The Rocking-Horse Winner: Quotes by Theme

Only she herself knew that at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody. Everybody else said of her: ‘She is such a good mother. She adores her children.’ Only she herself, and her children themselves, knew it was not so. They read it in each other's eyes.

In the beginning of the story, readers learn that Paul’s mother tries hard to make it appear that she loves her children, but they clearly sense the truth. While Paul’s mother convinces people outside the home that she has a happy family, she is unsuccessful at convincing the children themselves. This shows that Paul’s mother puts more effort into the appearance of love in her family than fostering actual love among them. Lawrence sets the tone for his macabre story by describing a household devoid of love, where only monetary gain could possibly ease the family’s suffering. In the end, however, money is hardly the balm Paul’s mother expects it to be.

And, in spite of himself, Oscar Cresswell spoke to Bassett, and himself put a thousand on Malabar: at fourteen to one.

Near the end of the story, Uncle Oscar shows his true colors by placing money on the boy’s feverish prediction for the winner of the Derby. The uncle, who was one of the few adult characters who spent time speaking with Paul, reveals a rotten, greedy character by doing so. Even now, when he could intervene on behalf of the sick boy and explain what's happening to his sister, he instead chooses to try to win more money off Paul’s delirious proclamation. His love of material things, just like his sister’s, is greater than love for his family.

Flawed Mother-Son Relationships

And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud. They heard it at Christmas, when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery. Behind the shining modern rocking-horse, behind the smart doll's house, a voice would start whispering: ‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’

The children hear whispers behind every gift and extravagance their mother purchases as a result of her apparently bottomless greed. Paul’s mother’s fears about money are the backdrop of the children's lives, so Paul’s obsession with his racetrack winnings can be seen as the consequences. The expensive gifts she buys her children don't convince them of her love but rather only serve as symbols of her unhappiness, and drivers of Paul’s unhealthy behavior as he madly rides his rocking-horse.

Then he fell with a crash to the ground, and she, all her tormented motherhood flooding upon her, rushed to gather him up.

When Paul’s mother sees her son fall from his rocking-horse, the motherly love she hasn't felt before comes “flooding upon her” all at once. Something about seeing her son in such a state seems to shake her out of her singular focus on wealth, even though it’s too late to save her son’s life. Lawrence here seems to hint that love can sometimes surface even in the most hard-hearted of people given the right circumstances. Paul’s mother’s sudden capacity for love, however, is too little, too late.

The Link Between Unhappiness and Ingratitude

‘Mother,’ said the boy Paul one day, ‘why don't we keep a car of our own? Why do we always use uncle's, or else a taxi?’”

‘Because we're the poor members of the family,’ said the mother.

‘But why are we, mother?’

‘Well - I suppose,’ she said slowly and bitterly, ‘it's because your father has no luck.’

This dialogue between Paul and his mother follows a clear description of the bountiful life Paul’s mother received through her family and marriage. The bitterness in her voice reveals the fact that she is ungrateful for the wealth and implied fortune she does possess, wishing only for those contrivances she has not yet acquired. Though Paul’s mother is directly described as well-off, she tells Paul they are “the poor members” of her family, showcasing her ingratitude for the things she possesses and the people she has in her life.

So Uncle Oscar signed the agreement, and Paul's mother touched the whole five thousand. Then something very curious happened. The voices in the house suddenly went mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening. There were certain new furnishings, and Paul had a tutor.

Paul’s mother’s reaction to the 5,000 pounds Paul secretly gives her displays her inherent greed and ungratefulness as her materialistic desires amplify. Access to the money, meant to address her mounting debts, only redoubles her spending and metaphorically multiplies the voices demanding “more money.” This in turn pushes Paul into the frenzy that results in his sickness and death.

‘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!’

‘No, you never did,’ said his mother.

But the boy died in the night.

Paul’s last words signify a generous and vital personality, in direct contrast to his mother’s ambivalence and greed. He has, in essence, died for his mother’s approval, but this sacrifice goes nearly unnoticed by his mother. At the start of the story, Paul made a similar decree that he was, in fact, lucky, and his mother did not take the boy seriously. Here, at his death, she is similarly ambivalent, noting only that he never told her, a negation of what we know to be true from the story’s very beginning.

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