"The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. It was first published in July 1926 in Harper's Bazaar and subsequently appeared in the first volume of Lawrence's collected short stories. It was made into a full-length film(長片) directed by Anthony Pelissier and starring John Howard Davies, Valerie Hobson and John Mills; the film was released in 1949 in the United Kingdom and 1950 in the United States.

Interpretation
W. D. Snodgrass offered a Freudian interpretation(弗洛伊德的解釋) of the story in The Hudson Review in 1958. His interpretation hinged on(hinge on/upon something is to depend on something)
the resemblance of "luck" to "lucre", and the vaguer(含糊的) resemblance of both to "love." Snodgrass argued that Paul's desire "to be lucky" represents an oedipal desire to replace his father in his mother's life.
→Oedipus complex 戀母情結

Plot summary
The story describes a young middle-class Englishwoman who "had no luck." Though outwardly(表面上地) successful, she is haunted by a sense of failure; her husband is a ne'er-do-well and her work as a commercial artist doesn't earn as much as she'd like. The family's lifestyle exceeds its income and unspoken anxiety about money permeates(v. 滲透) the household. Her children, a son Paul and his two sisters, sense this anxiety, and Paul even claims he can hear the house "whispering" There must be more money.
Paul tells his Uncle Oscar Cresswell about betting on horse races with Bassett, the gardener. He's been placing bets using his pocket money and has won and saved three hundred twenty pounds. Sometimes he says he is "sure" of a winner for an upcoming race, and the horses he names do in fact win, sometimes at remarkable odds(非常不一致). Uncle Oscar and Bassett both place large bets on the horses Paul names.
After further winning, Paul and Oscar arrange to give the mother a gift of five thousand pounds, but the gift only lets her spend more. Disappointed, Paul tries harder than ever to be "lucky". As the Derby(大賽買競賽) approaches, Paul is determined to learn the winner. Concerned about his health, his mother rushes home from a party and discovers his secret. He has been spending hours riding his rocking horse, sometimes all night long, until he "gets there", into a clairvoyant(有超人之目力或洞察力的) state where he can be sure of the winner's name.
Paul remains ill through the day of the Derby. Informed by Cresswell, Bassett has placed Paul's bet on Malabar, at fourteen to one. When he is informed by Bassett that he now has 80,000 pounds, Paul says to his mother:


"I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I'm absolutely sure – oh absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!"
"No, you never did," said his mother.
The boy dies in the night and his mother hears her brother say, “My God, Hester, you’re eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner.”


expire (v.) If something which lasts for a fixed length of time expires, it comes to an end or stops being in use
expiration (n.) the ending of a fixed period of time
* expiration date= expiry date


monitor (n./v.) to watch and check a situation carefully for a period of time in order to discover something about it


low-key/profile (a.) not receiving or wanting any attention
high-key/profile (a.) attracting a lot of attention and interest from the public and newpapers, television, etc


dehumanizing effect
**dehumanize/dehumanise (v.) to remove from a person the special human qualities of independent thought, feeling for other people, etc:
e.g. It's a totalitarian regime that reduces and dehumanizes its population.


vitality (n.) energy and strength
spontaneity (n.) behavior that is natural and not planned
instinct (n.) the way people or animals naturally react or behave, without having to think or learn about it


The brief introduction of the book, Sons and Lovers
When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies(n. 極度痛苦) of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life. Generally, it is not only considered as an evocative(喚起的) portrayal of working-class life in a mining community, but also an intense study of family, class and early sexual relationships.
Author(s) D. H. Lawrence
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Autobiographical novel
Publication date 1913


Godiva, lady Godiva(noblewoman, naked, taxation, peeping Tom)

taxation: the system of taxing people

Peeping Tom is a funny guy.(Thomas, new Testment, doubting Thomas, skeptic, five wounds, play fingers bin the wounds)

DHL is the abbreviation of D.H. Lawrence.

sanatorium
A sanatorium (also spelled sanitorium and sanitarium) is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis (TB,肺結核) before antibiotics. A distinction is sometimes made between "sanitarium" (a kind of health resort, as in the Battle Creek Sanitarium) and "sanatorium" (a hospital).


Lady Chatterley's Lover(notorious, working class and aristocratic woman貴族女人)
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed in Florence, Italy; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960. (A private edition was issued by Inky Stephensen's Mandrake Press in 1929.)[1] The book soon became notorious for its story of the physical relationship between a working-class man and an aristocratic woman, its explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of (at the time) unprintable(不道德的) words.
The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life(家庭生活), and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, where he grew up. According to some critics, the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young stonemason(石匠) who came to carve plinths(方形基柱
) for her garden statues, also influenced the story. Lawrence at one time considered calling the novel Tenderness and made significant alterations to the text and story in the process of its composition. It has been published in three different versions.


omnipotent (a.全能的) having unlimited power; able to do anything
omnipotent point of view(third person view)
The prefix "omni" represents all and the root "potent" stands for ability.


The "The Rocking-Horse Winner"(middle class Englishwoman, her haunted failure life, exceed incomes, sense of anxiety, whispering, at remarkable odds, clairvoyant state, extra-sensory perception, Oedipus complex, Oedipal desire)


abuse(drug abuse, child abuse, verbal abuse, self abuse)


1. self abuse (自瀆1605, "self-deception," from self  + abuse  (q.v.). As a synonym for "masturbation," it is recorded from 1728; an earlier term was self-pollution  (1626).)
2. male mastribation 自慰
**masturbate (v.) to touch or rub your sexual organs in order to give yourself sexual pleasure
3. orgasm(sexual climax 性高潮): the moment of greatest pleasure and excitement in sexual activity
c.f. climax(story)


The Scarlet Letter(Hester Prynne, adultery通姦行為, extramarital sex婚外性行為)
The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus(藝術巨作). Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous(通姦的) affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance(悔悟) and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism(守法主義), sin, and guilt.


Oedipus complex 戀母情結(phallic stage 性器期, Electra complex 戀父情結, dynamic repression, psychoanalytic theory, penis envy 陽物崇拜, sexual role, identity)

----------------------------------------------------
Song: You don't bring me flowers
"the love turn to dust"


Barbara Streisand & Neil Diamond

You don't bring me flowers
You don't sing me love songs
You hardly talk to me anymore
When you come through the door
At the end of the day


I remember when you couldn't wait to love me
Used to hate to leave me
Now after loving me late at night
When it's good for you
And you're feeling alright
Well you just roll over


And you turn out the light
And you don't bring me flowers anymore
It used to be so natural to talk about forever
But "used to be"s don't count anymore
They just lay on the floor
'Till we sweep them away


And baby, I remember
All the things you taught me
I learned how to laugh
And I learned how to cry
Well I learned how to love
Even learned how to lie
You'd think I could learn how to tell you goodbye
'Cause you don't bring me flowers anymore

---------------------------------------------------------
Song:The Way We Were


Memories
Like the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were


Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me - Would we? Could we?


Memories


May be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply to choose to forget


So it is the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were


So it is the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were

----------------------------------------------------

bonny (a.) attractive and beautiful, healthy-looking

tedious a. because of being too long, slow, or dull; boring
e.g. We have to sit through several tedious speeches.

gardener(discreet servant): someone whose job is to work in gardens

vague (a.) not clearly expressed or perceived
vogue (a.) current or prevailing fashion

filthy lucker

"That's why it's better to be born lucky than rich."

compel one's attention
*compel (v.)  to force someone to do something

DJ(disco jockey)

arrow
arrow
    全站熱搜

    郭肝肝 發表在 痞客邦 留言(0) 人氣()