The Rocking‑Horse Winner - DH Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking‑Horse Winner” is a story about family dynamics that poses a tough critique of several relevant social ills. Paul’s growing addiction to gambling is fuelled by his uncle’s excitement and a desire for his mother’s love. Paul’s family experience, one drenched in neglect, addictive personalities and despair, directly results in his death. Paul’s oedipal complex with his emotionally closed‑off mother, the absence of his father as a strong figure in his life, and his uncle Oscar’s encouragement of addictive behaviours in Paul and Hester culminates in a tale that has the hallmarks of modern family dramas. “The Rocking‑Horse Winner” is an undoubtedly twisted tale that becomes even more bizarre as each nuance is examined.

“The Rocking‑Horse Winner” starts by introducing Hester’s life to the reader. She is introduced as “a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages” but for all those advantages has nothing. (D.H. Lawrence, 517) She is described as having “no luck”, but what it seems she has is no empathy.  (517) Her children and husband do not have her love, only “dust” and a “hard little place [in her heart]”. (517) This is undoubtedly the root of Paul’s eventual demise, for what child would not do whatever they could for the love of their mother?

Paul’s intense desire to please his mother is perhaps best exemplified by how he deals with Hester’s conflict with Paul’s father over money. Paul seems to see his father through Hester’s eyes: a man who cannot provide for his family, but more importantly cannot provide for his wife. Paul simultaneously tries to fill the void his father creates in their lives and earn his mother’s love. In this action Paul fills an oedipal version of himself, desperate for his mother’s affection while also taking over as the provider of the household.

Though his age is never stated explicitly in the text, Lawrence gives ques to illustrate the child’s age in the storybook nature of the narrative. From the first line “There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck[,]” (517) reads like the beginning of a Grimm’s fairytale and sets the story firmly into the point of view of its childlike protagonist. Yet despite the fact that Paul could arguably be considered to be the primary character of the story, much of the narrative description is of the mother and exclusively of the mother, with very few references to Paul’s father (who is never named). This mimics Freud’s theory of oedipal nature, wherein a boy between the ages of three-to-six will begin to focus heavily on their relationship with their mother and become jealous of their emotionally in conflict with their father. This age range of three-to-six fits in with the narrative, as Paul seems to have little concept of the worth of money (521) and in Hester’s assertion that Paul is “too big for a rocking horse” (526).

In this respect “The Rocking-Horse Winner” can be seen as being written to be one of the cautionary tales that its writing style mimics, and indeed there are elements of cautionary tales present in it. Like much fiction written either partially or wholly from a child’s perspective, experiences beyond the perception of a child are seen as supernatural and frightening in nature. This house is repeatedly described to be whispering “There must be more money!” (518, 523) even though it is stated that nobody in the family actually ever complains of a need for more money. This speaks volumes of the child’s (and all children’s) ability to comprehend stress and anxiety within their home. Paul possesses an empathy that his mother does not, as he is able to see and understand her desire to have more money and even attempt to rectify it, though she takes little notice of the physical strain that Paul’s addiction takes on him at such a young age. Only once does she attempt to save him from his fate, when she attempts to get him to go to the seaside: “promise we you won’t let your nerves go to pieces. Promise you won’t think so much about horse-racing and events, as you call them!” (525) (emphasis the author’s). Here Hester, for the first time, shows clarity into the stress and pastimes of her young son, but is quickly dismayed from doing anything about it. This is a turning point for Hester, as the upcoming race Paul is so anxious about that she is attempting to distract him from is the Derby, the divining-for which would soon cost him his life.

The question then becomes is this a cautionary tale aimed at gamblers, who might see the child’s fate as their own before it’s too late? Or is this a cautionary tale aimed at parents negligent to the fact that their stresses and anxieties become the stressors and anxieties of their children? Or is it both?

As stated above, despite Paul being the primary protagonist of the story, the story serves as a cautionary tale with Hester as the role we are meant to learn from. When viewing Hester’s story-arc she follows the classic cautionary tale format: a dramatic and romantic introduction, followed by an explanation of hardship and an introduction into woe. Then there is hope (when, on page 524, Paul and Oscar arrange for the five thousand dollars to make it into her hands) and folly (when she not only decides to take the money all at once but also does not spend it on bettering their financial situation), followed by a chance at redemption (as stated above, when she sees the effect the horse-racing is having on her son and has the opportunity to stop it). Like all cautionary tales it does not end well. Characters caste in such roles are prone to martyrdom, often becoming examples to impart on the reader the worst-possible outcome of undesirable actions. The story then ends with a clear statement of the lesson-to-be-learned by Oscar: “My God, Hester, you’re eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner,” (528).

“The Rocking Horse Winner” is also a tale about the perils of greed and gambling. Paul has two men in his life who function as “enablers” for his illicit activities: Bassett the gardener, who acted as an illegal “booky” for the child, and Oscar, who appeared at several points to see the inherit danger in allowing his nephew to partake in such a lifestyle but allowed his greed to stop him from doing anything about it.

Of the two, Bassett is the only one not to have shown any true emotional loss during the story. A gardener for the family, he uses the tips he gets from Paul to double and then redouble his money again and again. Even at the end when visiting Paul on his deathbed, he comes with the news that the horse Paul predicted had one and that he “went a thousand on it” (527). Bassett, much like a real, legal booky, can be seen as a shill for the gambling industry and an approximation of the truism: “the house always wins.” He alone suffers no consequence and only lucrative gains for his part in placing Paul’s bets, much as the large casinos and the gambling industry make their money off those that gamble without feeling the hardship that it causes its patrons.