The Rocking-Horse Winner’s Loss
What do hypertension and diabetes have in common? Although they seem to be completely different diseases, they are both caused by overconsumption of certain substances, in this case, salt and sugar. Normally, salt and sugar are essential ingredients that enhance the taste of food and provide people with energy; however, they can adversely affect people’s health if overconsumed. In a similar vein, money can enhance people’s living standards and bring happiness and gratification, but the unfettered pursuit of material wealth can lead to greed, which, with its capacity to inflict death and destruction, can ruin relationships between people, affecting them both physically and mentally.
The short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence perfectly epitomizes the idea of overpursuit of money, showing how it can destroy people’s lives. In the story, the family is in a constant need for more money to keep up their superior social position and satisfy their expensive tastes. As a result of their restless desire for money, the mother has no love for her children and pays no attention to them, which causes her son, Paul, to believe that earning a lot of money can bring happiness to his family and win him his mother’s love and attention. Believing in this false set of ideals, Paul begins to madly pursue money by betting in horse races. In the end, although Paul wins a lot of money from betting in horse races, the family never becomes happy, and Paul dies from anxiety and madness.
Throughout the whole story, the mother constantly thinks, “There must be more money, there must be more money,” which clearly illustrates her strong desire for money (76). Misled by his mother’s greed, the son is also caught up by the thoughts of winning money. Eventually, he becomes crazy in attempting to win money in horse races as “his big blue eyes [blaze] with a sort of madness” (86). The constant whispering in the house, “There must be more money,” also reflects the character’s inner thoughts and emotions (85). Their tremendous greed even causes them to hallucinate, suggesting that they are so greedy for money that they have become mentally ill. But even when they receive money, the whispering in the house goes “mad,” showing that they are never satisfied with the amount of money they have (85). Greed for money is an abyss. Once people fall into it, they would only drown deeper and deeper and can hardly come back. Paul and his mother are such people who have fallen into the abyss, relentlessly pursuing money.
In the story, greed for money also distorts the relationships in the whole family. The mother puts so much emphasis on money that she gives little attention or love to her children. In the beginning, D.H. Lawrence writes about the mother, “She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them,” which clearly shows that she regards her children as a burden that have been “thrust” on her shoulder (75). In her mind, her children are just extra mouths to feed as she thinks, “[My] children [are] growing up; they would have to go to school. There must be more money, there must be more money” (76). Thoughts about money have taken over her mind, and she is never grateful for the beautiful and enviable children that she has. Blinded by her desires for money, she becomes oblivious of kinship and family love. And even her son knows that her mother pays “no attention” to him, which makes him want “to compel her attention” (78). She strives to send her children to “Eton,” one of the most high-class schools in England, hire “tutors” for Paul to study “Latin and Greek,” and provide them with a lavish life not because she loves her children, but because she does not want to lose her face in front of others (85). When raising up her kids, she does not feel a natural sense of love and care; instead, she sees it as an onerous duty and obligation. Due to her greedy mindset, the mother centers her life on amassing a greater fortune; as a result, her kids receive neither love nor attention from their mother, ultimately leading to a dysfunctional relationship between the mother and the son.
Besides the lack of bond between the mother and the son, the desire for money also alters the relationship between the greedy uncle, Oscar, and his nephew, Paul. Initially, there is only pure love and genuine care between Paul and his uncle. However, as soon as Uncle Oscar finds out that Paul is very good at betting in horse races, his attitude towards his nephew starts to change. Uncle Oscar’s desire for getting tips from his nephew to win money gradually undermines his sincere love for him. Betting in horse races can be considered as a form of gambling, and people can easily be addicted to it. As Paul’s uncle, Oscar does not stop Paul from being involved in this dangerous activity, which would potentially harm him; instead, he is “delighted to find that his nephew [is] posted with all the racing news” (79). Moreover, Uncle Oscar’s greed for money pushes him to use Paul as a tool for getting tips even when Paul’s life is really at risk. Near the end of the story, when Paul becomes seriously ill from feeling too anxious about finding the winner of the upcoming horse race, instead of worrying about Paul, Uncle Oscar “put[s] a thousand on Malabar, [which is the horse that Paul predicts before he falls unconscious,] at fourteen to one” (89). Greed for money outweighs his love for his nephew. Uncle Oscar’s desire for money dilutes his genuine love for his nephew, distorting the once simple, caring relationship between them.
