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

 

The story begins with a description of Hester, the mother of the family (Paul's mother). She is referred to throughout the story as "mother and finally reveals her name." She is beautiful but unlucky. Though she married for love and has three healthy children, her marriage is unhappy because of her financial condition.

“Although they lived well, they were never totally happy in the house. There was never enough money. The mother had a small income, and the father had a small income, but not nearly enough for the social position which they had to keep up.”

The family lives in a pleasant house with a garden and servants. The house is filled with expensive modern toys, like a shining rocking horse. The house is always haunted by some hidden anxiety over a lack of money. Father can’t  constitute enough money to support their lifestyle. Paul's mother has tried various jobs to make more money but failed. The house becomes haunted with the whispered phrase, "There must be more money!"

One day Paul asks his mother why they don't keep a car like Uncle Oscar does. She explains that they are certainly poor because they have no luck. Father is very unlucky in business, and she is unlucky for having married him. But, Paul makes some counter arguments and declares that he is lucky.

Paul realizes the fact that his mother never admits him as he is lucky. Hence, his primary concern turned to prove as he has enough luck and fortune. While his sisters were playing quietly, Paul rides his rocking horse furiously. Paul whips the rocking horse and commands it to take him to the right direction.

Later, Paul's mother and Uncle Oscar come into his room when Paul is in the midst of his wild rides. Paul's mother is anxious but Uncle Oscar encourages him. When Paul finishes the ride, he tells his mother and Uncle Oscar that he got the right path. When Oscar asked about the name of his horse,  he replied that it has different names. Last week, for example, his horse was called Sansovino. Uncle Oscar knows that Sansovino was the name of the horse that won a major annual horse race called the Ascot. Uncle Oscar is a big fan of horse racing and pleased to learn that Paul too had a genuine interest on horse races.

Uncle Oscar decides to talk to Bassett, their young family gardener. Bassett admits that he and Paul discussed the matter regarding betting on horses. Uncle Oscar takes Paul for a drive in his car to learn more. After making Uncle Oscar promise not to tell, Paul reveals him that he and Bassett are partners in betting on horses. Paul gives Bassett money and tells him which horse to bet on. At first, Uncle Oscar thinks it's all a joke until Paul tells him how much money they are betting.

Uncle Oscar takes Paul to the next big horse race and places a bet for both of them on the horse of Paul's choice. The horse Paul chooses comes in first. Uncle Oscar still is doubtful about this mysterious act, but Paul offers to make him a partner.

Uncle Oscar takes Paul and Bassett to an afternoon horse race to talk. Bassett explains that about a year ago, they placed a bet on a horse and lost, but after that their luck turned. Paul says that as long as they're sure which horse to bet on, they win. Uncle Oscar is still not sure about it to believe them and asks to see the money. They drive home and Bassett shows him the cash. Uncle Oscar asks Paul how he knows which horse to bet on, and Paul gives a vague answer with a mysterious smile. Then, Uncle Oscar decides to become their partner.

As the next big horse race is approaching, Paul says he is sure that Lively Spark will win, even though that horse is not favored. The three place their bets, and Lively Spark comes in first. Paul wins £10,000 and Uncle Oscar wins £2,000. Uncle Oscar says this makes him nervous, and he asks Paul what he is going to do with all his money. Paul says he started this for his mother because she and father are unlucky.

Paul says he doesn't want his mother to know that he is lucky because she might try to stop him. So the two make a plan for Paul's mother to receive £5,000 from the family lawyer who will say it came from a relative and is to be paid out £1,000 at a time on her birthday for the next five years.

Paul's mother's birthday comes in November, and the house has been whispering more than ever. Paul's mother had been going into town to work as an artist but is dissatisfied by how little money she made. Paul is anxious to see his mother's reaction when she opens the birthday letter telling her about the money. When she opens the letter at breakfast, Paul's mother's face hardens. Later in the day, Uncle Oscar tells Paul that Paul's mother has asked the lawyer for getting the entire amount at once, and Paul decides she should have it.

