ication of (forbidden) infantile wishes "whose fulfillment could only be felt as painful by the dreamer's [conscious] ego" (411). The wish involved "has seized the opportunity offered by . . . painful day-residues, has lent them support, and has thus made them capable of being dreamed" (411). Freud's view is that they can only be dreamed, for the "sleep ego," a powerful psychological agent, "reacts with violent resentment to the accomplished satisfaction of the repressed wish" by inducing anxiety (412). In "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the situation is somewhat different. That is because Paul seizes the painful day-residue of his mother's complaining preoccupation with "luck" that she does not have and more or less gives himself over to the wish, unleashing it from oppression and in fact realizing it (i.e., making it real). That does not mean the anxiety is released, for too much is never enough. The five thousand pounds that Paul and his uncle arrange for his mother to receive as an annuity is taken as "quite moderately nice," and she proceeds t
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