The Rocking-Horse Winner Symbolism

Laila Barazi

Mr. Schoen

English II Pre-AP

April 28, 2017

The Rocking-Horse

In a respectable amount of literature, authors have depicted the parental position in a child's life by contrasting their role as a parent with their role in society. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner” written by D.H. Lawrence, the author essentially writes about the mother, Hester, and her son, Paul. Hester is introduced as a dissatisfied mother who believes her unluckiness has been brought upon her by the husband who she deems is also unlucky. Hester’s desolation incites her to want more money and strays her from loving those around her. This gets in the way of her relationship with her children, specifically Paul. Paul’s yearning for love from his mother leads him to

Through deceptive symbolism and the corrupt oxymoron of Hester and the Rocking Horse, Lawrence proves this. The symbolic view of the Rocking Horse is shown when “he would sit on his big rocking-horse, charging madly into space with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily. Wildly the horse careered, the waving dark hair of the boy tossed, his eyes had a strange glare in them” (Lawrence). The recurring image of the rocking horse throughout the story gave its symbolic aspect, which careered Paul's madness into the story. Paul believes the horse brings with luck and helps him guess the horse race winner, which only fulfills a gambling addiction for him. The horse can also be seen to symbolize a parental guidance or maneuver for Paul, as if it was his mother rocking him in her arms. The author uses emotions when saying, “There was a strange, heavy, and yet not loud noise. Her heart stood still, it was a soundless noise, yet rushing and powerful. Something huge, in violent hushed motion… She gazed in fear and amazement” (Lawrence). In this, Hester gets a motherly instinct that Paul is in trouble and she is filled with fear. It takes Paul's death for her to finally realize her love for her children was masked by dissatisfaction with her life. Although she wasn't a parental figure, she still displays affection towards the end. One interpreter of the story, Donald Junkins, argues that “by doing so wins a great deal of ‘lucky’ money which fails to make his mother happy, demonstrates that money is not the mother's central need. The money does not portray luck” (Dunkins 243). Junkins expresses his point of view on Hester's motives throughout the story. It is portrayed after Paul earns “lucky money” his mother still rejects him and the reader questions whether Hester is really upset because of not having money. Although the mother is