Summary
The introduction of the story deals with Paul's mother, Hester, who is described as a woman constantly dissatisfied with her material possessions and her family. Raised in a well-to-do family, she seems to have achieved all that would be expected of one of her social standing by marrying a husband of similar standing, having children, and owning a respectable house. However, she feels herself unable to love her children, a feeling which seems to her as though the core of her heart had turned to stone.
It would seem to her that this was a secret kept from everyone else, who must think her very happy and loving with all that she has, but her children are actually able sense her lack of love for them along with her anxiety about money, which they hear as a voice whispering in their house, "There must be more money!" They come to realize that each is aware of all these tensions by reading each other's eyes.
The family is not poor per se, but nevertheless manages to mire itself in debt and the consequent stress due to the high tastes which Paul's father and mother have. There is the possibility that Paul's father could make up for these expenditures by advancing in his work, what with certain "good prospects" he has, but none of these ever come to anything. Eventually Paul's mother gives up hoping for any advancement from her husband and so decides to try to make some money herself. However, she does not know how to, and the mounting stress of having to finance her children's expensive education at private schools, as would be expected of a family of her standing, makes her more and more bitter and desirous for money.
The voice of the house, which echoes Paul's mother's desires - "There must be more money!" - comes not only from the house itself but also the children's various toys, such as a doll, a stuffed-animal puppy, and of course, the rocking-horse. Everyone in the house can tell that everyone else can hear the voice, since they can see it in each other's eyes. Yet they never make explicit mention of it, because it is so pervasive and apparent, just like the air they breathe.
Analysis
The opening sentence of the story sets the reader into a fable-like mood of generality and timelessness: "There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck." It is not until the very last paragraph that we learn the name of this woman, Hester, who is for most of the story referred to as "Paul's mother." This suggests that we the readers may not be able to identify the protagonist of this story as easily as we would in other, more conventionally written stories. That Paul's mother is the first character to be introduced and the one whose life frames the story would seem to mean that she is the protagonist; yet almost all of the action centers on Paul. Looking to the title for help makes the case yet more ambiguous, for the rocking-horse is a gift bought by Paul's mother for Paul, and the money from Paul's winnings go to his mother. Therefore, the safest answer may be that the central figure of the story is not one character or another, but the mother-son relationship and the desire for money itself. We could say that Lawrence is more concerned in this story with relationship dynamics than with particular personalities.
One could ask very simply how the story would be different if Paul's mother were just "Hester," a single woman, rather than, in all cases but one, "Paul's mother," a woman who must care for her family. It is no coincidence that the haunting repeated phrase of the story comes in the context of family: "Her children were growing up, they would have to go to school. There must be more money, there must be more money." Paul's mother is not a woman of exceptional selfishness or materialistic desire; her dissatisfaction and want are always involved in her total social being, the most important part of which is her family life, as symbolized by the house, their family's main material possession and container for all other possessions. The tormenting whispers of the house are the same whispers of society as the yet larger environment in which the characters live and struggle to keep up in style.
Yet it is significant that the whispers do not come only from an unspecific voice of the house, but also from particular objects such as the rocking-horse; for although they can hear the house, Paul and his sisters cannot do anything to interact with the house directly. It is through a specific household object that Paul intuitively attempts to communicate with and placate the house. It would be helpful to consider the four main voices in this story: the house's, the horse's (telling Paul the name of the winning horse), Paul's (yelling the winning horse's name in the climactic scene), and Uncle Oscar's (telling Paul's mother that she is "a poor devil of a son to the bad"). Obviously the voices of the house and horse do not come from particular personalities, but as they are presented, neither do Paul's and Uncle Oscar's. Paul's is a mad, ecstatic cry which seems to come from somewhere beyond him, and Uncle Oscar's words seem but an echo in Paul's mother's mind.
