Who Is To Blame For Paul's Death In The Rocking Horse Winner

Luck is something that comes and goes with time, and few experience luck for a long period of time. In Rocking Horse Winner by D.H Lawrence one family seems to never find luck, or money at all. A mother with three children struggles to keep up appearances as money become scarce. One conversation about luck with her son sets a surge of madness into full bloom within her son. From that point on Paul is obsessed with finding luck, and money for his mother so that the whispering will stop. In the end it is the madness for luck and money that drives Paul to his sudden death. Some may argue that Paul's mother is to blame for his death by planting the seed of luck in the young boys mind, but that statement is inaccurate. The author of this short story

Once his mind had the idea to search for luck, no there was no stopping him. His obsessive behavior is what caused his downfall. The young boy was most likely neglected of love and attention as a child, and that resulted in his mental instability. His mother was said to be a great mother that loved her kids, yet “only herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so,” (p.1247, line 14/15). A child that is aware that it is unloved can grow to develop issues that remain intact for some time. That fact is made apparent every time Paul’s eyes are described as, “uncanny, strange, wide, or glassy,”. The entire story is built on the idea that the boy is not completely sound of mind. It is that that leads me to believe that the boys death lays on his own shoulders. He continuously was entranced by the idea of luck and money, and it destroyed him. His mind was ruined by his constant thoughts of such things, and ended up causing his

Some may say that she planted the seed of interest in the boys mind that lead to his obsession with luck, but they are mistaken. They had already been thinking about the subject of luck, as he was the one to engage the conversation with his mother to discuss it. Paul begins the conversation by asking an innocent question, but gets to the point of his questioning by asking, “then what is luck, mother?” (P.1248, line 42). Yes, the mother failed to love her children properly, but in the end the young boy was consumed by something that had nothing to do with the mother. Others may believe that the mother watched the boy slowly spiral into madness, yet did nothing. This statement is a true one, but may I ask: what good would it have done if she had? Paul had already lost his mind since day one. There was nothing that could be done for this youth that thought only of