The Rocking-Horse Winner Summary & Analysis

For most of the story, Hester is nameless. This increases the story’s childlike and “fable-like” tone, but also shows how Hester is essentially a passive character. Hester believes that she is (relatively) poor because she was unlucky in marriage (not work), and she does not play an active role in her children’s lives. She is also very concerned with appearances—she’s good at seeming like a good mother, even if she knows she’s not.

Lawrence makes clear in the opening paragraphs of his story that the plot will revolve around money, or the lack thereof. Hester’s family is not actually poor—they just don’t have enough money to appear as rich as Hester wants to.

The story’s pervasive tone of anxiety and dread truly sets in here, as the children all seem to share the same hallucination that the house is speaking. There is also a clear lack of communication and intimacy even between the children—they don’t speak to each other about the voices, but only share significant glances. Hester again shows her materialism in that she buys expensive toys for the children rather than providing them with real intimacy.

This philosophy might make more sense if the family was actually poor, or if they had actually faced some problems they had no real control over. As it is, however, the family simply doesn’t have enough money because Hester spends it all. This speech might just be Hester feeling bitter and victimized in the moment, but it has huge repercussions on Paul’s psychology.

Hester sees herself as blameless, and doesn’t consider that her actions might have something to do with the family’s financial situation. By saying that money comes from luck and that luck is God-given, she is able to be upset about her situation without actually having to do anything about it. This constant drive for more money and for a “luck” that seems unattainable is one of the sinister forces that Lawrence sees in modern society.

Just as Hester wants luck so that her neighbors think she’s wealthy, Paul wants luck so that his mother will think he’s lucky (and, presumably, will then be proud of him and love him more). Both are concerned with appearances, but Paul is willing to work hard to find luck, while Hester expects it to be given to her. It is never clear why Paul is so drawn to his rocking-horse, but it is obviously an important symbol in the story. A rocking-horse is a toy for a young child, and on one level it symbolizes Paul’s unwillingness to grow up, and his need to be constantly be seeking his mother’s approval. In Freudian psychoanalysis, dreaming about riding a horse is symbolic of sexual intercourse, and some interpretations of the story have seen Paul’s rocking motion as representing sex or masturbation. Either way, there is something strange and disquieting about Paul’s frantic “work” on the horse.

Uncle Oscar interprets Paul’s comments about “getting where he wanted to go” and the horse’s changing name as the result of a lively imagination—he doesn’t take them seriously. Despite Joan’s discomfort with Paul’s behavior, no one steps in or asks what is going on. Paul’s family is not invested in him, and they allow him to go down what turns out to be a destructive path.

The story is very short, and lots of things happen without Lawrence stating them directly. By the time of this encounter, Paul has already been using his rocking-horse to achieve a state of “luckiness” and to pick the winners of horse races. Paul’s childlike language (“honour bright”) is contrasted with his adult occupation of betting large amounts of money, and with the disturbing, supernatural aspect of his frenzied rocking.

Paul’s eyes are described as close-together, and later on as “mad,” while his rocking-horse’s are wide-set and calm. Paul pretends to whip his rocking-horse into submission, but Paul is actually the wild one in the relationship.

Paul’s eyes begin to take on a life of their own and they behave differently than does the rest of Paul’s body. Indeed, Paul does not seem to be in control of his blazing eyes—instead, they seem to have a life of their own, as burning with greed and desire.

Were Paul to truly be lucky, he would not have bad days at the races. Indeed, he would not need to “know” which horse to bet on, but instead would simply make a lucky guess. The very fact that Paul has to work so hard for his “luck” means it isn’t really luck at all. Of course, he can’t see this, and he continues to pursue luck because that is the thing his mother values most.

In this scene, a second cause for Paul’s mad riding is revealed: in addition to proving to his mother that he is lucky, he also wants to stop the voices in his house. These voices cause Paul an incredible amount of anxiety, but instead of talking to his mother about them and addressing the source of the problem, he decides that they will go away if he makes himself lucky. He doesn’t understand that greed is an endless cycle that cannot simply be broken by more money. Once again Paul’s eyes are portrayed as something supernatural and frightening.

Paul childishly believes that money is the answer to all his problems, when in fact, his problems stem from greed, a lack of intimacy with his mother, and possibly some kind of psychological neurosis. He is not growing up in a healthy way.

Sadly, the money Paul has worked so hard to win doesn’t improve his mother’s spirits—instead, she just wants more. Lawrence demonstrates here that greed is insatiable—as long as the greed itself is still there, no amount of money will truly satisfy it.

Once again, Hester chooses to prioritize the image she presents to those outside of her home over the feelings of her family within it. The intensity of the whispering makes Paul so anxious that he rides more than ever. He still hasn’t learned that “luck” and money will not stop the house from whispering or make his mother love him, and so the madness inside of him continues to grow, as symbolized by his inhuman eyes.

Paul believes that if he rides the rocking-horse enough he solve all of the family’s problems—essentially that he can free his mother from her worries by taking them upon himself. This isn’t how anxiety works, however, and Hester and Paul only feed off each other, growing more anxious every day.

At this point Paul seems to know that his relationship with the rocking-horse is strange and unhealthy, and he does everything he can to protect it and keep it secret. Time is passing and Paul is growing older, but he still clings to the rocking-horse—a clear sign that he isn’t growing up in a healthy manner. Once again, there may be a sexual aspect to Paul’s shame and secrecy regarding his frantic riding.

Paul’s eyes take on a supernatural appearance, as though another being is inhabiting his body. Hester’s original coldness has gradually grown into a greater concern for her child (mostly in the form of new anxiety and worry), but this hasn’t really brought the two together yet. She is on the road to becoming a better mother, but by now it may be too late.

There are many fantastical moments in this story that are never fully explained, but the extent to which Paul’s body is taken over by a strange force certainly demonstrates the all-consuming nature of greed and blind desire. This scene once again could also be interpreted in light of Freudian psychoanalysis as related to the “Oedipal complex.” Sigmund Freud believed that young boys are naturally first attracted to their mothers and want to replace or kill their fathers (as the Classical Greek character Oedipus killed his father and married his mother). Children only grow up healthily when they overcome this desire. The association here between Paul’s frantic rocking, his desire to please his mother, and his mother “walking in on him” in the middle of the act all could suggest something like this. It is a testament to the power of Lawrence’s story that so many interpretations could work for it at once—the dangers of greed, a boy trying to win the love of a cold mother, and a story of psychological and sexual neurosis.

Hester seems to finally feel an appropriate love toward her son, but it is too late—he’s dead. Paul’s death is presented briefly and coldly, as a tragedy stemming from all the causes listed above, but ultimately as just a small, sensitive boy being used by adults and by forces beyond his control until he could handle it no longer.

It’s notable that Lawrence doesn’t give us Hester’s reaction to Paul’s death—whether she feels guilty, whether she truly grieves him and loves him, or whether his death has any effect on her materialism and greed. Instead we just hear Oscar’s callous reaction to the death, weighing his nephew’s life in terms of gains and losses (like the odds at a horse race). He suggests that Hester is better off with eighty thousand pounds than with a strange, weak son, but his comment about Paul is more difficult to interpret. It could just be a description of what he saw as Paul’s strangeness, but it could also be that Oscar sees how “crazed” Paul had become—or even that Oscar understands that this world was too harsh and greedy for someone as sensitive as Paul, and Paul never would have been able to be healthy or happy.