Paul's mother desires money above all else, which leads her son to his death.

Characters: The main characters are as follows:

• Paul: Paul is an emotional young boy who desperately wishes to win the favor of his mother and make her happy.
• Paul's mother, Hester: Unhappy that she and her husband can't afford the life she desires, Hester notes that her children bring her no joy. Her detachment from her children is the instigating circumstance in Paul's desperate attempts to learn the winners of the races.
• Uncle Oscar: Uncle Oscar assists Paul in his gambling efforts and doesn't shield him from the potentially harmful effects his actions could have.

Setting: This story takes place in England in the 1920s in a fairly affluent neighborhood.

Wealth is a dominant theme of D.H.Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner."

In this story, the acquisition of wealth becomes the measure of value for everything in life. The preoccupation with money as a measure of worth in the mother's mind becomes so prevalent in the home that her son Paul complains to his uncle, "I hate our house for whispering." Further, he explains to Uncle Oscar that he has started his betting on horses "for Mother." Paul hopes that by winning a considerable sum of money, he can quiet the house and bring his mother luck. But even when he has money sent to her secretly in the mail, and he asks his mother if she has received "anything nice in the post" when it arrives, Paul receives this reply: "'Quite moderately nice'...her voice cold and absent."

This cold answer disappoints Paul, so he has more money sent by way of the lawyer's office to help pay all her debt. Then, he returns to his rocking horse so that he can discover another winner. When he does not pick a winner for the Grand National, Paul becomes "wild-eyed and strange, as if something were going to explode in him."

The mother's obsession with acquiring wealth and measuring everything by monetary amounts influences the family's emotional states, ranging from self-worth to love. Therefore, it becomes a destructive force because only spiritual values can bring personal satisfaction and a sense of well-being. As the family grows more and more emotionally impoverished, the voices in the house continue to scream: "There must be more money!...Oh, now, now-w! Now-2-2---there must be more money!--more than ever! More than ever!" Despite his increased efforts, Paul becomes unable to continue to win. Then, spiritually starved and tormented by his feverish drive for more money to satisfy his mother and win her love, Paul finally collapses and dies one night.

Concerning theme in "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the enotes Study Guide on the short story lists and explains the following themes:

Responsibility
The obsession with wealth and material items is pitted against the responsibilities of parenting in "The Rocking-Horse Winner." It is the responsibility of the parents to provide for the children in a family. It is also the responsibility of the parents to spend money wisely and budget carefully, so that the bills are paid and no one goes without food, clothing, or shelter. However, in this story, Lawrence turns this on its ear, making the parents complete failures at financial dealings and their son Paul incredibly gifted at making money, albeit by gambling....

Generosity and Greed
The disparity between Paul's generosity and his mother's greed is another theme of "The Rocking-Horse Winner." Paul generously offers all his winnings to the family, in order to relieve the family's dire need for money. He seems to have no needs of his own and is motivated solely by the desire to help his mother. Paul's unselfish generosity is contrasted starkly with the mother's greed and selfishness....

Oedipus Complex
Paul's desire to earn money for the family can be said to be an unconscious desire to take his father's place, a concept that psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud termed the "Oedipus complex." This is a reference to the story from ancient Greece in which Oedipus, who was raised away from his parents, accidently kills his father and marries his mother. Freud suggested that all boys go through a stage where they want to take their father's place, Paul's desire to take care of the family's needs is Oedipal....

Thus, the ideas of responsibility, which the parents don't have and Paul does, greed (the mother) and generosity (Paul), and Paul's desire and need to take his father's place are revealed in the story. 

Unfortunately, and ironically, the only worthy character in the story, Paul, the one who takes control and saves the family, is the one who dies.   And as he does so, he secures for his mother more money that she could every dream of, although, of course, that probably won't be enough for her, either.

