The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

  • Submitted By: bboon
  • Date Submitted: 03/07/2009 1:32 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 620
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 1206

Mabel, the main character in “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” is also an isolated character but rather than doing so by physically removing herself from her surroundings she removes herself emotionally with her brothers. She moves unnoticed by her brothers and is ignored for the most part. She tries to keep up appearances by maintaining the family home . “For months, Mabel had been servantless in the big house, keeping the home together in penury for her ineffectual brothers.” (Lawrence, 844). She is a single woman with no means of supporting herself and once the family house is gone she has no place of her own to go. She has carefully kept quiet of her plans and has drawn no attention to herself while the others have all made their plans known. “Now, for Mabel, the end had come.” “She would follow her own way just the same. She would always hold the keys to her own situation.” (Lessing, 844). Mabel misses her Mother who passed away in her youth and feels closer to her than any living member of her family. In an attempt to control her own destiny, Mabel attempts suicide. She tries to drown herself in a pond but is spotted by Doctor and rescued.Now logic would tell us that the reason Jack felt free to undress Mabel was that he is a doctor. Doctors do not look at naked women in the same way as, for example, a lover would; there is absolutely no reason to believe that he has ever looked at Mabel lustfully, or even lovingly, before. But Lawrence seems to argue that by plucking the doomed Mabel out of the water, by bringing her back into the world, Jack has assumed responsibility for her. The most traditional way for a young unmarried man to assume responsibility for a young unmarried woman is to marry her. Consequently Mabel assumes that Jack must love her, since he has brought her back to the world of the living and purports to take care of her. The fact that he has removed her clothes (as a husband would) only seals their compact. She lunges toward him and...

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