What does the rocking-horse symbolize in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

The rocking horse can be said to symbolize childhood, for one thing. Nobody but a small child could ride a rocking horse without breaking it. It can also be said to symbolize an interest in horses and horse-racing. It certainly symbolizes or represents Paul's anxiety. Rocking back and forth is a common symptom of anxiety in children. The rocking can symbolize Paul's need for his mother's love. It can symbolize his feeling of helplessness. After all, he is only a little boy. How can he do anything practical to please his mother? He knows she wants money. How can a little boy earn any significant amount of money? He is not riding the rocking horse to learn the name of a winning horse but really to try to find out why his mother doesn't love him and what he might do to win her affection. That is the destination he is trying to get to. The rocking horse can be said to symbolize a futile attempt to solve an unsolvable problem. The rocking never gets the horse anywhere; it remains in the same place, like the boy riding it. The rocking horse might really be magical!!! Maybe Paul really did pick winners by riding it. A rocking horse is no more improbable as a magical object than a magic lamp or a monkey's paw. As mature people, we know that you can't win money consistently by riding a rocking horse; but as readers, we really believe that the rocking horse is a magical object and that Paul is going to keep winning money as long as he keeps rocking. We believe--because we want to believe.

 The rocking-horse symbolizes several closely linked themes in this story. First, it symbolizes how far the economic fears of the family reach. A children's play area should be free of such fears, but they reach even into the place where the horse is. Second, it shows how ambition does not ever stop. Like the rocking-horse, every forward rock/step/motion is matched by a backward one. Think of how the house is haunted: " There must be more money! There must be more money!" Third, it shows the undercurrent of sexual tension in the desire.

The title is ironic. Paul can determine which horse will win an upcoming race by riding his rocking horse, so in that sense he is a winner. He wins an enormous amount of money for his mother by furiously riding the wooden horse until it becomes clear to him which real horse to lay a bet on.

However, he is not really a winner at all, because the obsessive riding kills him. Further, although he is too young to understand this, no amount of money could ever win him what he really desires, which is his mother's love. She is empty inside, incapable of loving. He believes, in his young way, that enough money will fill her up, but, in fact, the more she gets, the more she wants. So while Paul wins bets, in the end, nobody in this story really is a winner.

If you think about a rocking-horse that a child rides on, think about what result is accomplished.  A rocking horse is only a mimic of the real thing; no real riding is done.  No matter how hard you ride on it, it will never get you anywhere; it is just wasted effort, expended on a fruitless endeavor that yields no results.  In Paul's case, unfortunately, it yielded negative results--his fixation, his attempts to use the horse to fix his family's life, and gain his mother's affection, killed him.

Think about all of this in comparison to one of the main themes of the story, which is greed's futility.  Lawrence uses the rocking horse as a metaphor to point out how striving for material possessions, and being completely fixated on greed, is a fruitless endeavor that only harms those who chase it.  Trying to create happiness out of money doesn't work, just like riding a rocking-horse doesn't produce the real experience.  It's a harmful waste of time, a delusional undertaking, bound to fail.  The rocking-horse is a metaphor for people's assumption that wealth will solve problems and fix lives.  It won't, just as riding a rocking horse won't help you go get anywyere--it just gives you the feeling of motion without being real.  Attaining wealth might give you the feeling of trying to achieve happiness, but it won't work.

I hope all of that made sense and helped a bit; good luck!

I would definitely want to argue that it is. Throughout this excellent short story it is the rocking horse that gives Paul his supernatural ability to predict the next big winner, and, arguably, it is the rocking horse that takes his life as he rocks ever more frantically on the horse to gain this knowledge. Note how the mother views her son on his horse for the last time:

Then suddenly she switched on the light, and saw her son, in his green pajamas, madly surging on the rocking horse. The blaze of light suddenly lit him up, as he urged the wooden horse...

He screams out "in a powerful, strange voice" and his eyes "blaze" with the effect of the horse. It is clear that the horse does symbolise some sort of power external to Paul and his mother, yet we are never given a precise indication as to what. We can, however, come up with a list of various possibilities. We could say that the horse represents Paul's desire for his mother's love, an instrument of supernatural forces, temptation or greed. Any of these possibilities could be argued from the text.