There are several possible themes in this short story. The main theme is that of greed and materialism, and how it can never be satisfied, or bring true happiness or peace.  Throughout the entire story, the mother wants more and more money; the more she gets, the more she needs.  Does it ever make her happy?  No.  Paul, her son, equates love with luck and money; he strives the entire story, and essentially sacrifices his life, to get money.  It only wears him down and kills him in the end.  Greed demands everything and gives only misery in return.  That is the most powerful theme in the story.

Other possible themes are love, family, wealth, and happiness.  All of these things can be discussed at length and supported through examples in the text.  I hope that helps; good luck!

The action by which Paul picks winners in horse racing and accumulates a huge amount of cash is a symbol of the general principle of sacrifice. It also symbolizes the bond a child, or (in Lawrence's specific mindset) a boy maintains with his mother. We learn little about Paul's father in the story, and he is notable by this absence only. It is easy to see this theme repeated in the Lawrence canon, of the alienation of a boy with regard to his father or other male authority symbols, and the need for an attachment elsewhere. With Paul his uncle is a kind of benign replacement, but one can also argue that the connection Paul feels and achieves through a kind of ESP with the horses who win for him, is an additional or even more important symbol of this need for outside fulfillment. What, then, is the meaning of Paul's dying of a fever at the moment of triumph, as it were? Without being too obvious, we can see Paul as a Christ figure. This symbolism has, admittedly, been overly stressed and laid on with too heavy a hand by commentators on literary works in general, but in this case I believe it is valid. The act of "divining" the winners has in some sense exhausted Paul, and he expires, but at least it is done as a consequence of redeeming his mother.

"The Rocking Horse Winner" is written in third-person omniscient point of view, which allows the reader to become intimately aware of both the mother's sense of frustration with her economic situation and with Paul's sense of desperation to make his mother happy.

Early in the story, the third-person omniscient narration makes it possible to determine the mother's sense of disconnect with her own children:

Whenever her children were present, she felt the center of her heart go hard. This troubled her, and in her manner she was all the more gentle and concerned for her children, as if she loved them very much.

In fact, the mother does not love her children very much, though she knows that she is supposed to. While this troubles her somewhat, she is more concerned with a feeling that she has been destined for a life that she is unable to attain:

There must be more money, there must be more money. The father, who was very handsome and expensive in his tastes, seemed as if he never would be able to do anything worth doing. And the mother, who thought highly of herself and whose tastes were just as expensive, did not succeed any better.

Because of the omniscient narration, the mother's insatiable desire for money is made clear. Her desperation is evident in her belief that her husband isn't capable of producing the lifestyle she desires and that she believes she is owed since she thinks so highly of herself.

Paul's sense of desperation to make his mother happy is also clear through this point of view. When he tells his mother that he is lucky, he realizes that "she did not believe him." This is frustrating to Paul:

This angered him a little, and made him want to make her believe him.

In his quest to prove to his mother that he can provide the "luck" she so desperately longs for, he becomes resolute in his sense of purpose:

He went off feeling confused and, in a childish way, looking for the secret to "luck." Thinking of nothing else, taking no notice of other people, he went about keeping to himself, looking for luck. He wanted luck, he needed it.

Readers are again privy to the inner thoughts and motivations of Paul. The desires of the mother and Paul's desire to please her sets up the conflict that is central to the story.

This point of view also allows for an almost mystical characterization of the house, which has a "voice" of its own that demands "more money" from every corner.

Situational irony results when the opposite of what we would reasonably expect to happen is what actually occurs. In this fantasy, the house whispers, "There must be more money!" This motif emphasizes the mother's greed and its effects on the family. When Paul wins bets on the horse races, the money his mother receives doesn't satisfy her. It makes her even greedier. This is the opposite of what Paul expected to happen. It is ironic that her greed increases at Christmas, since Christmas is supposed to be a time of spiritual celebration and giving out of love. Paul's mother wants money to buy expensive gifts for the children, not to show her love for them, but to impress others and maintain her social position--to keep up appearances.