Instead of paying off their debts, Paul's mother spends the money on expensive new furnishings and a tutor for Paul. As a result Paul hears the house go mad with screams for more money. In between studying Paul continues to bet on horses, but he isn't always sure of the winner and loses money. By summer Paul is wild-eyed with madness. Uncle Oscar tells him to stop all these playing with horses. Even Paul's mother is anxious about him and tells him she plans to send him to the seashore to rest. Paul tells her desperately that he can't possibly leave before the Derby race. Paul's mother is worried about his obsession with horse racing and tells him gambling has once done irrecoverable damage to her own family.

He tells her that nothing to worry about. Paul knows he has a secret in the house that he hasn't told anyone about, not even Bassett and Uncle Oscar. His secret is that when he rides his rocking horse, it sometimes reveals the name of the horse that will win the next big race.

 

As Derby race approaches, Paul grows more tense and his mother becomes anxious about him. Two nights before the Derby, she is at a big party in town and becomes overwhelmed with worry about Paul.

Paul's mother and father return from the party at about 2 a.m. Again caught with extreme anxiety, Paul's mother goes upstairs to check on Paul. She listens outside his door and hears a strange heavy noise that goes on and on. She can't identify the sound. She opens the door, switches on the light, and is frozen in fear and anxiety at the sight. Paul, in his green pajamas, is rocking wildly on his horse. When she cries out to him, he screams, "It's Malabar!" and then falls from the horse. Paul's mother rushes to hold him.

For three days Paul suffers from a brain fever and his mother stays by his side, heartbroken. Paul's mother asks everyone what Paul means by "Malabar." Uncle Oscar says it is the name of a horse running for the Derby, and then he speaks to Bassett and places a bet on Malabar.

On the evening of the third day, Paul dies. Bassett asks to speak to Paul. He whispers to Paul that Malabar won and Paul won over £80,000. Paul tells his mother about his rocking horse and how lucky he is. He dies that night. Uncle Oscar comforts his mother by telling him that she is now much richer.

 Question & Answers

 

 

 

What is Transcendentalism?

 

Transcendentalism is a literary and philosophical movement in New England in the early and middle part of the 19th century. It gave expression to several strains of thought :

1) the weakening of Calvinistic views about the corruption of human nature;

2) the rise of Romantic attitudes toward the pervasiveness of the divine and the inherent power of the individual imagination;

3) and the frustration with what was seen as the polite and unemotional rationalism of Unitarian thought.

Once considered to have derived from European movements, it is now generally seen as a development of native tendencies. Centered on Boston and Concord, some of its most notable voices were those of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thorean, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller and Bronson Alcott. The British writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle profoundly influenced these writers.

Transcendentalism was opposed to the idea that man needed an intercessor through which to reach the divine, and was critical of formalized religion. Like the physical universe itself, all constructive practical activity, all great literature, all forms
of spiritual awareness were viewed as an expression of the divine spirit. The oft- expressed ambition was to achieve vivid perception of the divine as it operates in common life, an awareness seen as leading at once to personal cultivation and to a sense of history as an at least potentially progressive movement.

 

1 Explain the meaning of the term 'Transcendentalism' and show its treatment in 19th century American Literature?

Like Puritanism, Transcendentalism also played an important role in the 19^th century American literature. The pioneers of this movement not only enriched American literature but also paved the way for the coming writers. In addition to this, these pioneers broke out the old traditions and established their own distinctive form of literature.

Transcendentalism was a philosophical dissent from Unitarianism, which represented the compromise of rational Deism with Calvinism, relating to the rationalist's acceptance of liberal scientific thought and rejecting extreme concepts concerning the original depravity and the inherited guilt of man. The rising young transcendentalists asserted that the Unitarian creed had become conventional and complacement in its orthodox fidelity to Christian dogmas of supernaturalism. They rejected Locke's materialistic psychology in favour of the
idealism of the German thinker Immanuel Kant who declared that the "transcendental" knowledge in the mind of man was innate. Following the philosophy of Kant, they asserted the doctrine of correspondence between the microcosom of the individual mind and the macrocosom over-soul of the universe,
and they derived an enlarged conception of the sanctity of the individual and his freedom to follow his intuitional knowledge.