Symbolism is simply when an author uses a "word, place, character, or object" to mean something above and beyond the literal meaning (Dr. Wheeler, "Literary Terms and Definitions: S"). One example could be seen in the phrase "new dawn." Dawn literally refers to the start of a new day, but used symbolically, a new dawn can also refer to a fresh new start at life (Literary Devices, "Symbol"). Flowers are also frequently used with respect to symbolic meaning. Historically, a red rose was the symbol of Venus, goddess of love, so even today a red rose is understood to symbolize passion, love, and romance.

To find symbolism, you first want to get a thorough understanding of the piece you are analyzing and its themes. D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a tragic tale about a materialistic mother who can only obsessively think about her need for money and feels no natural love for her children. As a result, her son Paul devises a means to find luck to bring her money in the hopes that it will earn her love. However, sadly, the end result is to make her only more desperate for more money, desperate to the point that her son overworks himself and dies. Hence, some themes found in the story are materialism, luck, lack of love, overwork, labor, and obsession. Therefore, in order to pick out symbolism, you'll be looking for words, characters, and objects that help represent these themes.

Two of the most obvious examples are the word money and the house itself. The word money is found all throughout the story, but is it only representing money? Or is it representing the materialism, obsessiveness, and lack of ideals and values that can be attributed to money? Since it's pretty obvious through the story that the mother values nothing more than money, money is representing more than money itself; it is rather representing the themes of the story. The same can be said of their house. Their house is described as being pleasant "with a garden" and as containing "discreet servants." Hence, despite the obsession for more money, the family is actually quite comfortable. Yet the house becomes haunted with the mantra, "There must be more money! There must be more money!" Therefore, does the word house simply refer to a house? Or does it symbolize the fact that house truly isn't a home as it should be and rather echoes the mother's obsessive materialism. Hence, it can be said that even the house itself is symbolizing the story's themes, such as lack of love, materialism, and obsession.

Why is money so important in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

Money is only important in the story because Paul's parents make it a priority, and establish it as the most important thing.  We learn immediately that his mother is a bit fixated on money, and on maintaining a certain lifestyle.  The parents like to live well, to keep up appearances, and money is needed for all of that.  The first related conversation with her son, Paul, is about money, and about how she longs for more of it.  She equates it to luck, and says that his father does not have luck.  Paul, sensing her unhappiness, and desiring to feel love from her in any form, is able to recogonize even at that young age that his mother loves money most in her life.  So, he sets out to get her money.

So, it is only because the characters themselves value money so much that money is important in the story.  The author is using the unfortunate and tragic story as a warning to all, trying to make the point that money really isn't important at all; the love of money will only lead to sadness and loss.  Greed is a hungry monster that is never fed; it only takes and takes until nothing is left.  That is the point that Lawrence makes in this story, and he used characters that exemplify greed and the bottomless pit of money-hunger well.  That love of money is symbolized in the personification of the house whispering, "There must be more money!" which haunts everyone there, driving Paul further and further into his obsession.  Lawrence makes greed a living, breathing, ominou presence in the house, which it truly is if you think about it.

I hope that those thought helped; good luck!

Discuss the role of luck in D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner".

D. H. Lawrence's story "The Rocking Horse Winner" might be compared with "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs. Both stories have an uncanny quality insofar as Paul and Mr. White both seem to be having their wishes granted by some supernatural source. In both stories, however, it is apparent that what is happening could be only coincidental. As far as Paul is concerned, every gambler has experienced what are commonly called "lucky streaks." These streaks of luck feel uncanny to the gambler. It is as if some magical power is at work in his behalf. It can be exhilarating and hypnotic. But these lucky streaks inevitably come to an end and often turn into just their opposites, which are called "losing streaks." A realistic view of D. H. Lawrence's story would have to be that Paul just happens to have a lucky streak. He is "on a roll," as athletes say. There cannot be a serious connection between riding a rocking horse and guessing the name of the winning horse in a particular race. But horse players, like all gamblers, can have lucky streaks during which they can hardly seem to go wrong. Paul does mention that he only wins when he feels absolutely sure of the name of the winning horse. This suggests that he is not winning on every single bet he places. When one of his horses fails to come in first, he can attribute that to the fact that he was not "absolutely sure" when he guessed the name. This is not emphasized in the story. What is important is that Paul is winning on most of his bets.

