NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Woven Words Short Story Chapter 3:The Rocking-horse Winner

Written by D.H. Lawrence, this chapter revolves around the life of a family. The family consists of Hester and her children. The primary character seen throughout the story is Paul, the only son of Hester. The story deals with the themes of materialism, greed and family.

Hester and her husband live with their two daughters, and son Paul in a nicely furnished home and the family appears to be wealthy to the townsfolk. But as we read, we get to know the family's financial woe does not stem from poverty but rather from keeping up their appearance to be wealthy. Hester appears to be an affectionate mother to the outsiders, but the children know that they do not share any amount of intimacy with her. Hester, unable to emotionally connect to her children, compensates with materialistic goods such as expensive toys.

Due to her habit of spending lavishly, she worries about their financial condition. Paul decides to help his mother when she tells him that luck is why people have money. To prove that he is lucky, Paul rides on his rocking-horse and rocks on it in a frenzy and predicts the winner of derby races. He asks his Uncle Oscar to give his mother the winnings anonymously, but she spends it on new furniture. Paul hallucinates and hears voices saying, "there must be more money". Determined to stop them, Paul becomes obsessed with derby race predictions.

One night, after a party, Hester finds Paul riding the rocking-horse in a violent motion and later, he collapses after saying, "it's Malabar". Paul becomes ill after that night, but he is overjoyed when he finds that Malabar was indeed the winner and he won eighty thousand pounds. However, sadly Paul passes away from his illness.