What does the style, characterization, setting, and ending of "The Rocking-Horse Winner" reveal about the story's purpose?

“The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. The main character is a young boy named Paul, who worries about his mother because she confides that she has terrible money problems. The house in which they live even seems to whisper to the boy, “There must be more money! There must be more money!”

The style is deceptive in its seeming directness and simplicity. It starts out almost as a fairy tale, but the theme and subject are not typical. Just as a fairy tale often begins with “once upon a time” or “there once was,” “The Rocking-Horse Winner” begins with, “There was a woman who was beautiful...” The phrasing of the beginning and its simple style and direct characterization all serve to echo what the reader is accustomed to with fairy tales. The use of supernatural elements furthers the fairy-tale motif, as well.

Thus, the style indicates the intentional purpose is to emulate a fairy tale. Moreover, just as a fairy tale ultimately teaches us something about life, so too does “The Rocking-Horse Winner” teach a lesson: one of values. The mother paid too high a price to obtain the money, at the expense of losing her son. The mother’s misplaced values are also shown in the way she spends the money Paul gives her on luxury items.

The use of the wish motif—particularly as the granting of the wish ultimately kills the little boy—furthers the parallels to traditional fairy tales. The purpose of using these techniques is that the story appears to be one thing on the surface—a simple story about a boy and his toy rocking horse—but actually is another thing entirely at a deeper level. The same thing can also be said of fairy tales.

As noted, the supernatural elements in the story serve to parallel the fairy-tale format, as well. For instance, the witch in "Hansel and Gretel" is a supernatural being, and the story teaches children not to speak to strangers; the eerie elements of "The Rocking-Horse Winner" also reinforce the bitter moral of the tale.

The opening sentence of the story tells us that the beautiful woman “married for love, and the love turned to dust.” This is the antithesis of “and they lived happily ever after.” In fact, no one will live happily ever after in this story. Paul's obsession with luck, money, winning, and obtaining something from the horse overcome him. He falls ill and dies. His uncle, the mother’s brother, sums up the moral, telling his sister that she has won a windfall but lost a little boy in the process.

What does the style, characterization, setting, and ending of "The Rocking-Horse Winner" reveal about the story's purpose?

As stated above, the story is told in a simple, childlike, fairytale style.

The two figures characterized in an interior way are Paul and his mother. We learn that the mother is incapable of loving her husband or children. Her sole desire in life is to have more money, and no matter how much she obtains, it is never enough. Paul is characterized as a child who craves his mother's love. He believes he can win it by getting her the money she desires. He is depicted as a relentless, determined child, who in the end dies in an attempt to be loved.

The setting reinforces the idea of inner emptiness. The house, though described as large and comfortable, always seems to be crying out, like the mother, for more money. Despite the family's seemingly comfortable standard of living, Paul is surrounded by an atmosphere of lack and disappointment. His mother always wants more.

The ending, in which the young boy rides his rocking horse so hard that he dies, reflects that this want can never be fulfilled.

The moral of the story is that money can't buy love and that no amount of money can fill the hole of not being able to love. Through the characterizations, setting, and ending, we understand how lack of love creates a sense of need and how that neediness destroys innocent people. 

What does the style, characterization, setting, and ending of "The Rocking-Horse Winner" reveal about the story's purpose?

The simplistic style of writing, direct characterization and infused moral undertones all make this story a fable of sorts, a tale meant to teach a lesson.  It is told simply so that all people can understand it, almost like a children's story.  A lot of children's stories out there, fairy tales and the like, have a simplistic tone and style about them, because they are meant to teach a lesson about morals or values.  Fables are the same way--exaggerated characters, a simple concept, and at the end, a very important lesson to take away from the story.  Lawrence often had a theme to his stories, and in this one it is of greed and how greed is an unmerciful master that takes all in order to exist.  It requires sacrifices not worth making, and is never satiated.

The story itself is centered around a child, around potentially  magical powers that he has, around flawed and greedy adults, and around a central theme or message, all make the purpose of this story similar to a fable or fairy-tale:  to teach a lesson or moral.  This particular "fairy tale," however, is quite serious and dramatic, and its ending does not consist of characters living happily ever after.  Lawrence paints the picture of a real-life fable, where the real repercussions of flaws are seen, leaving the entire story with a tragic ending to teach the lesson, instead of a cute one-liner like a fable has.  I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!

Why did the author use a fairy tale structure in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

I think there is a certain amount of irony in Lawrence’s choice, if we understand the story as being about the inversion of parent and child roles. The fairy tale is a story meant for children, with a clear moral. Lawrence’s story, on the other hand, is not meant for children, and its message, while seeming to be about greed, is actually more ambiguous. The materialism of Paul’s mother is a symptom of a larger spiritual “lack,” an emptiness that ultimately effects her ability to love Paul—in a way, she is not mature enough to be a parent. Paul, for his part, secretly assumes the responsibilities of an adult in winning the money, even though he is not really aware of how he does it. Paul’s mysterious “being sure” about horses stands in counterpoint to the ambiguity of the love relationships in his own family. 

Lawrence’s use of the fairy tale foregrounds the fantastic elements of the story while at the same time commenting on the nature of Paul’s childhood. It’s not so much that Lawrence is using the form to convey a moral as it is that he is trying to call attention to the fact that Paul’s life is anything but a fairy tale when it comes to emotional experience.

Why did the author use a fairy tale structure in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

D.H. Lawrence wanted the moral of his story to be clear, so he used a simple fairy tale structure. He aimed to show that the absence of love kills and that no amount of money can fill the hole left when love is absent.

In this story, Paul's mother is a simple representation of a person who, for whatever reason, is incapable of loving. She is a flat, rather than a fully developed, character typical in a fairy tale. She attempts to fill her inner emptiness with money; but as with any addiction, the more she gets of her "drug," the more she wants.

Paul does not understand this and thinks he can earn her love by winning money for her. That he can do it in a supernatural, fairy-tale way by riding his rocking horse to learn which horse will win an upcoming race emphasizes that the problem is with the mother. Paul wins large sums, but they fail to satisfy his mother. If Paul had simply been an ordinary child who tried to earn his mother's love by obtaining a little extra money and giving it to her, we might not understand the depth of the mother's lack. If Paul had not died at the end trying to please her, we might not fully realize the devastating effect on a child of not being loved.