What happens to Mr. and Mrs. White in "The Monkey's Paw" could have been sheer coincidence too. In that story the mysterious mummified paw is only supposed to grant three wishes, so the element of coincidence could be much greater than in "The Rocking Horse Winner," where Paul seems to be picking dozens of winners. The Whites' son Herbert might have gotten mangled in the machinery because he stayed up later than usual the night before talking to their very interesting guest. If he stayed up later than usual, he probably drank more whisky than usual too. So he could have gotten to the factory tired and hungover, leading to carelessness and slower reflexes, and causing him to get mangled by the unsafe machine he was operating. The fact that his company paid Mr. White the exact sum he had wished for could have been a simple coincidence. The knocking at the door seems dreadful because the reader has been led to believe that the monkey's paw has granted the first wish and must now be granting the second one. But it takes the old couple a long time to answer the door. It could have been a motorist knocking at the door, wanting to ask directions or to use the telephone, and having driven off to try elsewhere while Mr. White was wishing for the knocker to go away.

What is most striking about "The Rocking Horse Winner" is the desperate way in which Paul rides his wooden horse. His rocking does not really inspire him to pick winners but is a symptom of his anxiety. This sort of behavior is often to be observed in emotionally disturbed children. The unhappy boy wants his mother to love him, and he knows intuitively that she doesn't love him. He tries in the only way he can think of to win her love. It is ironic that as he is dying he tells her he is lucky. The mother, like Mr. White in "The Monkey's Paw," has gotten her wish for money, but at a terrible cost. She failed to realize that the love her son could have given her, and was trying so hard to give her, was infinitely more valuable than the money she received.

The moral of "The Rocking Horse Winner" might be said to be the Biblical quotation repeated by the Pardoner in his story in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales: "Radix malorum est cupiditas." "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).

What's the symbolic significance of Paul's rocking horse and the phrase "there must be more money" in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

There are several different answers that could be considered when thinking of what it means that Paul continues to ride the rocking horse.  He begins to spend a great deal more time on it as the stakes get higher and higher.  It reaches the point where he has to return to his boyhood home and ride for hours and hours to determine the winner of the derby and in the end, it kills him.

Because of the fact that the horse is not mobile, and that in some ways it demands more and more of Paul until it takes away his life, it is perhaps a symbol for the emptiness of the incredible quest for money that seems to drive so much of our society and determine so many people's perceptions of whether they are happy or not.  The horse never takes him anywhere and he has to constantly appease it in order to have this odd talent, so Lawrence could be suggesting the futility of that quest.

It could also simply be the manifestation of the mother's lack of an ability to love and the way the boy is trying so hard to make his mother happy.  She hasn't provided him the kind of environment or opportunity to progress or grow past this childhood rocking horse so it serves as a physical manifestation of this lack of love or nurturing.

How are the names in The Rocking Horse Winner symbolic?

Sometimes an author might use the device of allusion by naming a character that recalls another character in literature. Such is the case with Hester, Paul’s mother, who calls to mind the Hester in Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.  Hester is a woman who breaks the sexual rules of her puritan society and suffers the consequence. She desperately loves her child, however, which is ironic in terms of the lack of love Paul’s mother shows for him.  As for Paul, his name resonates with the Paul of the New Testament, who experiences a conversion to Jesus and changes his life accordingly.  According to the New Testament, Jesus appeared to Paul—revealed himself to him.  Paul in Lawrence’s story also has revelations, but again in an ironic way, for the revelations this Paul receives are about race horses and money. As for other symbols, the dominant symbol is the rocking horse itself, which many critics understand in terms of the child's desperate attempt to please his mother.  They see the horse as representing a sexual desire for the mother, which seems horrifying, but pertains to Freud's theories concerning a young boy's desire for his mother that he learns to sublimate because of the presence of a strong father. Paul lacks this father, and so acts out his desire in the child-like but very dangerous way.

