Comparing The Working Class In D. H. Lawrence's The Rocking Horse

It is understandable that people may crave more money. Sometimes they may even need a little extra change to make ends meet. This particular short-story, “The Rocking Horse Winner,” takes place sometime between the end of World War I and the Great Depression. Needless to say, many people were short on the necessary amount of money to live comfortably or even be able to provide for their families. However, in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner,” being able to provide for a family should not be an issue. Yet, for little Paul it is. Both his parents have expensive habits and desire to live in luxury, but lack a work ethic. “The mother had a small income, and the father had a small income, but not nearly enough for the social position which they had to keep up” (Lawrence). “Building on Antonio Gramsci’s idea that the dominant class controls the views of the people by many means… [Louis] Althusser,” a prominent Marxist and French philosopher, “agreed that the working class is manipulated to accept the ideology of the working class…” (Dobie 86). In “The Rocking Horse Winner,” D.H. Lawrence criticizes the mentality that money can buy happiness and that wealth and success are more important …show more content…
Paul turns from a young, innocent boy to a boy who feels the pressure to be “lucky” and provide his family, or more specifically his mother, with money. It is mainly his mother who presses the need for more money. She is desperate in her apparent lack thereof. Because of this, Paul obsesses over the idea that money will fix everything, that money will cause their house to stop whispering: “’There must be more money! There must be more money!’” (Lawrence). His mother has forced this dominant value of money over sincere family relations onto her son, albeit inadvertently. Nevertheless, it costs both her and Paul in the end—though at very different