"To Room 19"

Paper Summary:

Susan Rawling, the main character in Doris Lessing's short story "To Room 19," fights against her inner emptiness and the roles she is supposed to play as a mother, a wife and a house manager. The paper shows how, in order to express this psychological process, Lessing progressively describes the different views the character has of her surroundings - such as the starkness of her white house, the big and "wild" garden and, finally, "Room 19," to demonstrate how these settings influence her troublesome emotional status.

From the Paper:

"Aiming to forget about herself and where she comes from, she decides to have a place "where she could go and sit, by herself, no one knowing where she was" (p. 674). Then, she starts to isolate herself in a hotel room - room 19 - so as to unchain herself from her duties as Mrs. Rawlings. There, at last, Susan can have a setting of her own where she does not have to think about anything, but only observe the time passing by, with neither past nor future. She is totally empty there, "feeling emptiness run deliciously through her veins like the movement of her blood" (p. 6 80). These journeys, which range from one to five times a week, last (for) a year. These days of loneliness enable Susan to "play her part" as a mother and wife easily since she is not Mrs. Rawlings anymore, she is an impostor, completely detached from this family."

More papers on "To Room 19":

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• Analytical Essay # 124173 : "Existentialism in "To Room Nineteen"
• Analytical Essay # 22521 : "Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen"

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