There are numerous other ironies in the story, as well. It is terribly ironic that Paul, a little boy, assumes responsibility for his mother's well being and happiness; she should be taking care of him. Another irony is suggested at the story's conclusion. Only when it is too late and Paul is dying does his mother feel concern for him and pay attention to him. Also, Paul has a father in his home, but it is a male servant who plays the most important role in his young life. Finally, being a "winner" results in Paul's dying.

There are two main forms of irony employed in this excellent short story by D. H. Lawrence. The first is situational irony, and we are presented with an example in the very first paragraph. Here the author introduces us to the mother in the story who is undergoing a conflict between appearance and reality:

She had bonny children yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them. They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her. And hurriedly she felt she must cover up some fault in herself. Yet what it was that she must cover up she never knew. Nevertheless, when her children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart go hard.

The woman appears to love her children, and in fact we are told that everyone else says of her she is a very good mother because she "adores" her children, but in fact, her heart was "a hard little place" that was incapable of loving anyone.

The second type of irony we find is dramatic irony. We, Paul and Uncle Oscar know the source of the money that Paul's mother receives, but she does not. It is clearly ironic that what is a gift of love and a result of care and concern for the mother is responded to with such avaricious greed and rapaciousness. For, we are told that after receiving the first instalment of the money, Paul's mother went that very day to the lawyer to ask for the whole money at once. It is likewise ironic that Paul's mother doesn't realise what Paul is doing to himself until it is too late.

There are a lot of different possible symbols throughout this story.  The main one, of course, is the rocking-horse itself; it symbolizes the love that Paul wishes he had from his mother.  It symbolizes his fruitless search for her affection.  A rocking-horse is not real; it can never actually transport Paul, just as getting money can never actually give his mother happiness, or Paul her love.  It is just a fake, plastic toy, just as money is a fake reassurance of love and happiness.  So that is the main symbol in the story, and the most powerful one.

Another symbol could be the whispering in the house; it is a representation of how greed is never satisfied, and always demanding.  The more money they got, the louder the whispers were.  They were never quiet, as long as money and wealth were the focus.

Irony exists in the fact that Paul actually does win money from riding the horse; that is totally unexpected.  Also, it exists in the fact that once the mother has money, even after living without it for a while, she does not use it wisely and soon runs out again.  Then, the ending--for the first time the mother has shown actual concern and love for Paul, and that is when he dies.  It is a very sad story, and one that can teach valuable lessons about what is truly meaningful in life.  I hope that helped; good luck!

It is ironic indeed that Hester appears to have everything she could ever want in life yet still remains deeply unsatisfied with her lot. No matter how much money Paul wins for her, it's never enough. As the old saying goes you never know what you have until you lose it. And thanks to Hester's insatiable greed and desire for social status she loses what should be the most precious thing in the world to her: her son.

For it's only because of Hester's deep and unaccountable dissatisfaction with life that Paul ends up dying so tragically young. In a classic goose/golden egg scenario, Hester has inadvertently ensured that the steady supply of money that was coming into the house will now dry up completely, leaving her even more dissatisfied than before. With her son now dead, she will find out—probably for the first time in her pampered life—what it's really like not to have enough money.

Hester always intended that Paul's rocking horse rides would bring her wealth and enhanced social status. And for a time, they did. But now, thanks to her insufferable greed and selfishness, they're going to have the exact opposite effect. And if that isn't ironic, then nothing is.

