Dh Lawrence The Rocking Horse Winner

D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner”

The novel “The Rocking Winner” shows an English woman who had no luck in her life. She was seriously haunted by the feeling of failure since her family was not doing well. For instance, we are told that there is nothing her husband could participate in and come out successful. The woman used to work as a commercial artist and thus, could not earn as much as she wanted. The family lived a high standard lifestyle that was above the income and it was noted that although, they had a high standard of living, anxiety was their companion especially for money.

However, the children recognized this tension about money in the house and thus we are shown one child claiming to hear money whispering in the house.

Theme Of The Rocking Horse Winner

The book demonstrates that this English woman pretended to love her children so much, but deep down her heart, she felt nothing for the children.

This is because, when she got married, she was after love; unfortunately, that love did not last and skinny kids were the outcome of her love (Lawrence, 1966). Therefore, she felt that those children were just forced on her. Although the neighbors and friends congratulated her for the wonderful care and love she had for her family, only her and her children knew the truth.

Paul, the only son in the family, decided to get out of the house so that he could go and find some money because the family did not have enough money to sustain them.

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Therefore, Paul used his rocking horse to earn some money, which he gave to her mother. However, the thirst for more money within the family continued to be even stronger than before. Therefore, through this book we learn that because of the greedy nature of a mother over money, a child dies. This woman was never satisfied with money because she kept on yearning for more money, which made her son to use his power to find out the names of the winning horses, and thus he collapsed due to mental exhaustion.

Within the family, they had a gardener who loved and respected Paul very much. This is because he realized Paul’s talent for picking winners and thus he had to tell it to Paul’s uncle Oscar. Bassett the Gardner was of great help to Paul because he used to work around the horses and racing and thus, he was helpful in giving Paul instructions when it came to placing bets. He also helped in saving Paul’s money safely until when his uncle got involved in the activity of horse racing. He was very interested and later on, he joined and became one of the participants where he could also bet some money particularly on a horse by the name Daffodil. They later earned some good money on this bet and Paul had to make a gift of about five thousand pounds to his mother in a private way through a lawyer.

The house was stricken by poverty, and even though Paul tried all his best to know the name of the winning horse, he failed because he was exhausted; he became unconscious with brain fever. Unfortunately, he died after winning about eight thousand pounds for his mother who was never satisfied with money. Therefore, it has been argued that, the author of this book was trying to move away from realism and linking together a wider range of styles and topics. The entire book is concerned on the greedy nature of human beings. Wherever, there is greed and too much ambition, there are always misfortunes. For instance, in the novel, this woman was so greedy that he never realized the pain his son was going through just to satisfy her greed for money.

References

Lawrence, D. H. (1966). The Rocking Horse Winner. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Publishing.