"The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence

“And aren’t you lucky either, Mother?”
“I can’t be, if I married an unlucky husband.” (711)

D.H. Lawrence’s short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a touching story about a boy named Paul, who wants to prove the fact that he is lucky to his mother. In the beginning of the story, we learn that the family spends more than what they can afford. Therefore, they are placed in debt. Paul hears whispers in his house which say that “there must be more money!” Since his father was not providing for the family with the adequate amount of money needed for the amount they were spending, Paul takes it upon himself to show his mother he can take his father’s place.
The above quote may be studied under Freud’s oedipal theory. Paul strived to replace his father in his mother’s life, but for good natured reasons. He was down to see his mother in such upsetting moods and he saw the unhappiness on her face. Although she comes off as a cold woman in the beginning of the story and the reader finds out that she really does not love her children, Paul gives up his well being and his life for his mother’s feeling of being lucky or well off. I also get the feeling that Paul’s mother did not love her husband much due to the fact that he was unlucky. Perhaps, Paul felt if he was able to achieve this dream of money and luckiness, then his mother would finally begin to love him. He did what he could to gain her acceptance and love. But sadly, no matter what he did, the mother only asked for more. She never asked Paul, himself, but when she was offered a thousand pounds for five years, she immediately went to her lawyer and asked for the full amount. In order to make his mother happy, Paul agreed to her need. His desire for her love was the most meaningful, as well as deadly part of his life. He drove himself sick trying to win his mother over. Nothing was good enough to put him in a special place in her heart. He died exclaiming and asking her if she knew he was lucky. He hoped that at last she would save him from the unreachable dream he so madly wanted to gain in his life before something bad happened. But the bad did happen and unfortunately, his money never truly got him the attention he wanted as he was the "son of the bad" and ungrateful.