Character Analysis: The Horse Dealer's Daughter

Mabel Pervin
In D.H. Lawrence’s “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter”, we see Mabel Pervin, the protagonist, as an unloved woman in the twentieth century. Mabel lives with, and cares for, her three brothers Joe, Fred, and Malcolm after their father dies, leaving them in debt. Mabel resents her father for the debt he has left the family in because the money made her feel secure. Living with three brothers is no fun and games for Mabel considering they treat her like she is a child. Mabel is majorly influenced by her relationships with her father, brothers, and Dr. Ferguson to overcome her internal conflict. Before Joseph Pervin’s death, the Pervin family was financially stable due to Joseph’s horse-dealing business. But once the business took a turn for the worse, Joseph remarried in order to “retrieve his fortunes” (Lawrence 95). Mabel loved her father up until his second marriage, she had “set hard against him” because she loved her mother, who died when Mabel was
As stated before, Mabel has never been shown affection so when Dr. Ferguson rescues her, she believes he did this out of love. On page 375 she “passionately kisses his knees”. This shows that she is excited that for the first time in a very long time someone has shown her love, although she is not completely sure if he truly loves her, she is optimistic that he saved her out of love. There is a new internal conflict of whether or not he does actually love her. On page 376 she questions Ferguson by asking, “You love me?”. Her questioning is because she starts to become in denial that someone is capable of loving her, this also seen on page 378 whe n Mabel tells Ferguson, “You can’t want to love me. I’m horrible.” Mabel is used to her brothers not showing any love so when Dr. Ferguson reassures her many times that he does in fact love her, she is still in disbelief that someone could possibly love