| Name: xin | Date: 10/19/11 |
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D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" explores a mother's material greed that results in her son's madness. The son, Paul experiences a lack of love and attention - necessities for a healthy childhood development. He notices his mother's strong appetite for money, when she condemns his father's bad luck. According to his mother, luck is what brings in money. However, Paul seeks luck, not to gain money, but as an attempt to compel his mother's attention.
His search causes him to take no heed of other people, riding his rocking horse, "charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily." (304). He grows an obsession toward riding his rocking horse because he believes it helps him win money from horse racing bets. Because this is his only source of luck, his habits deludes him, as he rides to the "end of his mad little journey" (305). His toy rocking horse is an object of of his delusion. It represents Paul's abnormal psychological growth and obsession. Before his obsession with gaining his mother's attention, he uses the rocking-horse solely as a toy. In his search for luck, the horse becomes a drug for Paul that he develops an addiction towards. The horse is the source of his luck, allowing him a quick fix of hope: hope that his mother will show more care and affection. The mother's obsession with material objects creates Paul's obsession with money as a quest to gain her love.
Paul's delusional behavior highlights the gravity of his mother's problem. Along with his lack of strong maternal care, are whispers in his home demanding that "there must be more money!" (303). That statement signifies the materialistic mindset of the mother. Paul interprets these demands in a literal sense and decides to fix the problem by bringing in more money. As he begins to get a taste of luck, he becomes acquainted with a large amount of money. He gathers up five thousand pounds and asks Uncle Oscar to secretly give the money to his mother. This first attempt to solve his dilemma fails when his mother gives a stoic reaction, "with her voice cold, and absent" (311). The whispering suddenly becomes stentorian, going "mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening" (311). This urges Paul to further try to win even more money. His behavior is a reasonable consequence of his mother's absent love, even after he attempts to solve her problem with being unlucky. Paul focuses primarily on winning more money, to satisfy his mother. He does not realize that she will never be content with the money she has. Her need for material objects increases, no matter how much wealth she gains. The incessant whispering represent her mindset and problem of an increasing addictio. As her hunger for money increases, the volume of the voices also increase. This is a deep-rooted problem which Paul himself cannot alleviate. This causes him to carry out his last act of madness, taking his last ride on his rocking horse, resulting in illness. Even in sickness, Paul is preoccupied with money, sacrificing his well-being for his mother. Before he dies, he says "Mother, did I ever tell you? I'm lucky." His mother replies, "No, you never did." This brings light to the mother's negligence toward her son, because Paul has previously told his mother that he was "a lucky person" (304). Her response conveys that she does not care about Paul, since she does not make the effort to hear what he has to say.
Paul's madness induced illness ends in death, demonstrating how dire the problem of materialism in his family has become. He loses his life from trying to combat the negligent results of being over-excessively money-
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