"Poor Devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner(Lawrence 803)." D. H. Lawrence ends The Rocking - Horse Winner, with such a profound statement. One has to ask the question, why such a profound statement? This story is about an unlucky family that substitutes their lust of money for love. The pressure for "more money"(793) is constant, intense and consumes the entire house. The children can feel the house calling out to them in a haunting way "There must be more money (793)." This pressure to acquire money is so great that eventually a mother's son loses his life, though, not before he makes his family rich. He achieves this wealth through gambling. Achieving wealth through gambling is risky, dangerous and costly.
The mother of this story is described as having a hard, resentful heart because she was raised wealthy and through circumstances beyond her control, she has lost some of her wealth. She believes the family does not have money because her husband has become unlucky. The family has moderate wealth, but she never feels satisfied that they have enough wealth, although they employ servants. The children have a nurse to tend to their needs. This shows the family has some wealth. However, this moderate amount is not sufficient.
Their son Paul could feel that he was not loved and tries desperately to gain her love. The one way he feels he can help his mother is to give her one thing she craves, and that is money. Paul secretly gambles with the gardener Bassett. His Uncle Oscar discovers this and is persuaded to join the partnership. Paul is uncanny in his predictions and the wealth starts to grow. Oscar and Paul set up a fund to pay his mother one thousand pounds on her birthday for five consecutive years. When she receives the news, she remains unsatisfied; thus, she lobbies for the entire five thousand pounds. ...