Humans as animals (metaphor)
In this story, Lawrence emphasizes how the main characters (especially Joe) resemble the horses which brought them their fortune. The life of horses is a metaphor for the working person's life. Joe, who is the eldest brother, marries and feels that he will “go into harness” (199) when he works for his father-in-law. His life as a free person, he feels, is over, and he is “a subject animal” (199), no longer able to do whatever he wants. Fred Henry, a middle brother, is described as lively, smart, and bullheaded. He has a mastery of the animals, but not of his own fate. Malcolm is described as jaunty, which one could relate to a young horse, an untamed and awkward foal.
"Like a slave to the countryside" (simile)
Jack Ferguson is a very smart and talented doctor who never refuses to help people. As a man hired by others, he feels “like a slave to the countryside" (204). This comparison makes it clear that he works tirelessly, but there is also an irony to the statement, because Jack is a doctor to actual laborers. He, as a professional man of science, actually does less manual labor than the majority of working men in the countryside.
"World of death" (metaphor)
When Mabel visits her mother's headstone, Lawrence describes the "world of death" which Mabel inherited from her mother. This world of death is a metaphor for the absence which Mabel is able to focus on when she maintains her mother's grave. When Mabel is in the cemetery, she has no obligation other than to that headstone and keeping it clean. The world of death represents absence and meditation; there, Mabel is able to clear her mind of the many responsibilities that have fallen upon her shoulders.
