D.H. Lawrence-The Rocking-Horse Winner

D.H. Lawrence
The Rocking-Horse Winner

And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! These must be more money!

The story is about a family who "had no luck". The family is haunted by a sense of failure; the way the family lived exceeded their income, and the unspoken anxiety to get money was widespread through the household. This refrain there must be more money, it’s sort of like there conscious talking to them, they had a desire to become rich and it was shown throughout the story. Basically they would get rich or die trying. The rocking horse gives Paul advance knowledge of the winners of the races, and the family become wealthy from exploiting Paul.
Paul is the scapegoat and though he dies he saves the family from their misfortune and bad luck. This phrase is important because without this constant reminder that they are not living the good life and they are poor they probably would have had the desire and will power to do something about their misfortune. I believe that though the constant reminder of being poor haunted them, it also gave them strength.