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A feminist approach to To Room Nineteen'"
Lessing's narrative expresses the wild zone' or female space,' which many women's writing adopted within the twentieth century.
The beginning suggests equality between the sexes; the characters are both in employment and there is the demonstration that women have independence from the home. However, it is not until the children are born, that pressures of family life create isolation for Susan, "It was banal too, when one night Matthew came home confessed taken a girl home and slept with her." The quote represents that the character's relationship is becoming distant and Matthews's male dominance over his wife and the girl he slept with. The husband indicates that his sperm are active seeds' even though he is married and therefore, he takes advantage of the girl. Furthermore, his male dominance is signified due to the fact his adultery occurs while his wife is repressed in the home. The plot so far illustrates Lerner's theory that women cannot be accurately represented in history because of the nature of the phallocentric society and history is not seen through their eyes. The traditional influence of the Good House Keeping' magazine connotes that women should do chores in the house. Men meanwhile, can do what they wish, their duty is to provide.
The affair leaves Susan isolated from her husband and consequently from her children, "Second: that now she knew the house would be full of them she resented the fact that she would never be alone." The need for solitude is neither a hindrance nor an advantage because Susan no longer accepts her place as the mother, she wants her independence back. However, she would also like the trust of her husband, for them to be happy together as husband and wife. On the contrary, Matthew sends a detective to spy on his wife and this connotes that he distrusts his wife, but it is ironic due to the fact that he once had an affair and now suspects his wife. Millet's argument that women are no recessive in nature is true because even though she cannot tell her husband how she feels, she is adamant to find time and space for herself in the room upstairs, the garden and room nineteen. This suggests that Susan remains independent in thought; she does not sercome to her husband's dismissal of her very being. The fact that her husband had affairs suggests his love for his wife is no more, he is
untrustworthy and unapproachable, and he cannot consciously
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