The central irony found in D.H. Lawrence's classic short story "The Rocking-Horse Winner" concerns the fact that Paul's success has the complete opposite effect on his mother, and he is dedicated to obtaining the unattainable. Paul's mother is depicted as a cold, insensitive woman who does not love her children and is only concerned with her social status. She is extremely materialistic and is always in need of money. Paul desperately desires to earn his mother's love and affection and believes that the money he has won from betting will make his mother happy. Ironically, Paul's success and winnings have the opposite effect on his mother, who only wants more money even after she receives five thousand dollars. Tragically, Paul feverishly rides himself to death attempting to win more money to earn his mother's love and affection. Ironically, Paul dies attempting to gain the unattainable. Uncle Oscar's comment at the end of the story emphasizes the irony regarding Paul's death and his sister's situation when he tells her,

"My God, Hester, you’re eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner." (Lawrence, 5)

To my mind, at least, the central irony that creates the conflict that runs through the whole story is introduced to us in the first paragraph when we meet Paul's mother. Note how the text presents her:

She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them... Everybody else said of her: "She is such a good mother. She adores her children." Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other's eyes.

The irony of this passage is that the mother appears to love her children, and gives every visible proof of her affections through her actions, but this cannot prevent the reality of her heart "turning hard" whenever she is with them. It is this lack of love that drives Paul to go to such supernatural lengths to gain money to make his mother happy, and therefore gain her genuine affection. Note how this irony is referred to again at the end of the story by Uncle Oscar, her brother:

"My God, Hester, you're eight-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner."

Note the criticism that is implicit in this remark. Paul is "best gone" from a life where he is forced to go to such lengths to make his mother notice him. Although Hester has what she wanted, she has only gained it through losing her son.

When we think about characters, we often use E. M. Forster's distinction between "round" and "flat" characters. Flat characters are characters that have one or two characteristics alone and are never fully developed or shown to be more than two dimensional paper dolls. They do not grow, mature or develop during the story. Round characters, on the other hand, are characters that are fully painted - we know their motives, what they think, and in addition, they are normally characters that learn and develop throughout the course of the tale.

In "The Rocking-Horse Winner", then, it is clear that out of the three main characters, Paul, the mother and Uncle Oscar, Paul is clearly a round character. We are given some indication of his psychological complexity in his dealings with his mother. It is clear that he is aware of the subtext of what is happening in his house and embarks on a quest for "luck" to gain his mother's affections:

Absorbed, taking no heed of other people, he went about with a sort of stealth, seeking inwardly for luck. He wanted luck, he wanted it, he wanted it.

The lengths to which he is prepared to go shows that he is a round character.

On the other hand, it appears that both the mother and Uncle Oscar are flat characters, in that they do not change and they have but one or two defining characteristics. The mother seems to be defined by her greed and also her inability to love her children:

She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them.

This is something that continues throughout the story and could be said to lead to Paul's death as he is driven to ever greater lengths to win her affection. Uncle Oscar likewise appears as an avuncular figure, acting as the go between for Paul and supporting him.

Therefore, Paul is the round character in this story, and the others are flat characters because they do not show any form of development and are not necessarily made into three-dimensional characters.

Rather than “greed,” I would say the theme of Lawrence’s story was “luck,” or rather, the lack of it. This is the mother’s problem: despite her seeming affluence, she is “unlucky”—there is a “hard little place” at the center of her heart that keeps her from feeling love for her children—a secret only she and her children know.

The rest of the story can be read as an attempt to explain what “luck” might be. It’s clear as the story progresses that genuine parental love, and the idea of a nurturing home life, have been replaced by a house that constantly whispers “there must be more money.” The rocking horse is not a plaything but a way of “being sure”—a tool of Paul’s “trade” of being lucky. Although the mother tells Paul that being lucky is better than being rich, by the end of the story the eighty thousand pounds Paul makes at the Derby is not enough to get around the hard place in his Mother’s heart. She has, unwittingly, traded her son for a lot of money. As her brother says to her at the end of the story, “’My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner.’” The implication is that it is only in death that Paul is truly lucky.