The other destruction that unlimited desire for money can lead to is the mental torture that it imposes on people. Both the mother and the son are psychologically affected by their greed for money. In the story, the mother constantly lives in great anxiety. She is never satisfied with the wealth she currently possesses and always desires more and more; thus, she always feels that she lacks money, which brings her enormous stress and anxiety. Faced with such mountainous pressure, she continuously looks for ways to earn money. She “trie[s] this thing and the other,” however, she “[can] not find anything successful, [making] deep lines come into her face” (76). Her endless pursuit of money causes fear and stress, which leave her with sickness and suffering.
Not only does the mother suffer in her relentless desire for money, but also her son, Paul, becomes mentally ill from his greed to win money in horse races. In the story, D.H. Lawrence frequently describes Paul’s eyes to reveal his craziness and madness in pursuing money because eyes are usually windows to people’s inner emotions and desires. Paul is obsessed with horse races to the extent that he is addicted to it. When he concentrates on predicting the next winner on his rocking-horse, he becomes “wild-eyed” and “his blue eyes [flame]” (79 & 86). And whenever he loses money in horse races, a feeling of sadness haunts him, and his craziness only intensifies as “his blue eyes [blaze] with a sort of madness” (86). Through his vivid portrayal of Paul’s eyes, D. H. Lawrence clearly demonstrates that Paul’s desire to win money in horse races has ruined him psychologically as his “flaming” eyes reflect “madness,” which cannot be commonly seen in other normal, healthy children (86). His mind is taken over by the thoughts of having more money, which wipes away the innocence and simple-mindedness that he should have as a young child.
In addition to the mental effect, Paul’s desire for money also profoundly impacts his own health, eventually taking his life. At the moment when Paul is determined to give money to his mother, he is unable to stop his desire for more money. Every time he receives money, he demands more, and every time he loses money, he furiously tries to win back all his losses. As a result of this endless pursuit of money, he exploits himself as he is too anxious about the amount of money he earns. As Paul uses up all his energy in searching for the winner to get money, he “[falls] with a crash to the ground” and “die[s] in the night” after only a few days (88 & 90). Driven by his desire, Paul becomes so concentrated on amassing more money that he is unaware of the depletion of his health. Although Paul wins a lot of money in horse races, his wealth comes at a price, his own life.
Besides conveying the disastrous consequences of greed through a series of literary elements, D. H. Lawrence also reveals the theme in the ironic title of the short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner.” In the story, Paul, who is a winner of horse races while riding the rocking horse, is not a true winner of his life. Like what Uncle Oscar says to the mother after Paul dies: “[Y]ou are eighty-odd thousand to the good and a poor devil of a son to the bad.” Paul and his mother do not truly win anything as they have sacrificed life and happiness for just “eighty-odd thousand” (90). The other underlying message that D. H. Lawrence delivers through the symbolic “rocking-horse” is that rocking-horse is meant to give comfort to people; however, Paul, instead of receiving comfort and happiness from it, gets seriously ill when riding the rocking-horse. Unlike other children, who see the rocking-horse as a toy, Paul exploits it as a tool to help him earn money and “take [him] to where there is luck” (78). Ironically, the place that the rocking-horse eventually leads him to his death. And all these tragedies are attributed to his and his mother’s restless desire for money.
In Paul’s family, the greed for money is the poison that adversely affects the relationships between family members, breaking up the bonds between parents and kids, and ruining the genuine family love that would otherwise naturally exist. Their strong desire for money also makes them suffer a great deal both mentally and physically. Under the seemingly pleasant life, there is the irreversible destruction that greed for money brings to the family. In reality, there are countless others who suffer in their restless desire for money, and they need to realize that money is a rocking horse, on which people are supposed to find comfort and gratification, but the same rocking horse can lead to destruction and death if ridden greedily.