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Fiction Analysis
Sarah Clinch
Denise Howard Long
English 301
Spring 2008
The Raging Inferno of Greed
D. H. Lawrence, in his story “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” presents a family
plagued by greed, and he explores the consequences which result from their avarice. The
family in Lawrence‟s story has very little income; yet, they need to maintain their social
position in the community, and so debt and poverty threaten to overpower the hierarchal
standing they have built up amidst their peers. Greed, one of the seven deadly sins,
usually consists of a covetous want for material things beyond financial or realistic reach;
however, the greed apparent in the family of “The Rocking-Horse Winner” pervade
several areas, including materialistic greed, greed for love, a greed for luck, and a greed
for answers. Lawrence depicts greed in a most damaging manner, for the family he
portrays proves even death quails under the exponential hunger and ultimate power of
their greed.
In its most recognizable connotation, avarice plagues the family of Lawrence‟s
story through money and materialism. As stated before, “the style was always kept up”
(Lawrence 100), though “there was always the grinding sense of the shortage of money”
(Lawrence 100). The family‟s income was unable to support their outstanding and
ostentatious needs. Even the house itself proclaims its greed in its silent cry, “There must
be more money!” (Lawrence 101). Whether the house‟s cries actually ring through the
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house, or are a subconscious knowledge the entire family shares, Lawrence makes very
clear how the entire household hears the „cries‟ of the house. The boy, Paul, decides to
end the house‟s cries, and begins winning at horseracing. Paul saves up the money he
wins until, eventually, he hands the money over to his uncle, a sum of five thousand
pounds. His uncle gives the money to the family‟s lawyer, instructing him to “inform
Paul‟s mother that a relative had put five thousand pounds into his hands, which sum was
to be paid out a thousand pounds at a time, on the mother‟s birthday, for the next five
years” (Lawrence 106). Of course, given the material greed of the mother, once she found
out she had five thousand pounds coming to her, she impulsively wanted it all advanced
to her in one batch. Like a blazing fire, the household flares all the higher after the lawyer
forwards the money. Feeding the flames, Paul inadvertently worsened their situation by
setting a higher standard of living, at least for as long as the money held out. Though the
boy believed he had helped his family by anonymously gifting the five thousand pounds,
he in fact created an ever-growing, always hungry, greed-infected monster. Never
satiated, “the voices in the house simply trilled and screamed in a sort of ecstasy: „There
must be more money! Oh-h-h; there must be more money. Oh, now, now-w! Now-w-w –
there must be more money! – more than ever! More than ever!‟” (Lawrence 107). The
heightened cries of the house reflect how greed often can consume someone, driving
them toward eventual madness over what they covet.
Though materialistic greed thrives within the family of Lawrence‟s story, love
fails to prosper. In the very beginning of the story, Lawrence describes the mother of the
family: “She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she
could not love them” (Lawrence 100). Because of the lack of love within the household,
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the boy, Paul, craves acceptance and to be cared for, and resolves to do anything to obtain
this love. When Paul‟s mother “paid no attention to his assertion” (Lawrence 102) that he
was indeed lucky, “this angered him somewhat, and made him want to compel her
attention” (Lawrence 102). The greed for love, perhaps not as prevalent as the greed for
money, proves just as damaging to the family. Paul‟s greed for affection feeds his
gambling; he understands his family‟s financial disabilities, and assumes his mother
would show him love if he earned money, and so turns to horseracing. Paul fails to
understand how dire the financial greed proves to be, and also fails to see the exponential
rate at which it expands until he had already surrendered the five thousand pounds over to
his mother. Born out of the materialistic greed of the family in “The Rocking-Horse
Winner” the greed for love Paul experiences only helps to heighten, and not fix, that
same materialistic greed.
Since Paul wants his mother to love him, and knows the lack of money in the
household occupies her mind, he resolves to earn money and save the family. He
discovers how to earn this money when he asks his mother, “then what is luck, Mother?”
