The Horse Dealer's Daughter by D.H. Lawrence

Question: 

Reread the first few pages of "The Horse Dealer's Daughter." What symbolic possibilities do you find for the characters? The setting? Select one of your ideas and write a 150-200 word response explaining the symbolism you find, relating it to the overall theme of the story.

Response:

In “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,” the father’s occupation of a horse dealer symbolically grows animal characteristics within his children, Mabel, Joe, Fred Henry, and Malcolm. The oldest sibling, Joe, is described with “massive, slumbrous strength, and a stupidity” like the horse outside in the pin. “The horses were almost like his own body to him.” The middle sibling, Fred Henry, has a bit more composure, being compared as “an [animal] which controls” rather than being controlled. The next boy, Malcolm, is the youngest and has a “fresh, jaunty museau” or snout. And lastly, the female sibling, Mabel, is poked fun at by her brothers being commonly known as a “bull-dog.” In the first few pages, all the siblings have animalistic tendencies. To compare with the structure of the theme, animals have a inner nature of innocence. In the illicit love story between the homely, poor social outcast and well liked doctor, their love goes beyond materialistic roles in the time period, and adopts the theme of an innocent love that overcomes society’s expectations. Thus, between the animal-like symbolic behavior and the relationship there is a shared interest. Innocence doesn’t have materialistic duties to fulfill, rather it follows its intuition as shown throughout the story. So like the animal’s ignorance of rights and wrongs defined by society, their love was innocent in motives.