Analysis Of The Rocking-Horse Winner By D. H. Lawrence

The psychological approach questions the behaviors of characters in connection to basic ideas and to the writers’ minds. Psychology became one of several ideas that influenced methods of reading and understanding literature in the late nineteenth century. Sigmund Freud, whose work was influential in this area, tried to explain why people behaved how they did. Freud concluded that the psyche was made up of the id, ego, and superego from the patients he tended. If one of these experiences is suppressed in the unconscious or indulged too much, in adulthood “neurotic behaviors, compulsions, fixations, and the like” (Bohner & Grant, 2005, p. 1331), may surface. According to one of Sigmund Freud’s ideas, the Oedipus complex, a child may desire the parent of the opposite sex unconsciously. This usually occurs in the third stage, the phallic stage, of the psychosexual development at around ages three to six when the superego is developing. Since the child isn’t able to take the father’s place and he can not merge with his mother, the inkling is suppressed and it dwells in the unconscious. However, once a child is able to identify with the same-sex parent the complex is said to be resolved. “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence portrays how an Oedipus complex that is mother-induced goes too far. Primarily, one reoccurring theme in this story is neglect. It is the neglect to provide the …show more content…
Lawrence portrays how an Oedipus complex that is mother-induced goes too far. Paul’s Oedipus complex was facilitated by his mother and father through their neglect. Since his mother gave him access to a spot that shouldn’t have been available to him, and since his father was not present as a husband and father, Paul’s deep complex couldn’t be naturally and steadily resolved. His strange and neurotic behavior could be credited to failed parenting and the Oedipus complex being left unresolved for so