Summary

1
Summary

• This whole story is about, being lucky. A boy
  named Paul who asked her mother why they are not
  rich. His mother said this is because your
  father has no luck. However, Paul was convinced
  that he could find his own luck. His drive to
  find luck was fueled by the whispers that he
  heard throughout the house there must be more
  money.

2

• He thought that if he found luck he would be
  able to make the whispers stop. Therefore, Paul
  would ride like crazy on an old rocking horse he
  had in his bedroom. He thought that if he rode
  long enough he would eventually find luck. Then
  he developed a habit of betting on horse
• races with his partner,
• Bassett.

3

• Paul said that all he did was ride his
  rocking horse until something in his head told
  him who the winner would be therefore, his uncle
  got closer to him. When the biggest race of the
  year came around he rode his horse all night like
  a madman, for that is what he had become. He
  eventually knew who would win but ended up dying
  during the night without having been able to
  enjoy the eight thousand pounds that he had won
  for
• being lucky.

4
Characters

• Paul the main character in the story. He
  believes that he is a lucky person and with the
  gift when riding his rocking horse, he can know
  the winner of horse races. In order to prove her
  mother that he can find luck however, he does
  not realize there would be a terrible price to
  pay.
• Hester Pauls mother. She is kind of material
  woman and does not feel content what she has.
  She thinks herself having no luck, because her
  husband is an unlucky person.

5

• The father Pauls father. A middle-aged
  dejection man has no luck.
• Oscar Cresswell Pauls uncle. When noticing
  that Paul is very lucky at choosing whom the
  winner would be, he approaches Paul about his
  lucky. After, he becomes a partner with Paul.
• Bassett He is a gardener and a partner with
  Paul.
• Joan Paul elder sister.

6
ThemeSelf-Knowledge

• The Rocking-Horse Winner is about a family
  whose parents are so confused about their own
  values, about the relative importance of love and
  money. They have committed their lives to the
  external world and money.
• For example, Hester, the mother, is pathetically
  superficial. She thinks that she is unable to
  love her children. (paragraph Ionly she herself
  knew that at the centre) However, in the end of
  the story, we could tell that she loves Paul as
  other mothers love their children. (the last
  page)

7
According to Lawrences definition, the way to
live is according to what you are, not what you
think you should be made over into knowing
yourself, not external standards.The mother,
refusing to clarify what her emotions really are
(dare not to admit her love to the children),
hopes to control herself and her world by acting
gentle and anxious for her children. She tries
to act what she thinks she should be, not taking
adequate notice of what she is and needs. Till
the end, Paul collapses. Some deep source of her
affection has been released.
8

• Similarly, Paul has a need for affection which
  he cannot understand and manage. Thus, he
  attempts to cover this lack of self-knowledge
  with knowledge about the external world (horse
  racing?making money?pleases his mother) which he
  hopes will bring him the love he needs.
• Lawrence says The real way of living is to
  answer to ones wants. Nevertheless, both Paul
  and his mother ignore their true feelings and
  become the slaves of the external standards.
  They bring themselves miserable ending.

9
LoveLuckLucreSperm ??

• As we know, Lawrence mentions sex in most of
  his works. There is no exception in The
  Rocking-Horse Winner. From the first paragraph
  (she had bonny children,) , the rhyming verb
  thrust has suggested us that Hesters
  dissatisfaction is, in large part, sexual. In
  the story, the money is a symbolic substitute for
  love and affection, and ultimately for sperm
  (??). To Paul, showing his mother that he has
  luck which his father doesnt have is the only
  way to win his mothers affection and release the
  whispering around the house. He must have the
  lucre which comes of luck.

10

• When he sends his mother the birthday present of
  five thousand pounds hoping to alleviate her
  problems, his present only makes her colder and
  more luxurious. At the same time, the house is
  throughout the voice of his mothers ideal sexual
  craving There must be more money (p. 315).
  This passage is a mimetic representation of a
  woman in the throes (??) of sexual climax.
  However, it is a climax which only titillates
  (???) without fulfilling. His mothers lust for
  lucre is greedy for fulfilling her appetite,
  Paul has to drive his luck harder and die
  exhaustedly after all.

