The Horse Dealers Daughter

632 Words3 Pages
Placid Pond Lawrence doesn’t just come out with his theme in the short story “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter.” It is hidden deep within the story and is brought out through symbols in the story. If one can be able to point out the symbols of the story, one can have a better understanding of the story and theme. I found that the theme was that death brings about new understanding, and change which leads to the rebirth of two people’s lives. Of the many symbols Lawrence uses, the first one he mentions would be the churchyard and the graves, Mabel’s mothers specifically. Mabel is a depressed and suicidal woman; after her mother died she feels as though she has nothing else to live for. Mabel has lost everything; all she has left is her house. She decides to release herself from her troubles and depressed state and commit suicide. The grave represents the dead soul that Mabel has at that time. In Mabel’s mind she has nothing to live for and has no reason to continue her depressed life. Mabel can also be with her mother in a sense because spiritually Mabel is already dead. The next major symbol in the story is the pond. The pond represents death, when Lawrence describes the pond when Doctor Fergusson goes in to save Mabel, he says it is “deep”, and “dead cold”, he could ‘smell the cold rotten clay that fouled up the water.” These could also be ways to describe death. The pond is where Mabel dies but is also where things between Mabel and Dr. Fergusson change. Mabel dies in the pond but Dr. Fergusson saves her and brings her back to life. This is the rebirth of Mabel and also the beginning of the relationship between the Doctor and Mabel. Though there is no death actually in the story it is just used as a metaphor to describing the ending of one’s spiritual life. There can be multiple meanings behind symbols. The pond holds true to this, the pond not only
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