Surviving Marital Discord: A Critical Study of Doris Lessing’s Select Works

Abstract

The shattering experience of the Second World War led many prominent writers to textualize it in their novels. In this connection, Doris Lessing is no exception. However, her treatment of disintegration as a vibrant theme is somewhat different from her contemporaries. As it turns out in her novels, disintegration operates as a mode of signification in varied forms and guises. This is abundantly evident in her huge corpus of writings. Though she tries to come to terms with its disastrous effects by joining extremes, there seems to be no possibility in sight to escape its over-arching presence. Her writings contain an important element of progressive conscience, which is a kind of organic sensibility and there is a lasting impact of Sufism on her writings and as well as on her philosophy of life. Lessing does not discard life in any way in spite of conflicts and contradictions but accepts it as a gift of Divine and tries to extract meaning and harmony out of destruction and disintegration. In her novels, she always tries to infuse microcosm with macrocosm, resulting in the universal or spiritual evolution and this finally results in the victory of love not as a physical, emotional or spiritual force but something higher than these and that is a cosmic force which is quite capable of converting evil into good. Almost all her works show this cosmic love as a supreme force which can destroy or transmogrify the evil. The world of her novels is of continual change where individual consciousness interpenetrates and where human individuals formulate special senses in order to hear the planetary voices. She is a writer deeply entrenched in the social and political locale of her time, which is reflected in the thematic and narrative overtones of her huge corpus of writings. She has been famous for her prophetic vision. She starts thinking where normally all other women stop. What makes her fiction even more interesting is the fact that she is a developmental writer and thinker.