D. H. Lawrence

“The rocking horse winner” and “Odour of Chrysanthemums” are both short stories of D. H . Lawrence. These writings are autobiographical making them more interesting and enjoyable to read. We can find remarkable elements which make the stories more realistic and easy to enhance the reader, because those elements are part of the real life. Elements such as disdain, false love, money, unhappiness are present in Lawrence’s works, but what makes more fascinating these short stories are the female characters.

In “The rocking horse winner” we can see a mother who does not love her children and feels extremely unlucky because of her husband and marriage. Unfortunately her children noticed that. This mother is more concerned about money and her unlucky life than her own family. Moreover, she seems very good and lovely with her children to external people. One of her children realizes that the only way to be lucky (or probably be loved) is riding his horse. However, the little boy become mad hearing in his mind an strange voice which reveals him the winning horse of the competition. In this way her son tries to make his mother happy, giving her the money, but at the end he died because of his madness, and it was there when the mother started to feel a little bit worried or possibly “love” for her son.

Similarly in the “Odour of Chrysanthemums”, the female character called Elizabeth is a woman who has to face an unhappy marriage and also deals with her husband’s drunkenness. In general this woman is absolutely cold and dissatisfied because of his poor live style. Thus, she does not show respect to her husband and their relationship little by little is broken.

In conclusion, D. H Lawrence portrays essentially issues or current events that are closely related to the human nature. The writer explores through his characters what human beings are, how people behave, act and feel in this life.