The Rocking-Horse
Winner
RWH
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A fairytale style or folk tale style
3rd person omniscient narration
Involves a dysfunctional family
Notion of what it is to be lucky
Possible child abuse
Class consciousness
3rd person omniscient
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.......D. H. Lawrence wrote the story in omniscient third-person
point of view, enabling him to reveal the thoughts of the
characters.
Paul's mother only made several hundreds, and she was again
dissatisfied. She so wanted to be first in something, and she did
not succeed, even in making sketches for drapery
advertisements.
His mother had sudden strange seizures of uneasiness about
him. Sometimes, for half an hour, she would feel a sudden
anxiety about him that was almost anguish. She wanted to rush
to him at once, and know he was safe.
She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon
her, and she could not love them. They looked at her coldly, as if
they were finding fault with her. And hurriedly she felt she must
cover up some fault in herself.
Eye Imagery Forwards the Plot
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D. H. Lawrence's attention to the eyes helps to
convey the inmost feelings of characters in some
instances. (characterization)
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In fact a good deal of communication between
human beings is nonverbal and glaring eyes,
frowns, furrowed brows, and shrugs can sometimes
communicate more meaning than words.
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it enhances the mysterious and sometimes
unsettling atmosphere of the story by leaving open
to question what a gaze or a stare means.
(atmosphere/mood)
Eye Imagery examples
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pg. 19 “Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was
not so. They read it in each other’s eyes.”
pg. 20 “the boy watched her with unsure eyes.”
Pg. 21 “his eyes had a strange glare in them. The little girls dared
not speak to him.” (establishing character)
Pg. 21 Referring to the RH “its big eye was wide and glassy-bright.”
link to Paul and the horse
Pg. 24The boy gazed at his uncle from those big, hot, blue eyes, set
rather close together. The uncle stirred and laughed uneasily.
(establishing mood)
Pg. 27 “The boy watched him with big blue eyes, that had an
uncanny cold fire in them, and he said never a word.” (notice the
author hear lets characterization speak in place of actual dialogue)
Atmosphere/mood
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Personification
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Pg. “And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken
phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money!”
Repetition reinforces the impact of personification
Objects on pg. 20 – the rocking horse, doll and puppy hear the
secret whisper: “There must be more money~”
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Cause and Effect
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No luck
Pg. 20 “It’s because your father has no luck,” said Paul’s mother when
asked why they were poor.
Foreshadowing
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Reference is made to the supernatural when Paul told his mother that
he was a lucky person.
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Pg. 21 “He stared at her. He didn’t even know hwy he had said it.
“God told me,” he asserted…..He did mother!”
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Pg. 25 “We’re all right when we’re sure,” said Paul. “It’s when we’re
not quite sure that we go down.”
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Pg. 28 In relation to the continued whispering of the house. It was said
that “Paul could not bear up against it.”
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Pg. 31 Paul has his rocking horse moved to his own bedroom. His
obsession will have deadly consequences - marks a passage of time
Other Lit terms
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Alliteration
Pg. 22 “Now!” he would silently command the snorting steed.”
Simile
Pg. 2 Bassett was serious as a church
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And yet the voices in the house . . . simply trilled and screamed in a sort of ecstasy:
"There must be more money!
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His eyes blazed at her for one strange and senselesssecond, as he ceased urging
his wooden horse.
Lit terms cont’d
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Metaphor
The child had never been to a race-meeting before, and his eyes
were blue fire.
Comparison of the eyes to fire
Oxymoron
It was a soundless noise, yet rushing and powerful.
Simile
The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of
frogs on a spring evening.
Comparison of the voices to frogs
He neither slept nor regained consciousness, and his eyes were
like blue stones.
Comparison of the Paul's eyes to stones
Diction
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Characterization through diction.
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Paul reveals his youth when he claims that Uncle Oscar pronounces
Filthy lucre as filthy lucker. Diction can have the purpose of
revealing character. (Malapropism) lucre means monetary gain, or
money.
Irony
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Tragic Irony
.......Paul picks the winning horse in the
Epsom Derby but loses his life. The fortune
he had amassed, eighty thousand pounds
(the equivalent of millions of dollars today),
thus became his misfortune.
Theme Topics
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Neglect
.......In her preoccupation with material things, Hester neglects to provide Paul the
love he needs to develop into a normal, mentally stable child.
Faulty Sense of Values
.......Hester makes stylish living the chief goal of her marriage. Consequently, her
relationship with her husband and the care and nurture of her children—in particular,
Paul—stagnate. Whenever money becomes available, she spends beyond her
means. Though she and her husband rear their children in a "pleasant house" with
servants and a nurse, they seem to regard them as objects for display, like the
furnishings in the home. Hester's spending and indebtedness create anxiety that
haunts the house and personifies itself by repeatedly whispering the phrase: "There
must be more money."
Obsession
.......Lust for material objects, stylish living, and money so obsesses Paul's mother
that she neglects Paul and his sisters. Paul then "inherits" her obsession. But he
wants to win money for his mother, not for himself, in order to prove that he has the
luck that his father lacks. Having luck and money will make him lovable to his mother,
he apparently believes, and silence the house voices. When he discovers that the five
thousand pounds he sets aside for her is not enough to achieve his goals, he
becomes obsessed with winning more. His mania ultimately kills him.
Themes topics cont’d
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Opportunism
.......Oscar Creswell acknowledges that Paul's wagering makes him
nervous. But rather than take steps to stop Paul, he encourages him
and asks for tips on winning horses. When Paul lies deathly ill muttering
the name of his pick for the Derby, Oscar runs off "in spite of himself"
and places a bet on the horse at fourteen to one odds.
Quest
.......Paul rides his rocking horse like a knight on a quest. He seeks a
great prize, luck, that will enable him to win money wagering on horses.
His winnings will free his mother from a great monster, indebtedness,
that consumes all of her attention. Once free, she will be able to turn
her attention to Paul and give him the greatest prize of all: love.
Deceit
.......In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator says Hester does not
love her children. Nevertheless, outwardly she pretends to love them,
and people say, "She is a good mother. She adores her children."
Theme Statements
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Materialism vs Unconditional familial love (Topic not a statement)
When financial wealth and security are placed above the open
expression of unconditional love, a destructive and dysfunctional family
dynamic is created.
Destructive power of obsession
Dedicating oneself obsessively to achieving a goal can create an
unhealthy imbalance in the mind, emotions, and / or body.
Movie version
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKUZVV_M
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