Preview

D. H. Lawrence "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter" an analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
523 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
D. H. Lawrence "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter" an analysis
"The Horse - Dealer's Daughter"

D. H. Lawrence

The role of women in society is constantly an issue. D.H. Lawrences's story shows through passive natures, obedient attitudes, and shattered egos a woman struggling to live her life according to her three verbally abusive brothers.

"The Horse - Dealer's Daughter" is about Mabel, who tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a pond. A young doctor, Joe Ferguson, saves her. She then believes that he loves her. This idea was not a first thought to Joe, but he begins to find that he does loves her. However, Mabel thinks she is "too awful" to be loved. When Joe declares over and over that he wants her, and that he loves her, she becomes more frightened than of Joe not wanting her.

Does Joe really love Mabel? He convinces himself he does. I don't think love or marriage has ever appeared to him. When Mabel finds out that he saved her, she convinces herself that he loves her.

The reason why I think she committed suicide is because she felt unloved. Her father had recently died, her brothers were mean and rude to her, the family was left in their dad's debt. They can no longer afford a housekeeper, so Mabel is has to take on the household chores. She becomes a servant, never talking back or standing up for herself. Mabel is constantly ordered around by her brothers. When asked what she would do now, she didn't answer. I don't think she had anything planned. She probably didn't have a good education, so there were few options for her. Instead of trying to improve her life, Mabel's lack of determination and drive causes her to look for another method of escape. I think she felt overwhelmed with pressure and that's why she decided to commit suicide. She could go on to be with her dead dad, not having to face the reality of her unhappiness. When Joe Ferguson saves her, her hope in life is renewed and she convinces herself that Joe loves her. Joe jumped in to save her live, in the deep water, even though he can't swim.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Candide

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How are woman treated in the novel? How do their experiences differ from those of the male characters? How, in general, do they react to their treatment?…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    No Name Woman Analysis

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Women have always been oppressed, not only by men, but by society as a whole. They have been considered weak, fragile, and useless for anything besides housework. In some parts of the world, this is still true. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour,” Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman,” tell stories of women trying to come to terms with who they are and what society wants them to be. Together, these three works show the hardships of being a woman and finding one’s true identity while dealing with oppression and sexism.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women have been faced with oppression almost all their lives. Society, spouses and families play a huge role in oppressing women, making them society’s puppets. Authors of the 20th century like Charlotte Gilman and Joyce Oats, were able to break the silence, and voice their opinions and concerns in short stories like “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Gilman, and “Where are you now, where are you going” by Joyce oats.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multicultural Items

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Jean Rhys’ “The Day They Burned the Books,” she recounts a story of an abusive husband and a wife who just takes the punishment as if she deserves it. The wife, Mrs. Sawyer, sees it as her place to allow this to happen. This type of behavior is not very prevalent in the world today, but it still happens. It was far more common sixty years ago and before where women were expected to be at the call of their husbands and do anything to please them, as they were the bread winners and supporters of the family. As women collectively – and deservedly – demanded more, this type of behavior diminished in most parts of the world. Where this behavior once was or possibly still is a part of a different culture around the world, this is far different than anything found in the western world.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Kayleigh Moore, Response # 10A. I agree with her. The Edwardian period was all about class, moving up on the social ladder, and about money. People did not get married for love, during this time frame. They were mostly lying to themselves about why they are getting married. In the modernist period, they were about finding true love and happiness. They were about being real, true, not being fake with each other’s. They wasn’t worry about the class system very much. She is right about what she says about D.H. Lawrence’s “The Odeur of Chrysanthemums”. If, we look at another of his works, like “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”. Mabel feelings are very much real in the story. We can feel her as a person. We can all relate to her in some way. We…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Susan Glaspell's short story, A Jury of Her Peers, was written long before the modern women's movement began, yet her story reveals, through Glaspell's use of symbolism, the role that women are expected to play in society. Glaspell illustrates how this highly stereotypical role can create oppression for women and also bring harm to men as well.…

    • 930 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    domestic violence

    • 1586 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cited: Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. "Ch 10: Battering and Physical Abuse." Women 's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Page 516.…

    • 1586 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gendered Intersections

