rocking horse Paul is able to predict the winner of horse races at the track. He uses this ability in an attempt to provide for the family. In doing this he tries to assume his father’s in an attempt to please his mother and the household’s constant whispering the need for more money. “I started it for mother. She said she had no luck, because father is unlucky, so I thought if I was lucky, it might stop whispering.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 240) even as Paul is dying he is still consumed with trying fill the role of a provider for his mother, “I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse and get there, then I’m absolutely sure – oh, absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!” […] “But the boy died in the night.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, pp. 245). Paul’s death was a sacrifice to please his mother, who put her desires for money and material things above the love of her children.

The atmosphere within the setting of “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” was also one of depression, stress, anxiety and fear. Although not all the symptoms were present in all of the characters, Paul’s mother was the one that had all the symptoms due to the lack of money. Paul and his other siblings had fear as on of their symptoms when that house started saying, “There must be more money,” one

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story by D. H. Lawrence in which he creates a criticism of the modernized world’s admiration and desire for material objects. It was published in Harper’s Bazaar magazine in 1926 for the first time (E-Notes). The story’s main character, Hester, is a beautiful woman who is completely consumed by the idea of possession, and so she loses out on the love of family and the happiness of life. Her son, Paul, also learns to love wealth because of his negligent mother, constantly hearing the “whispers” of empty pockets in their home. D. H. Lawrence uses the relationship between Paul and Hester and their money in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” to show the shortcomings

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.

Paul also hears the cry, "there must be more money" echoing through the house's walls (Lawrence 525). "Paul . . . takes upon himself the intolerable burden of attempting to solve mother's 'problem' . . . the lack of money" (Jinkins 88). He takes this challenge hoping to receive his mother's love in return. Instead Paul rides himself to his death because he is unable to meet his "devouring" mother's needs (Jinkins 89).

obstacles to get to their goal. In "The Rocking-Horse Winner", Paul found his rocking horse and the ability to pick winning horses the way to