A Summary Of D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner

The Rocking-Horse Winner, by D. H. Lawrence, shocked readers when it was first released to the public. A story of a heartless, unlucky mother and a desperate son, captivated its audience. The short story begins with two parents living beyond their means, and a boy who wants to help provide for them. After the unloving mother shares that her husband is unlucky, the boy becomes fascinated with luck, and soon the thought of winning money for his family consumes him. This desperation to help his family, ultimately leads to his demise. About the story, Daniel P. Watkins, author of Labor and Religion in D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, makes this observation,“This is one fo Lawrence’s most savage and compact critiques of what he elsewhere calls ‘the god-damn bourgeoisie’...”(Watkins). In this hard-hitting critique, Lawrence uses a few obvious messages to push points on his audience. These three messages in D. H. Lawrence’s The Rocking-Horse Winner are that parents’ problems affect their children, don’t live outside your means, and the question of luck. In the beginning of The Rocking-Horse Winner, it is made clear that the money issue within the parents is actively affecting the children of the house. The main character and son of these

The three messages in The Rocking-Horse Winner are luck, not to live outside of your means, and the issues of parents affect their children as well as themselves. While the story is mainly focused on Paul and his demise, people seem to have very strong opinions on the parents of the story. Lily Campbell, author of The Parents in The Rocking-Horse Winner, puts it very bluntly,“Both of them are pretty selfish, petty, and cold. We hear more about the mother; not very much is mentioned of the father.”(Campbell). Clearly the parents are at fault for every bad thing that happens in this