Abstract:
Argues that the central characters in Doris Lessing's novels, in struggling to shape for themselves a new and authentic identity in a changing world, come into conflict with the mother. Three of Lessing's works are analysed in detail, while brief reference is made to nearly all of her novels and some African short stories. The three works selected are The Grass is Singing, "To Room Nineteen" and The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five. The mother-daughter conflict is linked to Lessing's perennial concern with the relations between the individual and the collective. Both Lessing's first novel, The Grass is Singing and a short story entitled "To Room Nineteen" are found to express the author's violent rejection of the way of life of the domesticated woman. A distinction is drawn between The Grass is Singing and "To Room Nineteen." The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five is judged to represent the conclusion of the mother-daughter theme in Lessing's work. The author is described as having moved from an attitude of angry protest to one more conciliatory. However, if Lessing redeems the traditional roles of marriage and motherhood in Marriages, she does so only by limiting their significance within the concepts marriage and motherhood to a metaphorical status. The alterations noted in Lessing's treatment of the mother-daughter theme are linked to developments in social currents and views in the post-war period.