In "The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence, how does Paul attempt to find luck?

Hester is materialistic. She and her husband do not make enough money to suit the social position they like to live in. There is a constant feeling of anxiety in the house and it is based upon a need (or greed) for more money. Much of this anxiety is perpetuated by Hester. The family is haunted by this notion of needing more money. They even hallucinate and hear the phrase "There must be more money!" 

In a conversation with Hester, Paul asks her why they don't have their own car. Hester says it is because they are poor. She adds that they are poor because her husband has no luck. She tells him that luck brings one money. "It's what causes you to have money. If you're lucky you have money." 

Determined to find luck, Paul goes to ride his rocking-horse. 

And he would slash the horse on the neck with the little whip he had asked Uncle Oscar for. He knew the horse could take him to where there was luck, if only he forced it. So he would mount again and start on his furious ride, hoping at last to get there. 

Somehow, riding the rocking-horse allows Paul to come up with winners of upcoming horse races. Thus, he rides to find luck and this leads to money. With Bassett and Uncle Oscar, Paul bets on the races and wins more and more money. He has the money given to his mother anonymously. The problem is that his mother is insatiable. The more money she receives, the more she wants. 

What is the symbolism of the voices and the rocking horse in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

One of the major themes in this story is that of greed and materialism, and how these two traits only lead to emptiness and despair.  The quest for money as a way to be happy is an empty, vain pursuit that will never work.  The voices are symbolic of this theme.  Note how they start whispering early on in the story, as we learn of the family's financial difficulties, and of the mother's constant desire to live a wealthy lifestyle.  Her key conversation with her son reveals her disgruntlement that her husband is not longer "lucky," which she defines as "what causes you to have money."  Paul, realizing his mother does not love him, decides he will be lucky, as a sad attempt to win her affection.

The voices whisper constantly, even when there IS money, even when Paul wins quite a bit and gives it to his mother.  One would think that the voices, having money, would stop, but even after he wins large amounts, Lawrence writes,

"And yet the voices in the house...simply trilled and screamed in a sort of ecstasy: 'There must be more money ! Oh-h-h; there must be more money.  Oh, now, now-w ! Now-w-w --- there must be more money ! --- more than ever ! More than ever !'"

This symbolizes greed, which, no matter how much money you have, it is never enough.  And, how money will never be a replacement for love, happiness, and fulfillment, but instead will drain your entire life away and leave you empty at the end.  The voices throughout the story, how they never stop whispering and screaming, represent that constant demand that money and materialism puts on a person, and how it will never be satisfied.  I hope those thoughts helped; good luck!

What role does "luck" play in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

Luck is, according to Paul's mother, is "what causes you to have money."  She says, "If you're lucky, you will always get more money."  So, this issue of luck becomes a fascination for Paul. He hears the house whispering, "There must be more money!" and thinks if he can just get it, the whispering will go away, and his mother will be happy and love him.  Even on his deathbed, his last words to his mother are "I am lucky!" 

It is an unfortunate, tragic tale of the dangers of seeking after materialism as a substitute for love and happiness, and in this story, luck was the name that materialism bore.

What do the characters' names signify in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

Paul could be an allusion to the Paul found in the New Testament. Originally named Saul, he received a vision from God and was then blinded for three days. This vision led him to a new truth, and his life's focus took on an entirely new meaning. The Paul in this short story also receives visions while on his rocking horse, and this changes the focus of his life. He now lives to acquire money in an attempt to make his mother happy. Ultimately, he sacrifices his own life to do so. After much suffering, the Biblical Paul also died as a martyr.

Hester is Paul's mother. The name is only revealed at the very end of the story. Her name could be a nod to another famous literary Hester found in The Scarlet Letter: Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne is ostracized from her society, struggling to find friendship or acceptance because of a child conceived outside marriage. Paul's mother feels that she struggles to find acceptance in her society. She is always longing for more money to make better social connections, but never quite reaches her goal. Paul's mother isn't nearly as noble as the Hester found in The Scarlet Letter, and this contrast demonstrates the shallowness of Paul's mother.

