It is difficult to give an exact account of Lawrence’s contribution to literature. But no doubt his input in thinking about social values was very important.
The story was first published in 1926 in Harper’s Bazaar and then appeared in the first book of Lawrence’s collected short stories. The film under the same title was shot in 1950, directed by Pelissier (Greiff 58).
As for The Rocking-Horse Winner, this short story can be considered autobiographical in some ways. When a child Lawrence was dominated by constant friction between his father and mother. His mother was a well-educated woman, and his father was just a coal-miner. They lived in an atmosphere of poverty and were constantly depressed. Lawrence himself was constantly seeking love and understanding, just like the protagonist of the short story, Paul. Even being a child he started to think about the importance of money for people’s being happy (Moore).
The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence is considered by some critics as an example of a perfect short story. The plot of it has many interpretations; some scholars regard it as a social commentary on the world of money and people relationships in a capitalist society. Or it may also be considered as a story of a lonely boy seeking love and understanding in a cold world.
In this research paper, the problem of materialism in modern society is under analysis.
The protagonist of the story, Paul, lives with his parents and two sisters. This family is representative of the middle class; they do not live in misery. But Paul’s mother is constantly worried about money. There is no place for love in her heart.
Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody. Everybody 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 (Lawrence 76).
As for Paul, he suffers from a lack of love and attention, but for his mom, materialistic seems to be more important. She constantly dwells on her husband’s being an unlucky man; luck is the thing that brings money and happiness!
It’s what causes you to have money. If you’re lucky you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky, you will always get more money (Lawrence 81).
From his side, Paul tries to prove that he is a lucky person. He begins riding his wooden horse in a wild tempo in order to reach the place where wealth waits for him. Sometimes when he swings on his rocking horse his sisters are afraid to approach him, so strange and remote he looks. He can’t bear the house whispering about money! This voice frightens him, and it becomes louder day after day.
Sometimes later it is discovered that Paul can predict winning horses. All he needs to do for it is a ride on his horse in delirium. The boy starts gambling in his desperate try to become lucky and rich. He becomes addicted to gambling. The reason is that “everyone wants to be wealthy” (McGurrin 12).
With the help of his uncle Oscar and Bassett, the gardener, he soon makes a big sum of money.
He decides to anonymously present his mother five thousand pounds. He hopes that everything will be over and the house will stop whispering, but just on the contrary the voice grows stronger and shouts ecstatically: “There must be more money!” (Lawrence 84)
With Derby approaching Paul tries to do his best predicting, but soon he understands he fails to do it. He becomes nervous and confused as he understands that he has not had luck. He becomes obsessed with the idea of gaining fortune on horse racing; he starts to ride his horse at a mad rhythm. One night his mother comes from a party late. And suddenly she hears a “strange, heavy, and yet not loud noise” (Lawrence 86). She rushes to her son’s room and sees his son rocking wildly on his horse. In a flash, he falls to the floor crying out the name of a horse. He loses his consciousness and dies in three days.
The gardener and Uncle Oscar bet on the horse he named and make a big sum of money.
At the end of the story, Paul briefly regains consciousness just to tell his mother he is lucky. Later that night he dies. His Uncle Oscar understands that short Paul’s life was full of pain and struggling, that is why he says that “he’s best gone out of a life where he rides a rocking-horse to find a winner” (Lawrence 89).
Paul’s tragedy is that there is no place for love and emotions in capitalist society. He desperately tries to make his mother happy. All she needs is money; so when the boy fails to give her what she needs he sees no way out. That makes him feel frustrated and depressed and finally leads to his death.
In this story, the mother’s greed was the reason for her son’s psychological trauma and finally led to his death. The author depicts the vices of materialistic society, where money becomes even more important than life itself.
Works Cited
Adelman, Gary. Reclaiming D. H. Lawrence: Contemporary Writers Speak out. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2002.
Greiff, Louis K. D. H. Lawrence: Fifty Years on Film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001.
Lawrence, David Herbert. “The Rocking-Horse Winner”. The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age. New York: Random House, Inc., 1993. 75-89.
McGurrin, Martin C. Pathological Gambling: Conceptual, Diagnostic, and Treatment Issues. Sarasota, FL. Professional Resource Press. 1992.
Moore, Harry T. The Life and Works of D. H. Lawrence. 1st ed. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1951.
Moore, Harry T. The Priest of Love: A Life of D. H. Lawrence. Revised ed. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1977.
Poplawski, Paul. D. H. Lawrence: A Reference Companion /. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Sinclair, Iain. Suicide Bridge. London: Vintage, 1995, pp. 230-32.
Smith, Patrick A. Thematic Guide to Popular Short Stories. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Vivas, Eliseo. D. H. Lawrence: The Failure and the Triumph of Art. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1960.