Body as a Metaphor in Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen"

Huang examines the body as a metaphor in To Room Nineteen by Doris Lessing. Since its publication in 1963, the story has stimulated incessant academic debate on the madness and suicide of its protagonist, Susan Rawlings. A close examination of the recurrent body imagery and the gradual changes in Su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inANQ (Lexington, Ky.) Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 434 - 443
Main Author Huang, Zhongfeng
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia Routledge 03.07.2023
Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects
British & Irish literature
Children
English literature
Imagery
Lessing, Doris May (1919-2013)
Literary criticism
Metaphor
Novels
Self concept
Suicides & suicide attempts
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Summary:Huang examines the body as a metaphor in To Room Nineteen by Doris Lessing. Since its publication in 1963, the story has stimulated incessant academic debate on the madness and suicide of its protagonist, Susan Rawlings. A close examination of the recurrent body imagery and the gradual changes in Susan's body suggests its significance in Susan's identity shaping experience as an individual. To be more specific, her inability to control her body, in particular the womb, alludes to her unconscious submission to and enforcement of the typical female image in accordance with society's expectation. Her decreasing bodily contact and interaction with her husband and four children suggests increasing distance and estrangement from them as she feels deep alienation in her own body. Moreover, her strenuous efforts to physically alienate herself from society and family by escaping to various rooms and spaces for solitude and freedom reveals the splitting of Susan's body and mind as well as her search for personal identity and individuality in an alienated and alienating society.
ISSN:0895-769X
1940-3364
DOI:10.1080/0895769X.2021.2007752