The name Bassett conjures associations with a basset hound—a loyal, friendly, and devoted breed. Bassett serves this role to young Paul, encouraging him in the most loving ways. However, Bassett doesn't act like a rational adult in this story; he fairly blindly follows the whims of a child, making him seem more like "man's best friend" rather than a source of adult protection.

What are the characteristics of the voices in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

The voices referred to in the story are an expression of Hester's greed. Once Paul's mother has received the princely sum of £5,000, those voices start reverberating throughout the house, sounding for all the world like hundreds of frogs on a spring night.

Now that she has lots of money, Hester starts going mad, spending money like there's no tomorrow. She buys flowers in winter and new furnishings; she hires a private tutor for Paul and even puts his name down for Eton—the same elite, fee-paying institution that his father attended.

But the voices aren't satisfied; they want more, much more. They scream and seem to shake the house as they do so, demanding more money, more than ever. It's no wonder that Paul's frightened by all of this. He seems to realize that, no matter how much money he wins, it will never be enough to satisfy his mother; and like many male characters in the works of D. H. Lawrence, Paul desperately wants to satisfy his mother.

So when Paul begins losing money over the summer, he gets into quite a bit of a funk about it. He starts acting strangely, as if something is about to explode inside him. Poor old Paul's like a pressure cooker as he becomes ever more worried about satisfying the insatiable demands of the voices that continue to ring throughout the house.

What does each character in "The Rocking-Horse Winner" desire?

All of the characters of “The Rocking-Horse Winner” want something. First of all, there's Hester. Simply put, she wants money, and lots of it. Sick of living in reduced circumstances, she wants as much money as possible in order to keep up appearances. A lack of money has made her deeply unhappy with her marriage to a man who doesn't earn anywhere near as much money as Hester would like.

But even when her son Paul starts making lots of money thanks to his weird gift for picking winning horses, Hester remains unsatisfied. No matter how many bets Paul wins and no matter how much money he brings into the house, it's never enough for his materialistic mother. She always wants more, more, more.

Hester's brother, Paul's Uncle Oscar, is cut from the same cloth. He wants to make as much money out of Paul as possible. As his insensitive response to Paul's tragic death amply illustrates, Oscar sees his young nephew as nothing more than a source of ready cash.

Bassett the gardener is a much more sympathetic character than Paul's avaricious relatives. He wants Paul to be happy and loves to see him deriving pleasure from picking winners. Observe how overjoyed he is when Paul picks the winner in The Derby, England's most prestigious flat-racing event.

Finally, there's Paul himself. He wants two things out of life. First of all, he wants to prove to his mother that, unlike how she perceives herself, he's very lucky. And secondly, he wants to do everything he can to please her. Sadly, Paul is too young and too naive to know that Hester will never be satisfied, no matter how much money he wins on the horses. That's why he's always so eager to get back on that rocking-horse and ride as if his life depended on it.

What symbolic ideas are connected to money and love in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"?

Love is introduced in the first paragraph of the story as what the mother lacks. She is incapable, we are told, of loving her children or anyone else.

Money is introduced in the second paragraph as something there is not enough of in the family. The family is not without money: they live in a "pleasant" house with servants and they keep up a certain "style" of life that makes them feel superior to their neighbors, but the mother wants more.

In the story, love and money are linked. The incessant hunger for money—expressed by even the walls of the house seeming to say that there needs to be more money—becomes the way the mother tries to fill the empty space inside of her where love should be. Money becomes the substitute for love, but there is no amount of money that can compensate for a lack of love.

Paul feels the lack of maternal love and also internalizes his mother's need for more money. He believes that if he can get his mother the money she craves, he will, in return, earn the love he craves from her. When he finds out he can predict the winners of horse races by riding his rocking horse, he arranges to have his substantial winnings transferred to her, but they are not enough.

The incessant striving for love and money are symbolized in Paul's increasingly intense rocking on the rocking horse. What the boy is too young to realize is that no amount of money will ever fill his mother's empty spaces or earn her love. Love satisfies; money merely creates a dissatisfied thirst for more.