Obsesion with Money in The Rocking Horse Winner, written by D.H. Lawrence

The Rocking Horse Winner, written by D.H. Lawrence, touches base on several aspects he viewed about society during the early to mid nineteen hundreds. Of these include the obsession with the accumulation of money and wealth of an indulgent and self-entitled society. He saw that the values of middle class society in this time were to imitate the upper class, by trying to gain social status and superficial recognition. Lawrence deeply hated these societal values. Mainly due to his first hand exposure to them as a child by having to witness his parents consume themselves to try to attain this type of social status. Lawrence uses the plot to demonstrate that in a materialistic society, people are misguided and completely obsessed with the accumulation of material wealth. Lawrence uses these literal examples to stress that because of greed; the importance of family is almost entirely discarded, leading to the degradation of ones values.

Lawrence wastes no time constructing a foundation to project his views upon. The opening of the story portrays an almost fairy tale like depiction of a mother named Hester, who “could not feel love, no, not for anybody” (Lawrence 81), not even for her own family. This immediate (and blunt) character development was meant to set the tone for the rest of the story and help the reader to see things from the same angle as Lawrence. The next pivotal character development is the development of Paul. Paul is a young, analytical boy who strives to feel close to and loved by his family. Lawrence’s own upbringing directly influences the development of Paul, as they both come from shallow, greed stricken households. This connection is what drives the passion behind the themes in this story. This is exemplified wh...

... middle of paper ...

...ze Lawrence’s own personal feelings on its prevalence in society, and more importantly how it affects a family as a unit.

Works Cited

Davies, Rosemary Reeves. “Lawrence, Lady Cynthia Asquith and ‘The rocking-horse winner’.” Studies in short fiction. (2002):121-126. Academic search complete. Web. 31 Mach 2014.

Lawrence, David Herbert. Love among the Haystacks and Other Stories. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1975. Print.

Martin, W. R. "Fancy or Imagination? “The Rocking-Horse Winner”" College English 24.1 (1962): 64-65. JSTOR. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.

Piedmont-Marton, Elisabeth. "Overview of 'The Rocking Horse Winner'" Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

Watkins, Daniel P. “Labor and religion in D.H. Lawrence’s ‘The Rocking Horse Winner’.” Studies in short fiction. (2002): 295-301. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 March 2014.