The Rocking Horse Winner Essay

“The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence was primarily about materialism, and illustrated how it can negatively impact more important aspects of life, such as love and family. The short story described a troubling relationship between a mother, who is incapable of love, and her son, who desired for his mother to love him. Lawrence created a perfect situation to showcase his theme, for the story is told very similar to a fairy tale. For example, “Rocking Horse Winner” begins with the omniscient narrator describing the mother, “THERE WAS A WOMAN who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck.” The sentence assures the audience that the story is pure fiction; therefore, the reader is better able to cope with the multitude of the tragedies and evils that the story contains. Consequently, the reader can assess the story with relatively little emotional distress. The most distasteful aspect of the story is that the mother does not love her children, which in turn significantly contributed to her son’s
She married her husband because she was in love, but later discovered that he was unable to maintain the social status that she demanded, which ultimately lead her to resenting him. Social position was of the utmost importance to her. This was not because she logically concluded that it was essential to having a better life. Instead, her need for wealth contained her as if she was hooked on a drug, and it affected all other aspects of her life. Hester also could not love her children, for they bound her to her husband, and prevented her from achieving her ideal life style. Lawrence described Hester’s position early in the story, “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