D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner

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Recommended: Critical analysis of the "rocking horse winner

D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner

“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 of vanity and the falseness of appearances in the early twentieth century society.

Hester is introduced to us in the story as an unnamed character, either “the woman” or “the mother”, making it apparent that there is a connection to the average person. “There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck” (Lawrence 481). Lawrence begins his tale by introducing not only the main character, but the main question. What is luck? By revealing Hester’s definition of luck, Lawrence makes his disdain for his society’s need for unnecessary luxuries known. Hester believes that luck is the thing that enables you to attain wealth, but she does not believe that she has any. Of course, Hester is surrounded by innumerable signs of wealth: a mansion, servants, expensive clothing, pricey toys for her children, and a high-society life style. All she cares about is maintaining the façade of perfection, buying the most expensive things just to look pretty with no job to...

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...ty for ones own actions (E-notes). Lawrence uses his tale, “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, to show that wealth is a source of corruption which destroys a person and their bonds to their fellow man. People use money to buy the image of themselves they want others to believe is the real one; however, Lawrence’s story leads one to see that love and respect are not things that should be able to be bought and sold, and the world needs compassion to survive.

Works Cited

Charters, Ann. “David Herbert Lawrence”. The Story and It’s Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.

Lawrence, D. H. “The Rocking-Horse Winner”. The Story and It’s Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” E-Notes. 10 Oct. 2004. <http://www.enotes.com/rocking-horsewinner/>

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