The Rocking-Horse Winner, By D. H. Lawrence

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Wealth Takes a Toll On the Mind
In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” written by D. H. Lawrence the author writes about how the pressure of having money puts on an individual or a family causes anxiety and can even damage one’s health, possibly to the point of death. The authors idea is true in some cases but it depends on how somebody pictures the idea of wealth and handles having money.
In Lawrence’s story a woman has lives a fulfilling life and believed that love and family would make her life even greater however over the years the love she had fades away and the family she created primarily turned into an illusion. To others she had a wonderful life but in her reality all she had was a pointless existence. Her and the family did not make enough money to sustain their …show more content…

The pressure of wealth and being good enough for their society brought her constant anxiety. Even the children felt the pressure of money. Mother blames the fathers luck for their income. In time one of the children, a son named Paul, begins to gamble and bet on horse races. Ever since his mother taught him about luck and how she believed it correlated with money he has been interested in it. He has been greatly successful in the horse racing bets although refrains from telling his mother. One day Paul admits that he has been doing it to make up for the luck of his parents and to take away the anxiety of wealth in his family. However, even once the family did get money he still felt the constant pressure for there to be more money. His mon felt this pressure was making him ill so she planned to send him to the seaside to recover the day after the derby. The pressure drives him to insanity and him claiming that if he rides the rocking horse his

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