The Rocking-Horse Winner

Lust for materials objects, a stylish living, and money can become an obsession in life if one chooses this lifestyle. D.H. Lawrence's story, "The Rocking-Horse Winner" possesses lust of things throughout the story. The obsessions in the story affects a woman named Hester and then she passes the obsession on to her son, Paul. Part of their obsession is to know if they are lucky people in life or if they are unlucky. Being lucky is just the beginning of Paul's obsession.

Hester is a beautiful woman who was blessed with the opportunity to marry a handsome man but their love eventually runs dry for each other. She has three children, a boy and two girls. However her behavior around people was not the same as when she was around the children. Around people Hester portrayed her love for her children, and they would say that she was a wonderful mother. She may have been able to fool people but she was not able to fool her own children, because they know she does not love them like a mother should. The children can see this in their mother's eyes but they know of her obsessions with other things in life. This causes her to be neglectful towards her children by not showing the love that children need from their parents.

However, their parents provide a nice house with "discreet" servants to help tend to the children and the house. But the mother and father never seem to have enough money to support their lifestyle even though they both have incomes. The father has an office in town where he has promising business prospects, but there prospects never materialize. The mother, Hester, had a job sketching furs and dress materials. She "worked secretly in a studio for a friend" but did not make the money as the friend did in the business. Both parents tried various schemes to increase their income, but their financial success eludes them. Even with all the financial burdens of the family, it seems as if the house was becoming haunted by an unspoken phrase of obsession; "There must be more money! There must be more money!"

One day, Paul asked his mother why the family was always taking a taxi or borrowing a car from his Uncle Oscar Creswell, instead of them purchasing one of their own. His mother, Hester, explains that they lack the money to buy a car. She even tells Paul that when his father tries to make more money, he has no luck. If you're lucky, she tells Paul, you have money. That is her belief and she feels that it is better to be born lucky than to be born rich. She tells that if a person is born lucky, they continue to have money but born rich they lose their money. Paul is very assertive towards his mother about being lucky himself. She does not believe Paul about being lucky, even though he was trying to earn her love for him by sharing that with her. Peeved at her lack of faith in him and wanting to prove himself to her, Paul goes off by