1. Key Quotations from the Story
D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner”
An Overview of the Short Story considering its Characters, Point-of-view and Symbolism
Jason M. Ward
100-Word Synopsis
Set in a house said to be haunted by the unspoken phrase ‘There must be more money!’, the plot centres on Paul, a young boy who discovers that he can predict the winners of horse races by riding his toy horse until he intuits their names. With the money that he gains from betting on winners, Paul tries to silence the house and buy the affection of his profligate neglectful mother. This extra income, however, causes Paul’s mother to spend more and the young boy’s exertions on the rocking horse to predict more winners results in a strange tragic outcome…
1. Characters
The main characters are Paul, his mother Hester, Bassett the gardener, and Paul’s fatherly Uncle Oscar. Paul’s real father is absent for most of the story and his lack of presence in the family is emphasized by the fact that he is not even named. Most of the characters might be regarded as quite flat since they never really change or act against their type throughout the story. The notable exception is Oscar. At first, he is the most likable because he is charismatic, witty, wealthy, handsome, laughs a lot, pays the most attention to Paul and tries to help him to please his mother. However, he is also a gambler and at the end of the tale he profits from Paul’s betting tip even though the boy is dying. Oscar’s final lines seem rather hypocritical since he became an accessory to Paul’s gambling, insensitive because Hester has just lost her young child, and egotistical because he is still trying to be witty even over his nephew’s death.
Key Quotations from the Story
The story starts with a fairy tale-like opening from the narrator:
“There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust”
It concludes with a puzzling and rather callous epigraph from Oscar:
"My God, Hester, you're eighty-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.”
2. Point of View
The story’s fairy tale opening forewarns the reader to expect the unexpected in this story. However, although this story was first written for a book of ghost stories, the ironic detached limited third-person narration never provides definite evidence of supernatural events. Although the house is said to be haunted by voices, only Paul hears them. Although Paul magically predicts winning horses, he also choses losing horses too. Although he dies mysteriously of a brain fever, this could also have been a stroke or an asthma attack from stress and over-exertion. There is also some suggestion that the boy might be psychologically ill. The story can be read in many ways which is why it remains so popular and has been adapted to film at least seven times!
3. Symbolism
There have been many interpretations of this story ranging from myth to masturbation!
In Sophocles’ tragedy (429 BC), Oedipus accidentally killed his father and slept with his mother. In DHL’s story, Paul replaces his father as the income earner and tries please his mother to gain her love but the end is tragic.
In the German legend Faust, a scholar makes a deal with the devil to receive knowledge and power but as a result he is taken to hell by the devil. Paul gains an unnatural power to see the future but pays for this gift with his life.
Paul’s repetitive thrusting on the horse has been compared to masturbation because he replicates the motions of a sexual act, embarrasses those that discover him doing it, and he just expends his life force without creating a bond of love. It might also be compared to the stories of Oedipus and Faust.