Yale professor Harold Bloom praised Lawrence as "adept at what could not be said," and other situational ironies in "Rocking Horse" are unspoken. Implied throughout is Paul's crying need for a mother's love and solid family support. Ironically, this natural need is only satisfied unnaturally, when he uses second sight to find winners. This earns him love and praise as a prodigy when it should be due him as a son.
A final situational irony occurs at story's end when Hester's brother announces Paul's death: "he's best gone out of [this] life." The brother, who has seen the tragedy from a distance, understands Paul far better than his natural mother does, noting that she has destroyed a miracle to gain a bank balance.