Paradoxical power in the horse trader's daughterIn "The Horse Trader's Daughter" by DH Lawrence, Mabel Pervin and her three brothers find themselves with debts to pay after the death of their father. To pay these debts, the Pervins are forced to sell all the horses they own. Then they must separately create a new life 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, the events that unfold make it clear that the life Mabel has led over the past twenty-seven years has made her a determined and independent woman. Through these characteristics, Mabel finds her strength. Ironically, these qualities also make him see the horror of the loss of autonomy that seems inevitable with the breakdown of the family. At first, Mabel's strength is not very apparent. The initial scene, presented from his brother Joe's point of view, gives the impression that Joe may be a strong, dominant voice in the story. Additionally, Joe and his brothers talk harshly to Mabel. The three brothers know what they are going to do now that they have to leave; This is not the case with Mabel. When Joe and Fred Henry question Mabel about her plans, she doesn't have much to say. In her silence, she seems small and weak. Ironically, it is in her silence that Mabel gains her independence and strength. These qualities emerge through the motif of the image of horses that Lawrence uses in the story. Like a horse, Mabel is very powerful. For years, she was the family's beast of burden, especially since her father's death: "For months, Mabel had been without a servant in the big house...... amidst papers.... ..work. If her project succeeds, 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 this will ultimately be her true death. , Jack's insistence that "I want you" is a "terrible intonation that frightened her almost more than her horror of fear that he would not want her" (256). by DH Lawrence therefore offers a subtle and complex psychological portrait of "the horse trader's daughter". She is both powerful and vulnerable. which make her seem so real, so human Masterpieces Ed. Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine New York: Dell.., 1958. 237-56.