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Critical analysis of the Rocking Horse Winner by DH Laurence
Literary analysis of the rocking horse winner
Critical analysis of the "rocking horse winner
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Self - preservation: is to protect oneself from harm or danger. When an individual is faced with a dangerous situation it is a human instinct to protect oneself by doing everything they possibly can. However, when an individual chooses to abandon personal safety while prioritising external demands, it can cause dreadful consequences and ultimately, misery. In the short story, “ The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, it was shown how the protagonist Paul, a sweet and innocent child, was raised by a heartless mother in an ungrateful household. Paul recognizes his family’s financial problems and that his mother does not love him, resulting in his obsession with gambling to acquire money for his mother. Furthermore, Paul failed to acknowledge the balance …show more content…
Lawrence explores the idea that when an individual who constantly seeks love from another is faced with competing demands, this individual is inclined to sacrifice self-preservation in order to make someone else happy, resulting in an ultimate misery in the …show more content…
Lawrence’s short story, “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the reader is presented with the idea that when an individual is faced with competing demands and that person chooses to abandon its self-preservation to prioritize other people’s demands, it can result in an individual living in a sorrowful life. Paul was raised in a world without any parental figures to help him and was also raised by a mother with a cold heart. Paul was so blinded by his goal to earn his mother’s love that he forgot about his own well-being. However, this did not benefit him at all because he never received the love that he needed. Though Paul is a selfless individual with a kind heart, his inability to balance his own well being with others is what made him weak. There is a subconscious need for humans to feel love, however, one must consider all the factors including oneself in order to make effective life
In our lives, we have had to learn how to handle people’s expectations of what we should be. Learning how to put yourself and your own well-being before other people’s demands. Often we are unable to meet the demands that people have set for us, which often creates the feeling of hopelessness because we could not do what they’ve wanted. This begins the downfall of our emotions, creating feelings that we aren’t good enough for the world anymore. Our bodies are set to put our self-preservation before trying to meet people’s demands, but their demands often are what affects our self-preservation. In “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller, we get examples of this when it comes to one of the main characters, Willy Loman. Throughout the book, we watch and learn about how Willy doesn’t care about his self-preservation because he believes that there isn't anything positive in his life anymore and he doesn’t feel like he should be there. Why does Willy decide to give up? Well as the story goes on, all the pieces begin to come together.
Many hearts are drawn to history's greatest love stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, and Helen and Paris to name a few. One could argue that humanity’s way of finding happiness is to seek love. Pure, unadulterated love is one of the hardest feelings to acquire, but when one does, they’d do anything to keep it. Through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and his characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, readers discover that this innate desire to be accepted and loved is both our most fatal flaw and our greatest virtue.
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story about a young boy, Paul, who has the supernatural ability to choose a winning race horse. It is not clear how the boy has this ability but he hears his mother’s voice echo in his mind saying that they are poor and so he sets out to change that. Paul takes on the stress of his mother’s greed. This short story relates to the obsession of wealth which what motivates the characters aside of neglect, faulty sense of value, opportunism and deceit. Paul believes that there is more money to be made and thus goes on a frenzy to win more, but consequently dies after falling off his rocking horse due to convulsions of a fever.
had no money, and what the town would think of her. She was one of
The point of view of materialism in the Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence is the seen from inside the mind of child in the story, Paul. “He went off by himself, vaguely, in a childish way, seeking for the clue to “luck,” Absorbed, taking n...
Many authors are recognized by a reoccurring theme found throughout their works. The author D.H. Lawrence can be classified into this group. He is well known for his reoccurring theme that romantic love is psychologically redeeming. He wrote “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” , a short story that exemplifies this theme quite accurately, in 1922 (Sagar 12). Through excellent use of symbolism in “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”, Lawrence renders his theme of romantic love being psychologically redeeming through the emotional development of the two main characters, Mabel and Dr. Fergusson.
Some may say love is just an emotion while others may say it is a living and breathing creature. Songs and poems have been written about love for hundreds and thousands of years. Love has been around since the beginning of time, whether someone believes in the Big Bang or Adam and Eve. Without love, there wouldn’t be a world like it is known today. But with love, comes pain with it. Both William Shakespeare and Max Martin know and knew this. Both ingenious poets wrote love songs of pain and suffering as well as blossoming, newfound love. The eccentric ideal is both writers were born centuries apart. How could both know that love and pain work hand in hand when they were born 407 years apart? Love must never change then. Love survives and stays its original self through the hundreds and thousands of years it has been thriving. Though centuries apart, William Shakespeare and Max Martin share the same view on love whether i...
