Susan Rawling and her predictable end: an analysis of a self-sacrificed woman in Doris Lessing's To Room Nineteen

Abstract

This article presents Susan Rawling, a prototype of the self-sacrificed woman, whose passive resistance to verbalize her sorrows and frustrations leads her to a morbid conformity and ends up in a mental breakdown. We aim to outline a literary and psychological profile of this character through a bibliographical revision based on some of the most important scholars who study this particular work of Lessing’s, such as Wang & Wen (2012), Quawas (2007), Whittaker (1988), Sá Júnior (2003) and Zhao (2012) along with some of the most recognized scholars on this theme, psychologically speaking: Buber, Dantas & Tobler (2003), Torralba (2007), Dalmolin & Vasconcelos (2008), Fadiman & Frager (1994), Lyra et al (2009) and Antônio (2006). Yet concerning methodology, for the full understanding of the context of this particular short story, we firstly expose some details about Lessing’s life which directly reflect on her writing style. Then we analyze Susan Rawling literally and psychologically. As a result, we infer that her death must have been avoided if she had had the necessary strength to face and overcome her most painful emotional problems. We conclude that, differently from other female characters of Lessings’, Susan Rawling represents the self-sacrificing woman, who prefers to give up her dreams, her plans and her life than to face reality. This paper intends to contribute to the study of genre from a diachronic and critical perspective towards the role of the self-sacrificed woman (a theme that we have been academically treating lately), in the effervescence of the second wave of feminism.