"The Rocking-Horse Winner" By: D.H. Lawrence

"The Rocking-Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence is centered around money and the characters attempts at fortune. Through their greediness there is sorrow and tragedy, so therefore money is not the root of all evil but it is greed. The greed the mother in the story has for money is so powerful that it is echoed throughtout the house and even the children can hear the whispers, "There must be more money, there must be more money." This is a great burden to the children and especially Paul, the only son. He is greatly bothered by the lack of money in the house and his mothers disappointment with her life. He asks her one day why they were poor and she tells him, "Well I suppose it is because your father has no luck." Therefore, she is impressing on her children as well that all that is important in life is money and she sets the example for greediness.
Paul then becomes greedy, not for money, at first, but for his mothers love and approval, which he considers to be money. He says he is lucky but she does not believe him and he is greedy to prove to her that he is. He starts betting on horse races with Bassett, the gardener, and Oscar, his uncle. He earns more than five thousand pounds and then decides to give it to his mother in hopes of her approval and silence to the house. He is wrong the noise only increases to screams and his mother is still not satisfied. Paul becomes frantic and one night his mother finds him violently riding his rocking-horse right before he crashes to the ground screaming the name of the next winner. Now that Paul is sick, his mothers greed subsides and she finally realizes her greed has driven him mad and she sees what she has been missing because she was blinded by her greed.
Whatever the greed, for money, for approval, it is the greed its self that causes heartbreak and tragedy and in the end greed is the root of all evil.