Symbolism and Sacrifice in D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner"

Introduction: Money as Addiction and Sacrifice

In "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence, money is presented as an addictive substance that one can never have enough of, and a child's self-sacrifice for his mother's affection sears the heart. Lawrence establishes this theme early in the narrative, with the mother looking at her children with dead eyes while they sense only their parents' longing for more money: "there was always the grinding sense of the shortage of money," Lawrence writes. The theme develops as the story progresses and ends on a deeply ironic note — the mother finally has more money than she knows what to do with, thanks to her son's love for her, and she no longer looks at him with dead eyes. But he looks at her with them. The son of a woman haunted by materialistic concerns gives his life so that she might have what she has desired most: riches.

Yet in winning a great sum through the magic of the boy's rocking-horse riding, the mother is also confronted by a great loss — the loss of a child she thought she never really wanted, but who by the end of the story has become something deeply precious to her. This essay analyzes D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and shows how the symbol of the rocking-horse conveys a horrific truth about the household from which the boy's soul departs at the end: it was a tragic place to live, haunted by the ghosts of materialism, and from which an innocent child escapes through the selfless giving of all his energy for the one thing that would make his mother happiest — money.

The Nexus of Affection: Money as a Substitute for Love

W.D. Snodgrass notes that "though the reach of the symbol is overwhelming, in some sense the story is 'about' its literal, narrative level: the life of the family that chooses money instead of some more stable value, that takes money as its nexus of affection" (191). While the mother is mainly to blame for this "nexus of affection," the boy can be forgiven for striving so desperately to ride the horse to victory, as this nexus is really all he knows. In seeking to make his mother happy through racetrack winnings, he is seeking to give her that which she most desires. His service is to her, not to money.

Thanks to the collusive support provided by his Uncle Oscar, he is able to take part in this nexus in a manner that supplies the story's deeper meaning. His love for his mother and his hatred of the haunting voices always bemoaning the lack of money are what compel him to ride his rocking-horse and give his Uncle Oscar the opportunity to place the bets that will bring home the riches. Money equals happiness for the mother, and his mother's happiness equals peace for the boy. Lawrence writes: "There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud." It is this horrific, haunting complaint that the boy seeks to eradicate from his childhood. It is this devil that has killed the life and light in his mother's eyes. Riches light them up — and he learns that riding his rocking-horse to victory during his Uncle Oscar's trips to the racetrack will bring her those riches. And so he sets about his work, not because money is his pursuit, but because seeing his mother with life in her eyes is his pursuit.

The Boy's Longing and the Rocking-Horse as Symbol

The boy's deepest desire is to be loved and appreciated by his mother — though she is obsessed by thoughts of money and barely notices that he longs for affection, for real motherly love. After a conversation with her about luck, money, and God, she dismisses his earnestness. Lawrence writes: "The boy saw she did not believe him; or rather, that she paid no attention to his assertion. This angered him somewhere, and made him want to compel her attention." Off he goes to find some way to make her believe him. She is obsessed with luck and money, and he turns inward, focusing all his energy on obtaining both.

He seems to channel a direct connection to something beyond himself, and on his rocking-horse he appears to conjure the luck and money that he knows will connect him to her: "He wanted luck, he wanted it, he wanted it. When the two girls were playing dolls in the nursery, he would sit on his big rocking-horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily" (Lawrence). Lawrence uses this frenetic tone to emphasize the intensity of the boy's desire to achieve the luck his mother so badly lacks. He uses this imagery to place the reader in the boy's shoes — to feel what the boy feels in his heart and mind.

Conclusion: What the Mother Lost

The boy dies from exertion and she is left with the winnings — the earnings of all his endeavors. The love that she once shared with her husband, the love that resulted in the creation of her child, is now removed from the house that cared only for money. Lawrence's ultimate meaning is that the mother was missing real luck when it was right under her nose. She saw her children, but did not see that they were yearning for a reflection of love in her eyes. They burned brightly, and he, the boy, burned most brightly of all.

He burned for her — and wanted to make her happy so that the haunting voices of the home, the whispers, the complaints, would stop. He wanted his mother to be beautiful, to be free of the lines of worry that caused her mouth to droop. He wanted peace, and in the end his desire is granted. The mother is left with the realization — the face-to-face fact — that it was her child all along who made her lucky. She was just too busy looking for it elsewhere: in things, in possessions, in appearances, in money. In bringing home the final winner, the boy finally exorcises the house of its ghosts — and leaves with them.

Works Cited

Lawrence, D.H. "The Rocking-Horse Winner."

Snodgrass, W.D. "A Rocking-Horse: The Symbol, the Pattern, the Way to Live." The Hudson Review 11.2 (1958): 191–200.