Word: lessinger
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The birth of this strange, violent, misfit child into a "normal" family is Lessing's way of observing that the middle-class is responsible for the existence of the underclass and must accept responsibilty for its behavior, whether brutal or apathetic. Savagery, according to Lessing, is a direct result of...
This selfishness is couched in a desire for so-called normality. The paradox that Lessing uncovers is that the violence and brutality of society, embodied in Ben, has its origin in the deceptive calm of the bourgeoisie.
LESSING is a canny observer of the role of Woman in society. As in her last novel The Good Terrorist, the female protagonist in The Fifth Child is unaware of her subjugated state. Harriet is the caretaker of the family. She is constantly pregnant, constantly trying to run the household...
Unlike Alice Mellings in The Good Terrorist, however, Harriet comes to understand her mistakes. Children are a "challenge to destiny", a contract not to be entered into hastily. Lessing makes the point that that the profligate mating of David and Harriet's marriage was as wasteful as the excesses of...
Ultimately, Lessing sides with the Lovatts' all-suffering parents. It is hard to resist identifying Lessing with Dorothy, Harriet's mother. Dorothy, the kind, sage, grey-haired granny is forced to rescue her daughter from the implications of her fertility. Dorothy "knew the cost, in every way, of a family...