Rocking Horse Winner

D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a classic modernistic story about a family filled with inner conflicts all portrayed through the innocence of a young child. Tortured by a house that whispers to him, Paul tries to gain his mothers missing affection by presenting that he posses luck which gives him money. He presents this luck by picking the name of a winning horse while riding his rocking horse. The whispers which state "there must be more money” disturbs Paul and he believes it exists because his family does not have enough money. Paul drives himself to a state of insanity and perishes because of this. This story is written in a radiant way which displays several ironic situations and statements. Here are four examples of different ways irony is present in the emblematic short story, "The Rocking-Horse Winner".

One example of irony present in the story is at the end of the story on pg.90, when Paul is suffering and is in his last phase before death. Paul says to his mother “I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I’m absolutely sure-oh, absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky.” And his mother replies “No, you never did.” This is ironic because Paul had mentioned to his mother that he was lucky on more than one occasion and it goes to show that his mother did not show affection for her son and listen to the things he had to say. Paul mentioned being lucky to his mother on pg.78 stating “I’m a lucky person” and the story states that his mother paid no attention to his assertion.

Evident throughout the story, Paul confuses luck with money. He believes in order to obtain money, one must posses luck. This brings forth the next example of irony present which is shown on pg.77. In a dialogue with his mother, Paul asks “Is luck money, mother?”, and his mother replies “No, Paul. Not quite. It’s what causes you to have money.” Paul then responds “Oh! I thought when Uncle Oscar said filthy lucker it meant money.” This is ironic because Paul interprets filthy lucre as filthy lucker which he believes