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essay on the rocking horse winner
essay on the rocking horse winner
what is the relationship of D H Lawrence and his short story the rocking horse winner
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The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence
Written in 1933, D.H. Lawrence's short story "The Rocking Horse Winner" illustrates the consumptive nature of materialism. Through author's use of characterization, symbolism, and language in The Rocking Horse Winner, Lawrence successfully portrays a greedy and cold hearted mother, Hester, who attempts to fulfill the dissatisfaction in her life using wealth and material comfort. Lawrence uses Hester as an example to convey to the readers that materialism isolates one from love and ultimately leads to destruction.
Lawrence uses language that evokes irony and disgust to describe Hester in order to illustrate her coldness and inability to love anybody except herself. "She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them." (407) Lawrence asserts that because Hester is dissatisfied with her life, and refuses to compromise on the lifestyle she expects, she becomes preoccupied with searching for material comfort. However, the "failure made deep lines come into her face" (407), and gradually turns the center of her heart into "a hard little place that could not feel love, not for anybody." (407) Hester describes her husband as an "unlucky husband" (408). Through this expression, it is easy to see that Hester does not love her husband, and blames him for his incapability of making money. Lawrence uses this expression to demonstrate Hester's inability to love, and implies that her dissatisfaction with life is what turns her love to "dust" and causes the failure of her marriage. Through the descriptions of Hester's attitudes towards her husband and children, Lawrence paints a vivid imag...
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...n irony. Even though he rides the rocking horse, a young boy's toy, as Paul starts gambling, gradually he loses his innocence as a child. He becomes like his mother, who uses money to buy love. Lawrence portrays Paul as a victim to imply that the lack of love is the real cause of his death, and to confirm that Hester's materialism is what leads to her family's destruction.
Through the characterization, symbolism, and language of the short story, Lawrence successfully creates a materialistic image. Hester's tragic ending reveals to the readers that the desire of wealth and material possessions with little interest in spiritual matters isolates one from love, creates more dissatisfaction, and destroys one's life eventually.
Works Cited:
Lawrence, D. H. The Rocking Horse Winner." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. R. V. Cassill, ed. New York: W. W.
In the beginning of the written story the author reveals Hester to be a cold-hearted mother. "She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them"(75). In public she is thought of as the perfect mother, but in private she and her children know her true feelings. "Everyone else said of her: 'She is such a good mother. She adores her children.' Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other's eyes"(75). Heste...
She does not understand her sin and its inevitability, as shown by her impulsive decisions and love for Pearl and Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. Love influences Hester’s major decisions and outlook on her sin. Love makes her unable to truly reach repentance through her lack of understanding. The sheltered perspective love brings can make your morals
Lawrence creates a sarcastic tone throughout his essay to exhibit Hester’s iniquitous behavior. He utilizes the biblical story of Cain and Abel to describe how “this time it is Mr. Dimmesdale who dies [while Hester] lives on and is Abel” (Lawrence). Lawrence mocks Hawthorne’s depiction of Hester by calling her Abel, which is ironic because Abel was the victim of the story. The sarcastic tone portrays Hester as a complete divergence to Abel, who was faithful to God and trustworthy. This tone also urges the readers to examine Hester and conclude that she goes not have these morally good characteristics like faithfulness and trustworthiness. Lawrence claims that placing Prynne on the scaffolding and exploiting her sins will “[become] a farce” (Lawrence). His mocking tone underscores the severity of adultery, which Hawthorne falsely describes Hester’s transgression as a “farce”. Lawrence’s use of sarcasm implies that her sins were substantial and grave. This conveys to the readers that Hester is a deplorable character and was portrayed wrongly by
Lawrence again refers back to sarcasm in his tone to emphasize his criticism. For example, he talks about the idea of Hester “Glittering with gold thread. Abell Adultery. Admirable!” (Lawrence). It is clear that Lawrence is simply mocking the tone of those who sympathize with Hester Prynne. By criticizing and retaliating against the idea that Hester Prynne is an admirable character, Lawrence succesfully attacks how Hawthorne seeks to portray Prynne, as well as those who cannot see Hester Prynne as a contradictory symbol to pure society. In this case specifically, Lawrence targets the seduced reader who fails to detect Hester’s mortal sin, mainly because it helps him lead into the gravity of her sin itself. Lawrence also warns those of pure society to not “let [Hester] start tickling [them]” (Lawrence). Lawrence issues a direct statement to the reader that Hester Prynne’s characterization is used for the mere purpose of seduction. Those who have been seduced undermine the virtues of pure society, and are therefore criticized by Lawrence. Lawrence warns his fellow members of pure society to not fall under this
Hester displays irresponsibility and obsession in society today. Greed consumes her thoughts and distorts her outlook on life. Hester thinks that money is much more important than anything else, incl...
