Essay On The Rocking Horse Winner By Henrik Ibsen

The saying money is the root of all evil is definitely true. In the stories, “A Doll House”, by Henrik Ibsen, and “Rocking Horse Winner”, by D.H. Lawrence, the main characters face financial hardships which cause them to go to the extreme to obtain money. They do things that they aren’t necessarily proud of and causes guilt to eat them alive and/or let money drive them crazy. Both families face a need for money, which causes them to obtain it in a distasteful way, and death seems to be the only way out. Families being faced with dilemmas and not actually being able to provide financially for their families the way that they would like, leads them to seek to desperate measures to gain money. In the story “Rocking Horse Winner” the family

Instead of living in their truth, the families distastefully obtained money. In “Rocking Horse Winner”, the young son, Paul, used his “luck” and ability to dream of the winning racehorse to gamble the family into money, while Nora goes behind her husband’s back to borrow money and tells him that her father gave it to them. Money caused Nora to break her vows and lie to her husband and Hester to use her son. Hester puts pressure on her son that luck is so important and without it, it is impossible to be happy. She informs him that if a man does not have luck, then he does not have anything. Paul’s relationship with his rocking horse is unhealthy and he begins to keep it a secret like Nora kept her secret about borrowing money from her husband. Both families failed to realize that them being without the money was better than the outcome of actually gaining

It literally drives him crazy. Also, like the character Nora in “A Doll House” who kept her way of getting money a secret until it was held over her head. At the end of Act II, she stated that she only had 31 hours to live as she contemplates suicide to avoid having to deal with her horrible actions. The young constantly forces this “luck” to fix his family issues. However, luck does not require work and you do not have to put effort into it. The young boy puts his brain into overdrive to continuously figure out the winning horse as anxiety eats him alive. Similarly, Nora allows guilt to eat her alive. Since she is aware that someone else knows her secret and is willing to expose her truth, she would rather kill herself than continue to let her mind run wild, leaving her fate in someone else’s hands. Both stories teach you how money can truly be the root of all evil and it can and will drive you crazy if you let it. Money is mandatory to live in life and have a comfortable life. However, sometimes as humans we can get so caught up on the matristic things and not think about the consequences that may follow our actions. Sometimes it is best to accept that we do not have it all and to live in our truth. If you allow it to, money and greed can and will drive you crazy. A person’s mental health is more valuable than money could ever