Własny pokój : rola przestrzeni zamkniętych w opowiadaniu Doris Lessing "Pokój nr 19"

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the role of space in life of Susan Rawlings, the protagonist of a short story written by Doris Lessing To Room Nineteen. The character’s attitude towards closed spaces plays a significant role in the story, as it gives a reader an idea of Susan’s condition. The woman expresses a desperate need of solitude, which is a clear consequence of her problems in personal life. Although the room 19, a private, exclusive space that Susan tries to preserve, gives her only an illusory chance to solve overwhelming dilemmas, still it becomes an important and symbolic feminine asylum. The desperate need of seclusion and the attempt to posses “a room of one’s own”, makes Lessing’s short story one of the crucial texts of 20th century feminist literature, as it manifests women’s right to freedom and independence