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Sunday
A Brief Biography
Nobel Prize
winning author Doris Lessing’s career has spanned 5 decades, and numerous
genres. She has tackled issues relating
to race, colonialism, feminism, politics, and aging in her fiction. Her writing, whether in the genre of realism,
science fiction, or autobiography, remains distinctively hers. She was highly prolific, and continued to work
right up until her death in 2013.
Lessing
was born in Iran (then Persia) to British parents in 1919, and grew up in
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her parents
were unsuccessful farmers, and very much a part of the colonial apparatus (Shwartz). Lessing, however, rejected the racism of
colonial occupation from an early age. Her early fiction presents a unique perspective
that is both colonial and post-colonial; she saw herself as both English and
other. She married at age 19, partially
to escape the colonial way of life supported by her parents (Connolly).
The
marriage only lasted a few short years, but Lessing did have two children with
her first husband. She chose to leave
the children with him when they divorced, a decision for which she has long
been criticized in a way that a male author never would have been. She has been accused of, “denying maternity
in a way that seems to defy nature,” by choosing to privilege her career over
motherhood (Baird). Lessing explores
issues surrounding motherhood in her writing, most notably in The Fifth Child.
Lessing
left Rhodesia for London after another failed marriage, and a flirtation with
communism. She turned against communism
later in life, and her disillusionment can be seen in her novel The Good Terrorist. Her first novel, The Grass is Singing, was published in 1950; and explored themes
related to the British colonial occupation of Africa. The Children
of Violence series and her groundbreaking novel The Golden Notebook were published in the years after, cementing
her reputation as a serious novelist.
The Golden Notebook was—and has remained—hugely
influential for the generations of female writers who followed Lessing. Canadian novelist Margret Atwood (whose
career can be seen to parallel Lessing’s in some ways) writes about the
experience of reading the novel at a young age, asking, “Who knew we were
reading a book that was soon to become iconic?” (Atwood). The
Golden notebook explores themes of feminism, motherhood, communism, mental
health, and colonialism in a fragmented manner that owes a heavy debt to Virginia
Woolf.
Lessing
turned towards science fiction in the early 1980’s with the Canopus in Argos series, a bold move for
even an established author like Lessing.
She returned to the genre again with 1999’s Mara and Dann, and the 2005 sequel The Story of General Dann, Mara’s Daughter, Griot, and the Snow Dog. In addition to novels and short stories
Lessing also published non-fiction essays on a variety of topics (including
several on cats) and a two volume autobiography.
Lessing
won the Nobel Prize in 2007, famously muttering, “Oh, Christ” when she was told
the news by reporters (qtd. in Schwartz).
True to form, she used her acceptance speech as a platform to call
attention to issues she considered important.
She contrasted the abysmal state for schools in Africa to the luxuries
of those in England, asking the audience which set of student is likely to go
on to win such prestigious prizes (Lessing).
She did her part to remedy this disparity by bequeathing her personal
collection of 3,000 books to a public library in Zimbabwe (“Lessing Donates”).
The world lost a
unique and influential voice when Doris Lessing died. Her fiction has been praised in both popular
and literary circles, and there is no doubt she will be read by many future
generations. The issues Lessing tackled
in her writing are just as relevant today as they were 50 years ago, and her
texts still hold answers to many modern problems.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. “Doris Lessing: a Model for Every Writer Coming
from the Back of
Beyond.” Guardian
18 Nov. 2013. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
Baird, Julia. "Lowering The
Bar." Newsweek 155.20 (2010): 21. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
Connolly, Ray. "`I married to get away from my mother';
A Childhood: Doris Lessing." The
Times (London, England) 17 Nov. 1990: Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 4
Mar.
2015.
Lessing, Doris. “On Not Winning the Nobel Prize.” Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014.
Web.
4 Mar 2015
"Lessing Donates 3 000 Books
to City Library." Africa News
Service 26 Aug. 2014: Business
Insights: Essentials.
Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
Scwartz, Alexandra. “On Saying and Not Saying Thank You.” The New
Yorker 20 Nov. 2013.
Web. 4 Mar. 2015
"To Room Nineteen"
“To Room Nineteen” is a
compelling portrait of the type of life that Doris Lessing might have
lived. Published in 1963, the story
explores the “voluntary bondage” (2767) that comprises modern family life. Lessing famously—and controversially—left
behind her two children when she divorced from her first husband while still
living in Africa. “To Room Nineteen,”
like much of her work, looks issues of motherhood and feminism; and recalls the
writing of both Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story asks whether it is possible for a
modern woman to find fulfillment in the traditional maternal role, and
interrogates the personal sacrifices a mother must make.
Matthew and Susan Rawlings are a
perfect couple, “well-matched” (2759), and practical. Every decision they made —whether to marry,
where to live, when to have children—was taken with the appropriate amount of
seriousness and discussed at length between the two of them. Lessing makes it abundantly clear that they
are not a young couple rushing into things (like Harriet the Lovatts from The
Fifth Child), but rather mature, responsible adults. They even recognized, “the hidden resentments
and deprivations of the woman who has lived her own life . . . and is now
dependent on a husband for outside interests and money” (2761). They had taken every precaution to ensure
their happiness.
However, it turns out that, “so
much is after all so little” (2761).
Susan, who once had a successful career and social life of her own,
feels empty. She tellingly recalls the
first night she spent with Matthew as, “like a very long shadow at sundown,”
(2761) indicating an end rather than a beginning. She tells herself that the situation was only
temporary, that once the children were in schools, “she would turn herself back
into being a woman with a life of her own” (2763). She doesn’t realize the piece of herself she
sacrificed to become a mother is gone forever.
Her spare time does increase once
the children go to school, but instead of feeling relieved she begins to dread
her supposed freedom, telling her husband, “I feel as if there is an enemy
there waiting to invade me” (2764). That
enemy is the ghost of the independent woman she used to be. Matthew, despite being a parent as well, does
not feel trapped by family life the way Susan does. He tries to be sympathetic,
but is unable to understand the extent of her problem. Her struggles are particularly feminine in
nature. A room to herself, an au pair, a
solitary vacation, and even spending weekdays in a hotel away from the house do
not help. There is nowhere she can go to
escape her role as a wife and mother and simply be Susan.
Spending time away from her family
does not make it easier for her to return to them. In fact, it makes it harder. “A sensation that should have been frightening,”
(2777) watching her au pair take over her role in the family, has no effect on
her. Susan has been defeated the
pressures and expectations surrounding motherhood. Suicide is the only way she can escape from
the invisible enemy that haunts her—the enemy that is comprised of her the lost
potential of her former self. Once she
makes the decision she feels free of her former demons, “they had gone forever,
because she way buying her freedom from them” (2780). She finally found a way
to regain the freedom she lost when she became a mother.
Lessing’s
story creates a bleak and frightening portrait of motherhood, one that allows
the reader to sympathize with Lessing’s own decision to leave behind her
children. Despite doing everything
right, Susan is still unable to find fulfillment within her role as a mother.
Even worse, motherhood has robbed her of the ability to find fulfillment
anywhere else. “To Room Nineteen” urges
the reader to reconsider the institution of motherhood, and the role of women
in the modern family.
Work
Cited
Lessing, Doris. “To Room Nineteen.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed.
Ed.
Stephen Greenbaltt, et al. Vol. 2.
New York: Norton, 2012. 2759-2780. Print
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