Love and Lawrence

“The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D. H. Lawrence, tells the story of a young woman’s search for identity in a world devoid of comfort. After the untimely death of their father, the Pervin family’s horse-dealing business collapses and Mabel Pervin and her three brothers are forced to liquidate their remaining assets and move on with their lives. Challenged by fate, abandoned by her brothers, and uncertain as to what her future holds Mabel looks to suicide as a convenient means by which to end her suffering. Mabel’s attempt at ending her life does not go unnoticed however, and a young doctor by the name of Jack Fergusson quickly comes to the aid of the damsel in distress. Though Jack views the rescue as nothing more than the mere fulfillment of his Hippocratic Oath, Mabel realizes that she has been granted a second chance at manifesting her own destiny and quickly ensnares Jack in a web of emotional discontent.

Described as “alone, a rather short, sullen-looking young woman of twenty-seven” (891) who “would have been good looking save for the impressive fixity of her face” (891) the story’s protagonist Mabel Pervin is introduced as a somewhat rounded character. This assessment is quickly enhanced by Lawrence’s establishment of Mabel as a discontented, stereotypically depressed young woman who devoid of the luxuries of wealth has “suffered badly during the period of poverty” (895), and can only find solace in the caretaking of her deceased mother’s grave. As the story progresses, Lawrence continues to define Mabel’s miserable state of mind and eventually alludes to Mabel’s thoughts of suicide by observing that “mindless and persistent, she seemed in a sort of ecstasy to be coming nearer to her own fulfillment, her own glorification, approaching her dead mother, who was glorified” (895). The truly dynamic aspect of Mabel’s character however is not revealed until later in the text when her plunge into darkness is foiled by her would be prince charming. This pivotal event initializes a shift in Mabel’s psyche from desperation to invigoration as she strums the strings of the young man’s heart and quickly weaves her way into the tapestry of his life through manipulation and infatuation. Her keen ability to make the most this situation make it clear that the life Mabel has led for the past twenty-seven years has molded her into a determined and independent woman.

Jack Fergusson is also debuted as a young a man whose views of the “alien, ugly little town” (896) which represent his surroundings are not exactly indicative of a man at peace. Though Lawrence presents him as the kind of physically and emotionally rounded antagonist that finds solace in the “homes of the working people, moving as it were, through the innermost body of their life” (897), Jack still seems to long for companionship. As a friend of the Pervin brothers, Jack is frequently exposed to Mabel and expresses how she looks “at him with her steady, dangerous eyes, that always made him uncomfortable, unsettling his superficial ease” (894). Though he has little more than a doctor/patient relationship with Mabel, Jack is spurred into action when he sees the “small,