In response to your insightful question you need to think
of how Lawrence is using the genre of a fairy tale, but then goes on to subvert it and
challenge it to drive home his message. Firstly, the characters in fairly tales are
normally very "flat" characters - that is they are undeveloped and are not explored
psychologically in any way. This is certainly not true of the mother, who is described
in great detail, especially her lack of love for her children and her
greed:
She
had bonny children, yest she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love
them.There was always the grinding sense of the shortage
of money, though the style was always kept
up.
Likewise we are told a
lot about Paul and how he processes the voices that echo round the house, equating money
with luck, and we can understand why Paul sets on his self-destructive course - to gain
his mother's affection in a way that he is unable to do
normally.
The other major difference of course is the
ending. There is no "happy ending" that we are given in this tale. Instead, it is a
tragedy, allowing Lawrence to reinforce his central message. As the mother is left with
the dire consequences of her greed, we recognise the evils of materialism and how it can
literally rip apart relations and families. Remember the irony of the words of her
brother at the end of the story:
"My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to
the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best
gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a
winner."
Note how this
message is underlined - greed can sometimes lead to death. But, the uncle comments, his
nephew is better off out of a world where he is driven to such lengths to gain his
mother's love.
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