Table of Contents
1. Introduction ...... 1
2. Doris Lessing’s Biography and Bibliography ...... 3
3. Doris Lessing’s Life and Fiction: General Themes in Lessing’s Novels ...... 8
4. The Grass is Singing ...... 11
4.1. The Narrative Structure, Themes, and Points of View ...... 11
4.2. Female Protagonists and Social Stereotypes ...... 12
4.3. Male female Relationships: Mary and Dick ...... 12
4.4. Race Relations, Superiority vs. Inferiority ...... 16
4.5. The Last Phase of Mary’s Life ...... 22
4.6. The Issue of Isolation and the Concept of “Suffering Female” ...... 25
5. Children of Violence Series: Martha Quest, A Proper Marriage ...... 29
5.1. Individual vs. Collective Conscience ...... 29
5.2. Male dominance and Martha’s Emancipation Efforts...... 29
5.3. Motherhood ...... 31
5.4. The Institution of Marriage: Different Perspectives ...... 35
5.5. The Issue of Politics and Equality of Races ...... 39
5.6. Freedom and Search for one’s Self ...... 41
6. Comparative Analysis of Lessing’s novels The Grass is Singing, Martha Quest, and A Proper Marriage ...... 46
6.1 Feminist Approaches ...... 48
6.2. Patriarchal Society ...... 49
6.3. Marriage, Family, and Social Identity ...... 51 6.4. Inner and Outer Self ...... 54
6.5. Sex Roles and Gender Hierarchies ...... 56
6.6. Individual Female Characters: Elements of Contrast ...... 60
6.7. Overall Summary ...... 61
7. Conclusion ...... 64
Works Cited ...... 69
Primary Sources ...... 69
Secondary Sources ...... 69 1. Introduction
In my thesis I would like to deal with psychological and social aspects of female protagonists in Doris Lessing’s African stories. The thesis will primarily comment on human experience with a particular focus on the quest for one’s “self”. Other significant issues are the position of women in society, including social and political circumstances. The research will also include an analysis of the human psyche more precisely, thought, behaviour, and personality. The significance of dreams and visions, their symbolism, and their relation to reality will not be left out in the discussion. They are, undoubtedly, an important element within the search for one’s self and they may reveal the subconscious of the protagonists. Additionally, psychological aspects in the analysed novels will be linked to the concept of identity, and to its quest. The thesis will primarily comment on various feminist views with references to a wide range of approaches relevant for the discourse, and to make the argument more interesting, these approaches will be supported by the textual evidence providing both implicit and explicit insights. However, all of this will be discussed within the context of human and social relations of the women heroines in the novels of Doris Lessing.
The introduction of the thesis will be devoted to the presentation of Doris
Lessing, both as a novelist and as a person, so that the reader might get to know significant facts about her life, her novels, and themes that she is concerned with. The thesis will discuss Doris Lessing’s early African novels: The Grass is Singing (1950),
Martha Quest (1952)1, and A Proper Marriage (1954)2. The focal point of my analysis will be mainly The Grass is Singing and A Proper Marriage . References to the textual evidence in Martha Quest will largely be omitted from my discussion but on account of
1 The first part of the Children of Violence series
2 The second part of the Children of Violence series
1 the fact that it is the first part of the Children of Violence series I consider it a valuable source of discourses that might support relevant arguments that come up later, in the second part of the series i.e. A Proper Marriage . Comparisons of the female characters in different social environments will be elaborated on in the individual chapters that will follow the introduction. What is more, the thesis will discuss a wide range of influences affecting the characters’ lives, including not only social and political issues but also the issues of gender and race relations. The main protagonists to be discussed in the thesis will be Mary Turner ( The Grass is Singing ) and Martha Quest ( Children of Violence series). They will be analysed with regard to their social, human, and political experience.
The thesis will concentrate primarily on the interconnection between the individual and collective identity with the role of society as a connecting element.
Because of this fact, not only the main female protagonists of the novels but also those characters who exercise influence on them will be referred to and analysed in the thesis.
Apart from that, gender issues essential for the development of the female protagonists will be dealt with. Hence, feminist approaches, supported by relevant theoretical materials, are the fundamental point of my research.
Furthermore, the thesis will comment on particular social and racial issues that are brought up in the novels under investigation. Nevertheless, the issues themselves are not meant to be the main points of analysis of the thesis. In any case, they will be taken into consideration and subsequently linked to the characters’ psychological development. These facts will also contribute to the analysis of the individual female protagonists and they will finally make up the conclusion of the thesis. Race relations, which are also associated with human and social relations, are the focal point to be discussed especially in Lessing’s novel The Grass is Singing.
2 2. Doris Lessing’s Biography and Bibliography
“Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities
simply by being given the opportunity to do so.”
(Doris Lessing)
Doris Lessing, a British author of modern fiction, was born on 22 October 1919 in
Persia. In 1925, she moved with her parents, who were of British origin, to a farm in
Southern Rhodesia 3, where she spent her childhood. She is, without any doubt, ranked among the most famous post war English novelists. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel
Prize for literature, as the oldest person who has ever won this prize (she was 87 years old). In the 1940s Lessing joined the Communist Party, which influenced her political thinking a lot. Nonetheless, her political ideas have changed directions many times in the course of her life. Lessing’s early novels are primarily concerned with the African
3 Today’s Zimbabwe.
3 setting and race relations in Africa. Apart from that, her early fiction might be considered autobiographical, as it reflects her own experience form Southern Rhodesia.
As soon as she moved to London, her first novel The Grass is Singing (1950) was published and immediately gained success. The story is set in Africa and it traces the tragic life of a farmer’s wife, Mary Turner, and comments on the disintegration of the coherence of her “self”, as a result of the oppressive forces coming from the outside. It actually “traces her decay into death,” as Taylor points out (25). The main focus of this novel is Mary’s psychological development and, in particular, consequences of the oppressive society and the repressed self. Not only does the novel speak against colonialism in Africa but it also refers to sexual conflicts. However, it might be a bit surprising that despite Lessing’s search for racial equality, she portrays Mary Turner as a representative of racism of the local white community. Generally spea