The fragile nature of man is made known in the intimate thoughts and struggles shared through the internal monologues of Hester and Paul in the “Rocking-Horse Winner.”
In both William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” and D. H. Lawrence’s “ The Rocking Horse Winner”, the authors give us a glimpse of two poor families who suffer through similar problems in different ways and situations. The comparison shows how in “Barn Burning” because of Abner’s recklessness and cruelty, his son Sartoris Snopes and family are unable to get into the larger society. In “The Rocking Horse Winner,” the mother’s greed for money and her behavior with her children and husband forces her son, Paul, to find a way to get more money. It shows how the behavior of Abner in “Barn Burning” and that of Paul’s mother in “The Rocking Horse Winner” affects their families
When reading “The Rocking Horse Winner,” you quickly notice the introduction sets a tone carried throughout the story. Sadly, you quickly notice that the tone of this story is rather depressing. Both of these stories share an interesting similarity; the generational curse. Paul claims that God had told him he was in fact lucky. Coisendenlly even though Paul makes this statement he continues to gamble on horses to make money. Gambling is a true sin, something Paul seems to ignore. The house in the story whispers throughout the day, this is the author’s means of portraying personification. Paul continues to rid...
In D.H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, Paul is searching for an identity and love. Paul’s mother was incapable of love; “when her children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart go hard.” Paul’s mother desires materialistic possessions and excludes priceless items such as love. Paul’s mother and father were incapable of maintaining the social position they had to uphold with the amount of money they made. The house was always high strung and believed that there was always a need for more money. The house became haunted by the unspoken phrase, “There must be more money!” Paul was outraged when he confronted his mother about the family’s lack of wealth, and she rejected his statement that he is lucky. After this scene, Paul was easily influenced that he would be able to reach this place of luck and finally satisfy his mother. Her desires for more money and luck are never satisfied, and as a result, lead to tragic consequences when love and money are confused in Paul’s mind. Paul’s heartbreaking attempt to win his mother’s love inevitably leads to his own death.
{It came whispering from the springs of the still-swaying rocking horse, and even the horse, bending his wooden, champing head, heard it. The big doll, sitting so pink and smirking in her new pram, could hear it quite plainly, and seemed to be smirking all the more self-consciously because of it. The foolish puppy, too, that took the place of the teddy-bear, he was looking so extraordinarily foolish for no other reason but that he heard the secret whisper all over the house: “There must be more money!” Yet no body ever said it out aloud. The whisper was everywhere, and therefore no one spoke it. Just as no one ever says: “We are breathing!” in spite of the fact that breath is coming and going all the time.} Pg 236 paragraph 6.
...aul had paid the price of losing out on his childhood in order to try and give his mother money. A child shouldn't have to miss out on his youth because of his mother's obsession with having more money. Paul's mother paid an even greater price, she lost her only son. Paul died from what seemed like exhaustion from riding his rocking-horse for too long. In the end, Hester found out why Paul was riding his rocking-horse and she must of felt horrible that her son had died trying to please her.
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...
The second obvious moral to The Rocking Horse Winner is that often one does not realize what they have and how they we feel about it until it is gone. Early on within the story we learned that Paul’s mother had attractive, bonny children. Yet, “when her children were present she always felt the center of heart go hard”. She knew “that there was a place in the center of her heart where she could not feel love for anybody, not even her children”. Later on in the story, the mother goes on to show her emotions and love when she has “seizures of uneasiness” about Paul and finds him fiercely riding his rocking horse into unconsciousness and finally plumaging to his death. When she is presented with losing her child, she realizes what she had, a little too late. (Lawrence p.980, 988)
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. These symbols convey a theme and make the characters in the short story. The Rocking-Horse Winner is a tragic story where Paul dies trying to gain his mother’s love and compassion. The mother was just interested in the money he was winning in the derbies. The story conveys a major them of materialism and shapes the characters through the symbols.
Piedmont, Elisabeth. "An overview of 'The Rocking-Horse Winner,'." Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.