To Room Nineteen
To Room Nineteen is a multi-layered story by the writer Doris Lessing , which was first published in 1963 in Lessing's short story collection "A Man and Two Women". The text, which is considered to be one of Lessing's most impressive shorter works, describes the “reasonable” marriage of the couple Susan and Matthew Rawlings, who believe they have mastered human existence and the realities of relationships and sexuality, but at which Susan ultimately breaks up. The message of the story is widely discussed; the possible interpretations range from autobiographical and feminist to Marxist approaches.
content
At the beginning of the narrative, Lessing explains that it is about the story of a "failure in intelligence", since the Rawlings' marriage is based on reason (or "intelligence").
The Rawlings sailed "sensibly" through their young years, completed their training with flying colors, had their - respectful - affairs and then, later than was usual in the world of narration, married in their late twenties. Children and success are practically inevitable ; but at some point Susan realizes that something is missing in her. She begins to withdraw. Just to be alone and do nothing. Once a week she rents the cheap room number 19 in an hourly hotel, which is otherwise used for affairs or prostitution, and just sits there by the window. But her husband's concern haunts her. He believes in an affair, in something unprocessed that is gnawing at his wife, and hires a private detective to follow her to room 19. She admits the non-existent affair, which leads the relieved Matthew to admit his actual love affairs. He insists that they do the sensible and go out with their various lovers. Susan returns one last time to room 19, which she arranges, turns on the gas, and then lies down.
interpretation
Some see the text as an analysis of the situation of women in socially conservative England in the 1960s, others as a description of the depression that many housewives fall into after they fled their children, and still others emphasize the fact that here is a formally self-chosen, but ultimately given restrictions imprisoned human being is robbed of his last, creatural refuge by the care of his fellow human beings (if you will, through "intelligence", which in English can also mean "educational work"). Susan's behavior is also described as a passive resistance to conformity.
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.studystandard.com/document/50765 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/viewFile/j.sll.1923156320120401.277/2278
- ↑ http://dorislessingproject.blogspot.de/2015/03/doris-lessing-3-by-dorislessing20060312.html
- ↑ http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-toroo/#gsc.tab=0
- ↑ http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/160
- ↑ http://www.enotes.com/topics/room-nineteen/themes