11
Riding HorseMasturbating?

• The act of riding a horse is an obvious symbol
  for the sex movement. And riding the
  rocking-horse is the imitation of the sex act for
  a child. Lawrence says Sex must go somewhere,
  especially in young people. So, in our glorious
  civilization, it goes in masturbation. And the
  mass of our popular literature, the bulk of our
  popular amusements just exists to provoke
  masturbation. To Lawrence, masturbation is
  chiefly as a substitute for some sort of
  intercourse. As a result, we can be easily
  convinced that Pauls mysterious ecstasy might be
  onanism. That is Pauls secret of secretsthe
  wooden horse (p. 317). We probably can get some
  clues by the conversation between Paul and his
  mother. (pp. 310, 317)

12

• Later on, Paul draws back from his family
  gradually. He takes the rocking-horse to the top
  of the house and is isolated from his sisters and
  parents. Lawrence believes that mans isolation
  is an unavoidable part of his definition as a
  human being. He says in Pornography and
  ObscenityAnd this is masturbations result.
  Enclosed within the vicious circle of the self,
  with no vital contacts outside, the self becomes
  emptier and emptier, till it is almost a
  nothingness.The great danger of masturbation
  lies in its merely exhaustive nature. In sexual
  intercourse, there is a give and take. A new
  stimulus enters as the native stimulus
  departs.And this is so in all sexual intercourse
  where two creatures are concerned.... There is
  no reciprocity (???). There is merely the
  spending away of a certain force, and no return.
  The body remains, in a sense, a corpse, after the
  act of self-abuse.
• A corpsethat is what Paul becomes after the
  last riding of the rocking-horse.

13
Money and Capitalism

• The Rocking Horse Winner is a story
  about the devastating effects that money can have
  on a family, and further that Lawrences specific
  objections in the story are not to money
  abstractly conceived, but to money as it is
  understood and valued by capitalist culture. The
  story is a mordant commentary on the distorted
  and self-destructive values of the upper
  middle-class and of many of us living in a
  capitalist, money dominated society.

14
Money

• The house is haunted by the ghost of money,
  whispering repeatedly the terrible command,
  There must be more money!
• Money is the symbolic substitutes for love
  and affection. To Paul, money isnt a
• good in itselfit is only a way to win his
  mothers affection.
• The boy saw him did not believe him and
  made him want to compel her affection.
• Paul is driven to his death by the inflexible
  money mindedness of his parents. The Love of
  money somehow interferes with the life process.

15
Capitalism

• Capitalist Paul, as a handicapper, he invests
  money, betting on a profitable return on his
  investment, and In this sense, he is a
  capitalist. Indeed, his betting is the sign of
  the economic relations controlling the world of
  the story. But at the same time, for what he is
  investing, in real terms is himself, selling his
  skills to generate wealth that he is not free to
  possess.
• Laborer Young Paul exemplified
• vividly the sort of work that arises
• under capital. Simply put, he is a
• laborer of hid mother.

16

• Exploitation Exploitation is the necessary
  element under the capitalistic society. The
  essential meaning of exploitation is that a
  surplus is seized from the working population for
  the benefit of a superior class. Paul is
  exploited by the capitalistic society and the
  economic pressure that is passed down by his
  mother.
• Alienation In capitalistic and money- dominated
  society, people are aloof and isolated from one
  another. Alienation is one of the
• component of Capitalism.
• Paul is isolated from his parents,
• his sisters and even the world.

17
Religion

• The presence of Christianity in the story is set
  forth most readily, of course, in the depiction
  of the young Paul as a Christ figure not only is
  he referred to repeatedly as son, but he also
  possesses a seemingly magical power that comes
  form heaven.
• The most telling example is Paul himself, who
  willingly sacrifices himself to save the world
  into which he was born. His death gives his
  family the financial independence possible, even
  while it appears holy and pure, is in fact
  devilish.

18
Family Relationship
Husband
Wife The relationship between husband and
wife is obviously cold and boring. They married
for love, but when the passion of love passed
away, their postnuptial life become tedious.
Besides, the husband doesnt have a good social
position and miss the promotion in his job.
Therefore, the wife begins to complain about the
husbands unlucky and pursues material needs.
However, they still keep the superficial harmony
of the family. There was a woman who was
beautiful, who started with all the advantages,
yet she had no luck. She married for love but the
love had turned to dust. (p 307 L. 1-3)
19

• Although they lived in style, they felt
  always an anxiety in the house. There was never
  enough money. The mother had a small income, and
  the father had a small income, but not nearly
  enough for the social position which they had to
  keep up. The father went into town to some
  office. But though he had good prospects, these
  prospects never materialized. There was always
  the grinding sense of the shortage of money,
  though the style was always kept up.

20
Family Relationship
Parents
Children The relationship between parents and
children is quite indifferent. The parents are
too busy in keeping their fame, profits, and
social position to take care of their children.
Nevertheless, children, especially at the age of
Paul, need the love and care from parents. Thus,
Paul, in order to attract his mothers attention
and piece together the whole family, gambles the
horse-racing and gives the money reward to his
mother. However, his mother is not satisfied
with the money, she wants more and more and
finally causes the death of Paul.
21
Family Relationship
(Oedipus Complex) Paul
Mother
Romance -- Reality
(Marriage)


Father
(Rocking-horse)
Materialism (Money, Social position.)
(Love)
Luck
22
Family and Society
Family Society
Mother Materialism
Paul sacrifice
civilized men
spiritual life
Whispering Desire