The American Transcendentalists were influenced by British writers as Wordsworth, Coleridge and Carlyle; Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Goethe, Richter, Harder influenced the transcendentalists with their philosophy; Greek philosophers like Plato, the Sufis, and the writers of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Buddhists and the eclectic idealists profoundly influenced the transcendentalists. These transcendentalists used to meet at Emerson's Concord house, and through their magazine The Dial, they published their philosophy. "Book Farm" (1841) and "Fruit Lands" (1842) were agrarian experiments in communal living, supported briefly by the transcendentalists concerned with the social order.

 
'Nature' was the first comprehensive expression of American Transcendentalism. Emerson provided a fresh and lyrical intimation of many of the leading ideas that developed in various essays and poems.   

Thoreau's transcendentalism was empirical, not theological. He did what he felt to be right and publicly opposed what he felt to be wrong. If Emerson believed in Man, Thoreau believed in men. Both were the party of Hope against the party of Memory, and were symbolic of a New England turn from Calvinism through Unitarianism to a belief in man. Both wrote and lived as if the 'American Adam' were more possibility than myth. Walden is his famous book.

Whitman came to transcendentalism by way of his mother's Quakerism, and Carlyle's and Hegel's writings, but Emerson was the immediate influence. The Leaves of Grass was his mommental work. Through his book, he taught the philosophy of democracy. He believed in the transforming power of love in humanity and in life. Whitman was theoretically the answer of Emerson's prayer, as he was also the voice of the land of Promise, the first wholly unique one to emerge from American continent. Nathaniel Hawthorne satirized Book Farm in his novel The Blithedale Romance. The Scarlet Letter was his another novel in which he has bitterly satirized Puritanism. Herman Melville satirized Puritanism in his novel Moby Dick.

 
These transcendentalists – Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman – seem to differ from one another more than they agree. First, they are divergent in temperament; second, they are different in their choice of subject matter and literary form; thirdly, they differ in their interest and capacity for sustained philosophical thought. Despite their differences, they have certain common things. These writers have a profound sense of human predicament. They are worried about the problem of man. They all believe that individual virtue and happiness depends upon self realization and the self realization depends upon the harmonious reconciliation of two universal psychological tendencies. The five writers have a common assumption. They think that intuition and imagination offer a surer road to truth than abstract logic or scientific method. Finally, these five writers were able to deduce a consequence of immense practical importance not only for their own work but for the subsequent course of American literature as a whole.

 
To conclude, American literature of 19th century was developed, and enriched by these writers. They are unforgettable for their philosophy. They prepared the way for the coming writers.

        

context of Puritanism in American Literature (MEG-06 American Literature)

 

Puritanism is a religious movement. The movement played a significant role in the histories of the United States, England and Germany. The word "Puritan" is formed from the Latin word "Puritas" which means "purity". The King of England, Henry VIII, established his own church. This irked the Puritans because they felt that the Roman Catholic Church was in danger. They raised their voices against the King. The result was that the King gave an order to execute all the Puritans. The Puritans ran away, and came to settle down in New England, in the north part of America. 

The Puritans believed in the Bible as the source of all authority, accepted "inner light" as a source of understanding and maintained a rigid faith in hard work and duty. They were mostly influenced by the French religious reformer, Jean Calvin (1509-1574) whose belief in "Predestination" and "Grace" they fully accepted. According to the theory of "Grace", God's ways are unknown to men. Men only have to work hard and pray hopefully, but which souls are to be saved and whose to be condemned is not decided by one's devotion to God and the holiness of one's life, but by God Himself, although purity of thought and action is important. Hence, all life was a stage for the constant struggle between the forces of good (God) and evil (Satan).

