The Rocking-Horse Winner Essay Questions

How do Uncle Oscar and Paul's mother compare as characters?

Throughout the story, Uncle Oscar remains relatively the same - a man of means who keeps up a good wit and does not care to ask too many questions. In contrast, Paul's mother undergoes a drastic emotional development: in the beginning she is jaded and bitter, incapable of loving her children, but by the end she is so concerned about Paul that it drives her against her social instincts and common sense to return to home to check on him. Even after Paul's madness and sickness, Uncle Oscar still speaks of the poor boy with the same sort of bantering tone he has always used, almost as though he were the voice of the collective social consciousness tormenting Paul's mother.

Whence comes the whispering voice of the house?

The threatening and pervasive voice of the house - which Paul claims is what drives him to ride his horse, gamble, and earn more money - is at once one of the most important elements of the story and the least explained. It seems that Paul and his sisters (that is, the children) can hear the voice of the house, which seems to come not just from the house itself, but also from the family's material possessions in it. At a first approximation, the voice is that of Paul's mother's persistent dissatisfaction. However, it is significant that Lawrence did not simply write "There must be more money!" as something she says herself. This voice is at once the voice of a desiring individual and the society which constitutes her desires.

What is the significance of Paul's father in the story?

Aside from a few sentences describing the man's inability to provide enough for his family by realizing his prospects, we do not hear anything about Paul's father. This reflects the social reality of the emotional distance between parents and children in Victorian society. Of course, the empty space left by the absent father must be filled by others. Uncle Oscar steps in as a sort of inappropriate father figure, who rather than guiding and teaching Paul in upright ways encourages him in his gambling obsession without concern for how it may be affecting him.

What is the significance of body language and unspoken communication in the story?

Most of what the characters say in the story do not directly address the fundamental anxieties they face, especially the estrangement between Paul's mother and her children. Paul's mother is never described as making any loving movements towards her children, while Paul is always gazing intensely into her eyes, showing his desire for her love. Paul himself does not tell anyone else what he is about, but his eyes make it clear to the others, even if they do not do anything in reaction, that something intense is happening within him.

Explain the significance of this statement that Paul's mother makes: "My family has been a gambling family, and you won't know till you grow up how much damage it has done."

Although we know that Paul has a blood connection to gambling through his Uncle Oscar, we cannot know that it is a more pervasive problem until Paul's mother mentions that likely many more members of her family have been addicted to gambling. It makes us also wonder about whether Paul's mother is herself touched by this hereditary gambling addiction. There is also the tragic irony in the fact that Paul will die young, and that it will be Paul's mother herself who will discover what damage can be done.