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Both in the past and present, for many different reasons violence towards women has been a concerning issue for the safety of females in private and public life. Although my grandmother never experienced this type of male domination, she agrees that violence has always been apparent in the lives of females and its effects on the female both physically and mentally are detrimental. Joanna Harris writes in one of her sections of “Gendered Intersections: An Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies” about violence against women. She writes, “It is seen as ‘essential to the struggle to restore dignity to disempowered women’ and ‘necessary conditions to self-empowerment in a socio-economic and cultural context where access to and mobility within public space is still largely controlled by men and where women’s roles and opportunity are frequently defined against their own interests’” (Harris 465). Violence towards women stems from many different areas of society and for many different reasons. Violence towards women in the past was never as much of an issue as it seems to be today and that is reflective on some of the rights women have gained in society that men do not necessarily agree with, an example of this is violence towards women in the…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Horse Dealer's Daughter is a story of a young woman who is deeply troubled in the beginning of the story. She cares and loves no one, except her mother who died when she was fourteen. She feels alone and her brothers do nothing to help that, since they exude an aura of her worthlessness, and the love she once felt for her father was replaced with "hardness" when he remarried. She was depressed and suicidal at the beginning of this story. Her only solace would come when she went to her mother's grave site to decorate it. Her misery is indicative of the suicide she tries to commit by drowning herself after the decoration of the grave. It was at the pond, when Fergusson (a new young doctor) saved her. He had been watching her from afar…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that the marriage of Joe and Missie May will last, as Joe has decided to move on and not dwell in the past. He does not hold a grudge against her, as she is not the only one who is at fault in this situation. The two of them have a much more complex relationship now that Missie May and Slemmons have slept together. If it had not been for Joe’s admiration of Slemmons, Missie May would have never slept with him. It is Joe who introduces them, and he describes how rich he is with “his mouth full of gold teeth.” Missie May truly loves her husband, and she sleeps with Slemmons for money, as she sees her husband providing for her. She wants to do the same for him, and this is the only way she knows how. Their marriage should last, because…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the eyes of some, The Scarlet Letter may seem like a protofeminist novel. In the eyes of some, had Hester been a man, her punishment would not have been nearly as embarrassing and deceitful. In the eyes of some, Hester did nothing but the right thing based on her trying to protect other women from gender-based prosecution, though it meant completely disregarding Puritan laws in her society. Then again, in the eyes of some, Hester deserved all of the harassment and harsh, negative attention that she received from the townspeople. It is all a matter of opinion based on facts. Sexist punishments? You decide.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Eulogy For Husband

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page

    The main thing that I dislike about this story is Joe tossing money through the house at Missy May like she is a hungry dog waiting for him to come, and the presents that he has for her in his pockets are like dog treats something that you would have for a dog that is jumping around you that’s glad that you are home. This story is so condescending for women. However, in 1933 women were to be the homemakers of humanity and that was their mentality, cooking, cleaning, and making themselves look beautiful for their husband. Nonetheless, I think that Joe got just what he deserved. He is the one that brought another person into their relationship, if he had of had a man crush on Slemmons none of this would have…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There is never something good to say about greed. Since the beginning of time as it is to this day greed has devastated lives with despair and hatred. It is an abstract word, untouchable, but omnipresent waiting for whom it can devour. In the story “Rocking Horse Winner” D.H. Lawrence makes the presence of greed obvious from the beginning. The story starts off with the mother being described as a heartless person because how she feels about her kids. From there the tone of greed was set as the theme of this story. As a reader, one could only wonder what kind of person she is that would proclaim her emptiness for her kids.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In What Ways Is Chapter IX Important to the Reader's Understanding Of 'The Virgin and the Gipsy' as a Whole?…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hannah English Notes

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Horse Dealers Daughter is a short story written by D.H. Lawrence. He was born on September 11, 1885 in Eastwood, England. Lawrence grew up in a small town and with a lower class family. He was known as a child who did not fit with the other boys and was frail and weak throughout his childhood because of illness. He strongly disliked the town he lived in and felt neglected by his father because he was not athletic in any sport. The setting in The Horse Dealers Daughter takes place in the 1920’s in an English town, where the main character Mabel feels cheerless and gloomy because her father and brothers neglected her. This theme and setting reflects Lawrence childhood life because he to felt out of place with his father and the town he lived in. He creates a dispirited setting, which resembles the life he lived as a child in a mining town. As an author and novelist he was known to write short stories and novels about emotional health issues and create spontaneous moments, while using literary devices such as irony and symbolism. For example, in this story it implies how unhappy Mabel feels because of her mother’s death and how her father changed into an unsuccessful man. This statement within the story implies the families declined, “the kitchen was full of servants, but of late things had declined. The old man had married a second time, to retrieve his fortunes. Now he was dead and everything was gone to the dogs, there was nothing but debt and threatening” (Lawrence 7). This makes Mabel feel depressed of the fact her family is in debt because of her father and now she can not save the one thing she loves, which is the house her and her mother shared so many memories in. This simple loss of the house and the failure she feels drives her emotionally insane. On page ten it says, “He stood motionless as the small black figure walked slowly and deliberately towards the center of the…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays