Abstract:
Doris Lessing's "To Room Nineteen" chronicles a passionate account of Susan Rawlins’s
Pathetic fate. Susan, a middle-aged English woman, appears to have a happy married
Life with her husband and four children. But her disillusionment of this illusory
Happiness principally caused by her husband's infidelity forces to her embark on a quest
For self-discovery and Freedom. However, Susan's misinterpretation of the ideas of her
'True self and 'freedom ' ironically propels her to a descent into madness and finally to
Committing suicide in Room Nineteen in Fred's Hotel. For the purposes of this paper I
Propose to examine how Susan's conjugal life gradually degenerated, and how Room
Nineteen stands for the ideas of Susan's emancipation and disintegration at the same
Time. Room Nineteen gives Susan hopes to rise from the frustration of her maladjusted
Family life. But it is this very hotel room that, like a silent assassin, devours her ill the
End. Thus Room Nineteen 'offers multifold significations as it becomes the symbol of
Susan's mental trauma, her aspiration and also her failure to subvert the authority of
Patriarchy.
