The Rocking Horse Winner Summary

We Win Some, We Lose Some

(An analysis of The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H Lawrence)

Have you ever believed in a supernatural power or something that gives the ability to have an edge over others? In D.H Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, there is a young boy named Paul that has the ability to be able to see the future somewhat and win bets for a rather sad reason. All the boy wants is for his mother to believe that he is lucky and for her show him love and affection. Sadly, Paul works very hard to attempt to prove to his mother that he is indeed lucky, and to prove to her that their family is not cursed with bad luck. Then sadly, the mother does not give Paul the appreciation he wants until it is far too late and her son dies of exhaustion, all just for his mother to see that he is lucky so she would show him affection. Three messages portrayed in this story are, family, wealth, and luck.

First, D.H Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, family is a virtue that is not satisfactory with what many families would like to be. Paul's relationship with his mother is a mess of unfulfilled desire, anxiety, hostility, and terror. Paul's father is virtually absent and nothing much is said about the father. The mother

frantically attempts to make up for the luxuries her husband can't provide. Paul just wants to please his mother to earn her love. Obviously the father is not a big role in Paul's life and he just wants the love from his mother due to the father being absent most of the time. As the story says on page 1247, “ when her children were present, she would feel the center of her heart go hard.” Obviously, Paul’s family is dysfunctional due to the absence of a father figure and the love the mother doesn’t provide.

Second, The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H Lawrence shows the importance of wealth to Paul’s family.

Throughout the story the mother of Paul speaks about not having enough money to be where they want to be financially. They have more than enough money for compared to an average family, but they want more and more. Paul attempts to solve this issue by winning bets and giving his mother money secretly, in hope the voices would go away. The boy would hear the house ecko, “There must be more money, there must be more money, there must be more money!” (Page 1248)The parents obviously cared substantially about their social status and would prefer to not live a normal life and live well with access money, but rather, a luxurious on that can not be paid

for.

Last, D.H Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, tells about the vitality of luck. According to the mother the father does not have good luck because he does not make the amount of money the wife wants him to make. The mother of Paul continues to tell Paul that no one in their family has luck. She says she doesn’t have luck because she ended up marrying a guy that is not rich. Paul then tells his mother that he is luck and the mother only laughs at him for assuming so. Paul then strives to show his mother that he is indeed lucky and in result, Paul dies. Finally in the end while the boy is dying, he asks his mother one last time on page 1261 in the third paragraph, “ Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!” Then the boys dies in the night with the completion of proving to his mother that he indeed is lucky.

Certainly, The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H Lawrence is a compelling story that has many messages and several being about family, wealth and luck. Paul's family was obviously fairly dysfunctional and caused severe anxiety to young Paul. Also, due to this dysfunctionality, Paul strives ever harder to simply win the love of his mother. Wealth plays an enormous role in the story. If it wasn’t for the parents unquenchable thirst for more money and a higher social status than the death of the innocent child could have been spared. Without luck none of what happened in the story would have happened and Paul would have simply lost his bets and felt unaccomplished toward the end of his life. Then again, if having to prove to his mother he is lucky was never an issue, the death of their young gifted son would have never occurred.