Social Pressures in Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen”

Every 16.2 minutes, somebody takes his or her own life, and on average one million people commit suicide every year. Have you ever thought about what might cause somebody to do something so tragic? In Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen” we see how even 50 years ago there were major social pressures playing a role in peoples lives, and creating a stereotype of what both men and women should live like. It is these very stereotypes and demeaning social pressures that lead to the unnecessary suicides in people who fall victim to the conformity that is demanded by society.
Susan was a stay at home mother and housewife who seemed to have the perfect life that every woman dreamt of. She had the big white house, with the beautiful garden and four lovely children to take care of while her “… handsome, blonde, attractive, manly man…” of a husband was off at work (Lessing 418). Susan stayed at home with the children but soon became unhappy with her life, and felt very confined. She would isolate herself, which soon escalated into her booking a room every week at a hotel outside of town just so that she could be alone and away from her family. Susan could not shake this feeling of being trapped in the stereotypical roles she was forced to play, and she felt that her only way out was by death.
Society had supported an unrealistic idea of what a woman should live her life like, and this was not a life that Susan enjoyed living. Before she had gotten married and had kids, Susan was an independent, working woman; Susan gave up this previous life in order to be what society thought she should be when she got married and had children. However, Susan felt trapped in this role of the “perfect mother” who stayed home with her kids all day. It came to the point where Susan “…resented the fact she would never be alone.” (Lessing 421). She even compares their hugs to a “human cage of loving limbs” which portrays how she feels trapped in her role as the caretaker to the children