摘 要

《木马赢家》是英国现代主义小说家D.H.劳伦斯的重要短篇小说，主要表现了母亲海斯特与儿子保罗之间病态的关系，揭露了二十世纪初西方工业文明社会中扭曲的人性。本论文主要研究该短篇小说中各种意象的重复，重点探讨作者如何通过重复这一叙事技巧传达对西方工业文明的批判。

关键词：D.H.劳伦斯；《木马赢家》；意象重复

Contents

1. Introduction·······················································1

2. Demonstration······················································2

2.1 Repetition of the rocking-horse········································2

2.1.1 The connection between rocking-horse and luck·························3

2.1.2 Oscar’s racing-horse corresponding to Paul’s rocking-horse················4

2.2 Repetition of the house··············································6

2.2.1 Lasting Gothic sounds in the house···································6

2.2.2 Contrastive presentation of outside and inside of the house················7

2.3 Repetition of the appearance··········································8

2.3.1 Mother’s look·····················································9

2.3.2 Paul’s eyes·····················································10

1. Conclusion······················································11

Works Cited·························································12

Bibliography························································13

Repetition of Images in The Rocking-Horse Winner

1. Introduction

David Herbert Lawrence, an English novelist, poet, and essayist, was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on September 11, 1885. His mother, gentle and elegant, a former school-teacher, held a dominant influence over D.H.Lawrence for many years. Lawrence was a controversial figure in English literature circle, both for his audacious sexual portrayal and his unconventional personal life. During his short period of life, He wrote lots of brilliant works. Through his works, we can learn that he is a serious honest writer, devoting his whole life to searching for a creed to live through his literary creation. When reading his work, people will appreciate the colorful and clear sculpture. (Rao 序言) Lawrence’s famous novels include Sons and Lovers (1913), The White Peacock (1910), The Rainbow (1915), Women in Love (1920) and Lady Chatteyley’s Lover (1928). Lawrence is also a famous poet and essayist. His two famous volumes of essays are Studies of Tomas Hardy and other Essays and Studies of Classical American Literature.

The Rocking-Horse Winner was published in 1933 after Lawrence’s death. In this short story, the protagonist Paul drives the rocking-horse frantically to earn money just for attracting his mother’s attention and gaining her love, and this crazy action brings money for his family and leads to his death. His mother Hester is beautiful and marries for love. But she is as unlucky as her husband. She pursues the material life in the industrial society and couldn’t love her children. As Marilyn P. Goldberg has pointed out, such attitudes “which women have learned about themselves and their work make them a convenient, cheap marginal labor force for capitalism”. (Goldberg, 342) Paul’s father has little income but has expensive taste. The house is luxurious, but the family poor both in finance and in spirit. Paul’s uncle Lucas loves gambling the horse and earns money through Paul’s prediction. The money worship in the industrial society and indifference in the family ties leads to Paul’s sad ending. W. D. Snodgrass offered a virtually exhaustive interpretation of the role of money in the story, going so far as identifying the names of various horses young Paul bets on as British colonies in India, and showing the way other images reflect important aspects of capitalist culture.

Foreign researches on The Rocking-Horse Winner mainly focus on the allegory, the death of the heart, labor and religion, etc. Charles Koban analyzes that the death of Paul is a tragedy but just as tragic is the death of innocence and love symbolized by Paul in his unlucky mother. Chinese researches on The Rocking-Horse Winner are more than those in foreign studies. Most of these researches concentrate on the reason of Paul’s death, the prosecution of the industrial civilization, analysis of the characteristic in the short story, and etc. Although the narrative techniques in the short story have been studied, repetition of images in this short story is rare.