Paradoxical Power in the Horse Dealer's Daughter In "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" by DH Lawrence, Mabel Pervin and her three brothers find themselves with debts to pay after the death of the father. To pay these debts, the Pervins are forced to sell all the horses they own. Then, they must separately create new lives elsewhere. Although Mabel's brothers have decided where they will go and what they will do, at the beginning of the story, Mabel's fate seems undetermined. His apparent inability to plan his future is initially a source of tension and conflict. However, subsequent events make it clear that the life Mabel has led for the past twenty-seven years has transformed her into a determined and independent woman. Through these characteristics Mabel finds her strength. Yet, ironically, these qualities also make her see the horror of the loss of self-sufficiency that seems inevitable with the breakup of the family. At first, Mabel's strength is not very evident. The opening scene, presented from his brother Joe's point of view, makes it seem like Joe could be a strong, dominant voice in the story. Also, Joe and his brothers talk harshly to Mabel. The three brothers know what they will do now that they have to leave; Mabel didn't. When Joe and Fred Henry question Mabel about her plans, she has little to say. In her silence she seems small and weak. Paradoxically, however, it is in her silence that Mabel acquires her independence and strength. These qualities emerge through the motif of horse imagery that Lawrence uses in the story. Like a horse, Mabel is very powerful. For years she has been the workhorse of the family, especially after her father's death: "For months, Mabel has been without servants in the big house... middle of paper... work. If her plan works she will succeed, then she will no longer be completely independent because she will be with Jack. If she loses her independence she will lose her strength, and that will ultimately be her true death. So, in Mabel's ears, Jack's insistence that "I want you." "terrible intonation that frightened her almost more than her horror at the fear that he would not want her" (256) D.H. Lawrence's story, therefore, offers a subtle and complex psychological portrait of "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" Mabel Pervin. she is both a manipulator of others and a victim of social circumstances. She is simultaneously powerful and vulnerable. Perhaps these complexities and paradoxes are what make her seem so real, so human. Works Cited Lawrence, D.H. "The Horse Dealer's Daughter " 1922. Short story Masterpieces. Ed. Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine New York: Dell, 1958. 237-56.