“Once upon a time… ” the protagonist is introduced helpless and struggling to surpass the antagonist. The antagonist, or the villain’s, objective is one of cruel intentions. The moral of the story forms our current culture, “kindness is the key,” “you are never truly alone,” and “respect others. ” The attention is drawn to the perfection of the protagonist even in hardship, when handling themselves effortlessly. These characteristics give the audience a chance to recognize a true poster child.
The protagonist’s objective, struggle, and antagonist differ from story to story, but “the happily ever after,” tends to be inevitable, most of the time. Society has been strangely drawn to success, love, and good fortunes, falling on their lap. Hardship that leads to good fortunes are the bases of all fairytales. Dealing with evil step mothers can lead to wealth and marriage. This is typically not how society works; one works hard towards a particular goal, like receiving doctorate, after tons of school, tests, and a residency, the dream becomes a reality.
It is not derived from kindness and a 24/7 maid service, on the house, that somehow draws the attention of a fairy god mother that gives Cinderella the shortcut she so very much deserves. “The Rocking Horse Winner” is the polar opposite, giving all fairytales a bad name. In “The Rocking Horse Winner”, a tragic story demonstrating the destructive effects of materialism, D. H. Lawrence employs symbolism to develop the idea that love and happiness, can be shattered by the root of all evil, money, greed, and selfishness.
Hester, Paul’s mother, becomes malcontented with her marriage after her husband falls short, lacking enough money to support the elegant lifestyle that she feels she deserves. After Paul receives a rocking horse one Christmas, he rides it often and develops an outlandish intuitive power that enables him to foresee the victors of the upcoming races. At the racetracks, with his dead on predictions, he wins thousands of pounds that he sets the winnings aside to cover the costs of his mother’s debts. Paul’s rocking horse and the whispering of the house represent his evident need for love.
In her fixation with material things, Hester’s avarice and negligence to provide the youngsters with the devotion and benevolence they require to develop into normal, mentally stable children. The author accentuates the fact that Hester is an inadequate mother, and can not develop an emotional connection to her children or any other human being. The She feels that her children are a burden to her, not yet lavish, lifestyle and values riches more than her own flesh and blood. She is entirely consumed by greed and can only feel passion for a cornucopia of money, becoming her substitution for love.
Paul knows that his mother does not love him or his sisters, she is incapable of warmth and affection even though she outwardly shows affection and illuminates her misleading actions in her attempts of being a nurturing mother, which shows her failed attempt at deception. Her constant need for money, to sustain her costly position in society, and endless debts place Hester in financial trouble. Although her wish for money is granted, wealth comes at a permanent cost. Superficially, Hester is worried when Paul falls ill, but she cannot recognize that her own actions greatly contributed to Paul’s death.
She remains by his bedside, she never expresses her feelings for him. She allows Paul to pass away without telling him that he is loved, shaping his feelings of neglect and detachment from his mother, due to her greater interest in Paul’s winnings. In the story many different archetypes are used to illustrate the evils of greediness. A major part of this short story is the destruction of Paul, an innocent child, that had only the best of intentions at heart and only strived to gain his mother’s love, dies.
This fight was neither won, nor acknowledged. Hester lives er villainous life blissfully unaware, that her actions are not only depriving her children of their natural born right, a mother’s nurture, but also killing off her only son. The fall of the boy was inevitable and shouldn’t have really surprised the reader, but the mothers actions didn’t change much after he had fallen ill. Her heart was still set on making money her son dying, didn’t put a pin in her ultimate goal. His journey started with an unreachable goal, he craved his mother’s love and attention and would do anything and everything he could to get it.
In addition, Paul’s rocking horse represents his isolation from the world and his failed pursuit of his mother’s love. Hester’s financial state is a burden that eventually overpowers Paul and contributes to his demise. Paul’s knowledge of his mother’s, so called “need for money,” leads him to believe that feeding her greed will inevitably lead to her love. Children shouldn’t need to earn their parents love, it’s typically a given. He is able to predict the winners of multiple horse races, thanks to his trusty rocking horse.
Paul rides the horse around an imaginary track in a trance-like state, oblivious to the world around him. Paul is in a constant battle with his emotional predicaments, born out of his mother’s spite and lack of love. He is greatly troubled and has in some ways lost his innocence. The rocking horse changes from a simple toy to a symbol of death, as it in a way transports Paul away from his miserable life. Paul’s furious riding leads to the deterioration of his health and his life is eventually taken. He later dies of exhaustion from frantically riding the rocking horse.
Hester felt no remorse for her own child as she watched him die; though by the end, when all was said and done, she may have to regret her actions, ever so slightly, but the damage had already been done. This fairy tales differs from others in that sense, it was to late, her realization hit after Paul passed. He dies knowing he was never loved and nothing he did changed that. All of Paul’s energy is put into predicting the winner of the next horse race. And his pursuit of his mother’s love becomes a hopeless obsession. He dies knowing he was never loved and nothing he did changed that.
