Assignment for 9/30 - Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence begins “The Rocking-Horse Winner” as if it is a fairy tale. The first half of the first paragraph is only concerned with the life of one woman.

To start: “There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck.” The possibilities are endless, following this sentence’s modifying clauses, which bring the reader down much as the woman must have been brought down. The sentence relives the experience.

Then, shorter: “She married for love, and the love turned to dust.” A compound sentence that brings to mind death, (“to dust we all return,” after all) and the disappointment of knowing that though love has ceased, the marriage remains, and will remain until the participants are dust as well. The upside-down fairy-tale continues, with love that dies and a marriage at the beginning of the story.

A longer sentence: “She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them.” Another series of three, building on the clauses from the previous sentence. The rhyming and similar rhythms of, “and the love turned to dust,” and, “she felt they had been thrust,” hits the ear like a nursery rhyme done badly.

Back to shorter: “They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her.” The narrator has now opened the narrative to include the actions of others, but the thoughts and experiences are still hers.

The fewest modifying clauses yet: “And hurriedly she felt she must cover up some fault in herself.” More of her experiences, now made internal. The repetition of “fault” indicates that the problem is uncertain, but she thinks that they are right, that a flaw does exist, and that by hiding it from them, she will hide it from herself.

And again: “Yet what it was that she must cover up she never knew.” Where Lawrence might use commas to break sentences into smaller pieces, he instead leaves the the sense of urgency that the lack of commas imply. In this case it highlights her uncertainty and self-doubt.

The sentence grows again: “Nevertheless, when her children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart grow hard.” The fairy tale beginning of this sentence also leaves the reader lulled, soothed to what comes next. This woman seems to know where the center of her heart is because of its relationship to her children, and its hardness.

The narrator uses the beginning of the paragraph to create a fairy tale space in which this woman exists within her world without being, “wife” or, “mother.” She is an independent operator for a few sentences, and that provides a narrative viewpoint of substantial complexity.