Comparing The Horse Winner And The Rocking-Horse

Mathilde Loisel was a selfish woman. She always had thoughts of herself. She dreamed about living like she was an upper class woman. One could say that she did not love her husband because of the selfishness she implied. This selfishness along with her greedy personality brought her to her downfall. She caused her and her husband to become poor and have to work hard to pay off a priceless necklace. Her husband sacrificed everything for her. He spoiled her even though he did not have much. He could have become fed up with her attitude and how she would always complain that anything he did was not good enough, but instead he just tried to do better. Pleasing his wife was the number one priority in his life. As much as he tried to please her, he could never satisfy her. He would never be able to give her the luxurious lifestyle that she wanted. The one night that he feels as if he has really accomplished a feat that he rarely does, Loisel degrades and makes it seem as if he had done nothing:

But one evening, her husband returned home …show more content…
Although Lawrence’s is more tragic, they both end to where the two main women lose something. Loisel lost ten years of her life, and the mother in “The Rocking-Horse Winner” lost her son. In the ending of Lawrence’s he writes:
Malabar came in all right. If I ride my horse till I’m sure , then I tell you, Bassett, you can go as high as you like. Did you go for all you were worth Bassett?”
“I went a thousand on it, Master Paul.”
“I never told you, Mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I’m absolutely sure—oh absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!”
“No you never did,” said the mother
But the boy died in the night (Lawrence 386).
Although this ending is very tragic that the boy died, the other is tragic as well because Mathilde Loisel lost ten years of her life trying to pay off 34,000 francs when she only needed to pay for 500