There were four basic tenets of Puritanism.

They are as follows:

1. Total Depravity is the first tenet. Adam and Eve, the creations of God, were in the Garden of Eden; they were tempted by the devil. Because of disobedience to God, they were thrown out of Eden. Belief in the fact of the fall was the basis of all Puritan thought. Puritans believed that with this fall came Total Depravity; that is, all nature and all humans were corrupted and incapable of perfection; 'In Adam's Fall/ We sinned all', as the New England primer pithily expressed it.

2. Limited Atonement is the second tenet. Contrary to the belief that Christ's crucifixion had made redemption available to all, the Puritans believed in Limited Atonement; that is, only a minority, called the elect, were to be saved. The majority were damned or reprobate.

3. Irresistible Grace is the third tenet. The doctrine stated that the condition of being elect or reprobate was unalterable.

4. The fourth tenet is predestination. As in the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination, God had determined the course of human history since the beginning of time, and this included deciding who would be damned and who saved. Good works could not bring about salvation, although it was believed that individuals could show a readiness for grace by moral conduct. Because of rigid principles of Puritanism, the influence in the colonies waned with increased immigration of non-Puritans.

The critics of Puritanism have seen it as a blight on American history and culture. Ezra Pound called Puritanism 'blood poison' in a 1920 letter to William Carlos Williams. It has been held responsible for the American repression of sexuality, a fear of the body, a dualistic world view, the denigration of women and the cultivation of censoriousness. In addition to the rich legacy of Puritan Literature, Puritanism profoundly affected many later American writers, including Hawthorne, Melville, T. S. Eliot and Emily Dickinson.

 

 

Model question and Answer.

 What is Puritanism? Mention its characteristics. 

                                OR

Trace the impact of Puritanism on Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville?

Puritanism is a "spiritual movement": which developed under Elizabeth I (late 16 century), blossomed in the Interregnum (1640's and1650's), and withered in the persecution between the Restoration (1660) and Toleration (1689). Because of The Civil War (1638-1642) and the execution of King Charles I made enemies out of the Puritans and the King's supporters. After the Restoration (1660), the Puritans were persecuted by the civic authorities and they left England to settle in America, where the Mayflower expedition (1620) had already seen them settled in New England. The Puritans in New England established as Congregationalist Church in close association with their political rulers. Heretics and Dissidents were not accepted by them, and religion was the basis of this society. The priests were appointed by ability rather than by official patronage. The puritans were very strict in the their principles. Those who did not attend Church for worship were severely punished.

 
Members of the community were denied the freedom. The Bible was the source of understanding and maintained a rigid faith in hard work and duty. They were mostly influenced by the French religious reformer, Jean Calvin whose belief in "predestination" and "Grace" they fully accepted. According to the theory of "Elections" or "Grace", God's ways are unknown to men. Men only have to work hard and pray hopefully, but which souls are to be saved and whose to be condemned is not decided by one's devotion to God and the holiness of one's life, but by God Himself, although purity of thought and action is important. Hence, all life was a stage for the constant struggle between the forces of good (God) and evil (Satan).

This theme of struggle between good and evil is presented in most of the poets, the novelists and the dramatists John Milton's Paradise Lost, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus are good examples in this regard. Nathaniel Hawthorne imbibed most of the views of his Puritan ancestors. He projected Puritanism in his novels such as The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Herman Melville was equally influenced by this theme. He projected this theme in his masterpiece Moby Dick. The puritan themes of the universality of sin and "Predestination" also bothered Hawthorne's mind. The tales like "The Young Goodman Brown" and "Ethan brand" are good examples in this regard.

 
Critics of Puritanism have seen it as a blight on American history and culture. Ezra Pound called it "blood poison". It has been held responsible for the American repression of sexuality, a fear of the body, a dualistic world view, the denigration of women and the cultivation of censoriousness.

Despite its limitations, one could notice that Puritanism, even in the later periods, profoundly affected many later American writers like Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot and a host of others.