Everybody wants to be the best. However, how can we be the best when all we look at is personal desire? In order to succeed in the society we live in, as individuals, it is necessary that we learn to compromise our happiness in certain situations. We all urge to succeed and strive to win. But success, comes with sacrifices. Success means, giving up and compromising your happiness for what’s right. In “Advice to the Players”, Bruce Bonafede demonstrates this concept in the lives of the characters of his play. He displays that the idea of conforming, is in an individual’s best interest, even if at times it is a hard decision to make. Not everybody has enough courage to compromise their happiness, when the option of pursuing your happiness is available. These two ideas continuously conflict with each other and lead to risky choices made by the characters Robert, Oliver and Tyler. This modern drama explores the idea of how these individuals deal with numerous dilemmas choosing to either compromise their happiness, or letting personal desires come first. Bruce Bonafede, displays many ways in which the characters of this text make difficult choices throughout the play, in order to protect those who they care for, make the safer decision which also is beneficial to the individual. The characters accomplish this through sacrifice and compromise. The reader explores the obstacles these characters face in which they choose to compromise their happiness and put the happiness of others before them. The author demonstrates the unique power of this throughout this text and we explore the numerous ways in which these characters compromise their happiness.
In conclusion, "The Rocking-Horse Winner," written by D. H. Lawrence is a story about the family and the feelings of shame that we acquire from our parents that could have disastrous consequences for the whole family. We saw the effects of a mother's obsession with money, a son's plan to please his mother, and the prices the family paid for their obsession with money.
“The Rocking Horse Winner” is a story that discusses a young boy, named Paul, and his family who feel they never have enough money. The family has insufficient funds, but when Paul provides the mother with money, she only desires further. This constant yearning causes the boy to feel the desperate and the interminable need to provide for his family. He in a sense almost hungers to replace his father and become the sole provider. Through trying to please his mother, the young boy Paul meets his demise. This tragic conclusion illustrates the lengths Paul will go in order to replace his father and become the provider for his mother. This story displays elements of an Oedipus complex, because of Paul’s desires to replace his father and the effects of insatiable greed, eventually resulting in his premature mortality.
The Rocking-Horse Winner is a tragic story that demonstrates how materialism is very destructive in people’s lives. D.H. Lawrence uses one of the main characters, Hester, to symbolize how greed heavily affects the idea of materialism. Hester’s need for money develops the idea that happiness and love is destroyed by the need for money. Lawrence uses money in her short story to convey the idea of how neglect from a mother destroys an innocent, young child such as Paul. Lawrence’s symbolism reveals that children like Paul need love and compassion from their elders. Hester, Paul’s rocking horse and the whispering of the house represent greed, selfishness, and love. They also reveal the character’s real feelings and thoughts of neglect, detachment, greed and selfishness.
LOVE is word we Homo sapiens have defined and yet struggled to understand throughout time and different cultures. It is a word that can mean simultaneously both pain and ecstasy. Such a simple four-letter word has been the bane of some poet’s existence and at the same time been the muse for others. When pondered about, love can be determined as an easy emotion but at the same time vastly hard to achieve. This contradiction and overall ideology has been the topic of poets, writers and artist since humans first invented the word. Divided by two different artistic movements, both Sir Thomas Wyatt and William Shakespeare were no strangers to the subject of love. While Wyatt wrote primarily poems and is credited as the father of sonnets, Shakespeare wrote both plays and sonnets. Each author tackle’s the subject from there own prospective and offers their thoughts on what they think the word love means. Two sonnets that can represent both authors’ attitudes on love are Wyatt’s “The Long Love” and Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130”. While some similarities between “Sonnet 130” and “The Long Love” are evident, the differences are striking. Both sonnets offering wonderful examples on what two brilliant minds think of the overdone and universal theme of love.
Victor Hugo once said, “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Whether in Shakespeare’s tragic play about lovers doomed by fate, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s sonnet describing love, “Sonnet 116”, or O. Henry’s age old The Gift of the Magi, love motivates the characters and authors to make decisions that have a weighty impact on their lives. Throughout these works of literature, authors use love’s power to drive the plot forward to create good events within the characters’ lives. Love is a force for good because it makes people willing to forgive each other, it brings the best out of people in bad situations, and it
Spilka, Mark. The Love Ethic of D.H. Lawrence. (1955): 244. Rpt. In TCLC. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 1985. 289-293.