The Horse Dealer's Daughter

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Analysis of “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter” by D.H. Lawrence “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter” by D.H. Lawrence is set in the 1920’s in a small rural English village. Lawrence uses vivid death imagery to tell a symbolic story of death, rebirth, and consummation. Jack and Mabel, the protagonists, have both come to dead ends in their lives. In the process of discovering each other, they are reborn through their shared love. Mabel is more attached to death than life. Lawrence presents a very strong image when he writes: “For the life she followed here in the world was for less real than the world of death she inherited from her mother.” (Lawrence, p. 66) Mabel’s life is defined by the periods before and after her mother’s death. Before, her family was wealthy, having both money and servants; she was secure in her mother’s love and was confident and proud. Now, after her mother’s death, when Mabel was 14, her world tumbles around her. Her father dies, leaving the family estate bankrupt and having to be sold. Mabel is at a dead end; her brothers all have plans with places to go and she has none. She is depressed with no personal direction physically or emotionally. Her conclusion is to join her mother through suicide. Jack, like Mabel, is at a dead end in his life. Lawrence again paints a dark picture with symbolic words; Jack has a cold and is tired while trudging through his day as a physician’s assistant to visit inarticulate men and women. Although depressed, Jack is more of a fighter against his darkness; he is stimulated be the coarseness of his patients. Then, he is dealt a blow that brings him to his dead end; his best friend, Mabel’s brother, will be leaving the village. He is pulled from his depression and his emotions are aroused when he sees Mabel tending her mother’s grave: “Now the life came back into him, he felt delivered from his own
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