Greed is a major theme of this story.  Paul is a selfless boy wanting to help his family.  His mother is a greedy and selfish woman, wanting not to make the family comfortable, but to buy pretty things.  Her greed causes her to lie and sneak, hiding what should be shared from her husband and the rest of the family.  Lawrence not only demonstrates the negative effects of her greed - Paul's death and the conflict within the family - but he also demonstrates the effect of greed on itself.  Greed increases unto itself.  For a greedy person, the more they get, the more the want.  The are never satisfied, as is clearly true of the mother in this story.  She could have $1000 a year to make her comfortable, but she demands all the money at once - which of course leads her to spend it all at once.  Ultimately, her greed destroys Paul and, ironically, the chance the family had to become undeniably wealthy.

Themes of pride, dissatisfaction, and greed are all clearly developed in Hester, Paul's mother. She is also a terribly selfish woman, totally incapable of loving anyone, including her son. Her heart is cold. Even when Paul dies, his mother does not feel grief or loss. We have reason to believe she will continue spending, and wasting, whatever money she gets. There will never be enough money for her.

A second theme involves sacrifice. Paul loves his mother and knows how miserable she is because they are poor. He determines to get money for the household, to be "lucky" as his father had not been. When Paul discovers he can pick the winners in horse races, he becomes obsessed with winning more and more money for his mother, but it is never enough. He works harder and harder, growing frail and weak, until he dies. He sacrifices himself for his mother's happiness, a gift she surely does not deserve and one he surely had no responsibility to give her.

Another theme develops from Paul's need for love and recognition. He is a child who is neglected and emotionally abused. His mother never listens to him; he plays no role of importance in her life. He dies trying to please her. Perhaps then she would love him.

The great irony of the story is that no matter how much money the mother has, it's never enough. The boy thinks if he can just work (rock his horse longer and harder) harder or get "luckier" in winning prize money (seeing the winner of a horse race by rocking on his horse), he will finally earn the money his mother needs to be satisfied. But there is no real "need" here. The mother already lives a comfortable life. The irony and tragedy of the story is that no matter what the boy wins, it will never be enough for his mother. What the boy can't see is that the money is a way for the mother to fill an empty space inside. It is a form of addiction, and as with any addiction, the more one gets of one's drug of choice, the more one craves it. 

Another great irony is that the mother finally has the money she perceives to desperately need, yet continues to be unfulfilled because she doesn't have luck in any sense of the word; she has no idea how to continue to generate money, and she has lost her young son because of her greed, indifference, and selfishness.  Earlier in the story, she says that luck is more important than money.  Therefore, even the loss of her son doesn't bring what is most important to her.

In addition to tthakker's excellent answer, the overarching irony is of course the child's death.  What was supposed to have been lucky turns out to be tragedy for all involved.  

A main theme of this story is that no amount of money can fill the void that is left when a person can't love. Paul's mother is incapable of loving her children or her husband. This lack is felt in the house as a lack of money—even the walls of the home seem to be crying out for more. What the house really needs is more love.

Wanting to earn his mother's love, Paul strives to get as much money as he possibly can for her. He does this by riding his rocking horse ferociously until he can predict the winner in an upcoming horse race. By having his uncle bet on the horse, Paul can put money into his mother's hands. Nevertheless, it is never enough. This leads to a second theme of the story: money can't buy love. Paul is too young to realize this, but it is nevertheless true that no matter how long or how furiously he rides his rocking horse, he will never earn his mother's love.

This, in turn, leads to a third theme: children are the innocent sacrifices in a household lacking in love. It is Paul who gets sick and dies in the story, not his mother.

There are several themes in this story.  Some of them are discussed in the link I am posting below.

Probably the most obvious theme deals with greed and generosity.  Paul's Mother has insatiable greed, and no matter how much Paul gives her, she is never happy.  She squanders the money Paul provides and wants MORE MORE MORE. In the end, Paul dies trying to win more money for his mother.

This desire to please his mother and win her love points to a second theme.  One might argue for a Freudian interpretation with Paul displaying an Oedipal complex. Paul is definitely in competition with his father as bread winner for the family, and he certainly wants to gain his mother's love and approval.  Unfortunately, he never does.

Other themes include responsibility or lack thereof and the vain pursuit of love.