The Horse Dealer’s Daughter: Love
Uploaded by Admin on Dec 12, 2000
In the story “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”, author D.H. Lawrence represents a type of love metaphor that is truly an example of how powerful love can be. His two main characters, Dr. Jack Fergusson and Mabel Pervin undergo such a dramatic experience, its almost impossible not to pick up his story and read it for a second time. But can something this imaginative and so farfetched actually happen? Well, love does work in mysterious ways and there have been a number of fascinating events that have happened to people. Love is unpredictable, exciting, and probably one of the greatest feelings people can experience during a lifetime.
Love is just one of those things that can’t be explained. Since scientists truly can’t find out the meaning of it or why it happens, it allows authors like D.H. Lawrence to create intense and dramatic scenes that keep the reader on the edge of their seat. In this story, Lawrence’s character Mabel finds love at a time where she least expects it. Mabel was one of two girls in a family of five children. Her brothers, all of which were older than her, didn’t think much of Mabel and really didn’t have too much respect for her. When she was fourteen, her mother had passed away, which left Mabel heartbroken and depressed. Her father, whom she had loved very much, remarried to another women and left Mabel with the feeling of insecurity. He also eventually passed away leaving the family in debt. It was all of these events that lead to her deep depression, which would later lead to her suicide attempt. “She would always hold the keys of her own situation. Mindless and persistent, she endured from day to day. Why should she think? Why should she answer anybody? It was enough that this was the end, and there was no way out” (452).
One evening Mabel visited the churchyard where her mothers’ headstone was at rest. This was the one place that offered her with the sense of security. “Once under the shadow of the great looming church, among the graves, she felt immune from the world, reserved within the thick churchyard wall as in another country” (452). She took her time cleaning the surroundings of her mother’s grave and the headstone so it looked proper. It was at this point where Dr. Fergusson noticed Mabel on his way to the outpatients in...