(Lawrence 101). She follows with: “It‟s what causes you to have money. If you‟re lucky
you have money. That‟s why it‟s better to be born lucky than rich. If you‟re rich, you
may lose your money. But if you‟re lucky, you will always get more money” (Lawrence
101). Her answer drives Paul to desire luck; he covets luck so he can earn money and
save his family from debt and poverty. Lawrence implies an obsession with luck when
Paul‟s thoughts turn repetitive: “He wanted luck, he wanted it, he wanted it” (Lawrence
102). The boy turns to his childhood toy for the luck he seeks. The rocking horse,
according to Paul, knows the route to luck, and so Paul begins his feverish rides to obtain
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his fortune. The boy becomes lost in his quest, going slightly mad with desire, as he
begins to speak to the horse, “now! he could silently command the snorting steed. Now,
take me to where there is luck! Now take me!” (Lawrence 102). The poor, young boy
sinks into a cycle of riding and gambling, focused only upon luck. Having convinced
himself the luck he finds while riding his horse will win him the money from gambling,
he believes his mother will begin to love him. The vicious cycle eventually and tragically
tears young Paul apart; his beloved rocking horse carrying him to luck, but also to death.
Paul rides his childhood toy, the rocking horse, unto his death in a pursuit of
answers. The names of the winning racehorses supposedly come upon the boy when he
gallops the horse fast enough and long enough. In an orgasmic climax, the boy reaches
his destination, and shouts the name of the winner: “It‟s Malabar! It‟s Malabar!”
(Lawrence 109). The similarities to the sexual act include Paul‟s „impotence‟ when he
focuses too hard on the task, and is unable to reach his special place. Whether his „luck‟
stems from mental ability or from divine grace, Paul does in fact exhibit supernatural
ability by predicting the winners of the races. The severity of the family‟s financial
situation pushes Paul to ride harder and harder in search of his goal, and sadly, eventually
his careening canter crashes to a halt as Paul “[falls] with a crash to the ground”
(Lawrence 109). The strain finally catches up with Paul, inducing a medical collapse of
some sort, whether an aneurysm, a heart attack, or a total breakdown of the brain and
body. In a coma, Paul hardly acknowledges his surroundings; yet, when the gardener
arrives with news of the latest horse race, Paul musters the last of his strength in order to
hear whether his final ride had proven worthwhile. Paul‟s luck wins out, and his family
discovers they obtained over eighty thousand pounds from Paul‟s winning bet; yet, the
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boy‟s strength gives out and he dies. While Paul‟s answers result in large sums of money
from winning the bets, Paul‟s greed for answers during his rides results in his death. The
boy does not know when to stop, and rides himself unto his demise.
The damaging nature of greed exponentially increases over time, no matter where
the focus of the greed lies. The family of D. H. Lawrence‟s story “The Rocking-Horse
Winner” experiences first hand the devastating effects of the deadly sin avarice. One
form of greed leads to another which leads to yet another, on and on into infinity if not
kept in check. For the household of “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” materialistic greed
spawns a greed for love, since no one had time for love when worrying over expenses
and social standing. The greed for love, unfulfilled due to the greed for money, brings
about a greed for luck; Paul perceives luck as the only way to obtain love, since luck
brings money, and with money, love can thrive. Paul‟s luck brings about answers to the
upcoming horse races, and he seeks out these answers with everything he possesses; Paul
rides on the rocking horse to realize the name of the next winner of the next race. The
answers, or horse names, he determines through his rides determine how much luck he
has; the luck he has, based upon how much money he wins, determines how much love
his mother shows him; the love his mother shows him, based upon how much money he
wins, ultimately becomes Paul‟s goal in his quest. Truly a deadly sin, greed destroys Paul
and his family in D. H. Lawrence‟s story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner.” Paul‟s uncle
states a horrible yet telling truth, perhaps the entire moral of the story, when he says to
Paul‟s mother: “My God, Hester, you‟re eighty-odd 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” (Lawrence 110). Lawrence, through Oscar
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Cresswell, Paul‟s uncle and Hester‟s brother, gives the audience a warning with his tale:
Don‟t play with the fire of greed, for fires will burn. As stoking a fire feeds the flames,
greed grows to a flaming inferno when fed with whatever stands as the object of desire.
One thing leads to another and another until eventually, the fire burns everything to the
ground and ashes are all that remain. The cremation of existence, greed is truly a Deadly
Sin.
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Works Cited
Lawrence, D. H. "The Rocking-Horse Winner.” Literature: Approaches to Fiction,
Poetry, and Drama. 2nd ed. 2008.