Horse Dealers Daughter

Title: “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”

By: D. H. Lawrence

Characters:

Joe: He is the oldest brother. He is broad and handsome in a hot, flushed way.

He had a black moustache and a red face. He had a sensual way of uncovering his teeth when he laughed. He felt he was down now. The horses were his life. They were almost like his own body. He felt his life was over now.

Fred Henry: This was Mabel’s other brother. He was master of any horse, and he carried himself with a well-tempered air of mastery. He was very demanding of Mabel. He tells Mabel to go stay with there sister Lucy.

Malcolm: He is the youngest of the family. He is younger than Mabel. He had a fresh, jaunty nose. He was only about twenty-two.

Mabel: Is the sister of the three brothers. She is very upset with life right now. She is quite plain. She has no where to go. Her family has lost there business. She falls for a man named Jack Ferguson. She visits her mother’s grave often. She feels this is where she needs to be. She had suffered badly during the period of poverty.

Jack: Is the young doctor of the town. He at first has no clue why he is feeling love for Mabel. He repeats several times he does not love her.

Summary:

This story is about a girl named Mabel who tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a pond. Her family has lost their business and she has no where to go. Her brother Fred Henry tells her to go visit Lucy. Mabel does not want to. She believes she should be with their mother. A young doctor, Jack Ferguson, saves her. She then believes that he loves her. Although this idea never occurred to Jack, he begins to find that he indeed loves her. However, Mabel thinks she is "too awful" to be loved, and finds that when Jack declares over and over that he wants her and that he loves her, she is more scared about that than of Jack not wanting her.

So does Jack really love Mabel? Somehow, he is convinced that he is. I don't think the idea of love or marriage ever occurred to him. When Mabel finds out that he saved her, she convinces herself that he loves her. "Do you love me, then?" she asks him. Then, more confidently, she says, "You love me. I know you love me, I know." The reason why I think she committed suicide is because she felt unloved at her home. Her father had recently died and her brothers were unkind to her. The father had left the family in debt, and the family will soon have to leave their house and move somewhere else. When asked which path she would pursue, she did not answer. I don't think she had anything planned. She probably didn't have a good education so there were few options for her. Perhaps she felt overwhelmed with the pressure to decide what to do, and decided to commit suicide. Thus, when Jack Ferguson saves her, her hope in life is renewed and she convinces herself that Jack loves her.

So why does Jack convince himself that he loves Mabel? Perhaps he has