29 pages • 58 minutes read
To Room Nineteen
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Summary: “To Room Nineteen”
Doris Lessing’s 1963 short story “To Room Nineteen” explores the theme of female independence and autonomy—and of how difficult these are to achieve, especially at the time Lessing wrote it. Any reader familiar with Virginia Woolf’s classic essay “A Room of One’s Own” will find similarities here. Lessing, a Nobel laureate and accomplished writer within multiple genres, investigates boundaries and conventions throughout the canon of her work, frequently breaking down dichotomies and questioning cultural assumptions. One of the most frequently anthologized of Lessing’s stories, “To Room Nineteen” is included in the 8th edition of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, volume F.
The story begins by analyzing a marriage that seems ideal. Susan and Matthew Rawlings appear to belong together: “Not only they, but others, felt they were well matched” (2544). However, it is also clear from the opening sentence that this seemingly “well matched” arrangement is ultimately doomed: “This is a story, I suppose, about a failure in intelligence: the Rawlings’ marriage was grounded in intelligence” (2544).
For the first few paragraphs, the unnamed and omniscient narrator takes pains to describe how utterly conventional and stable this marriage is. Susan, the Unlock all 29 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
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By Doris Lessing
