#DORIS LESSING THE GRASS IS SINGING FULL#

It is not merely EliotвЂ™s smothering and oppressively hot atmosphere that is taken over by Lessing but the spatial arrangement as well. In the middle of вЂњthis vast, harsh countryвЂќ there is the TurnersвЂ™ wretched dwelling вЂ“ вЂњenough to drive anyone mad.вЂќ

#DORIS LESSING THE GRASS IS SINGING FULL#

This process is not entirely due to the infinity and impossibility of the African land, which could be envisaged as a vast cemetery full of вЂњtumbled graves,вЂќ perpetually tormented by the burning and unending sun, but also due to the closed and suffocating little cottage. However, the closed-up suffocating place becomes unbearable, and consequently, she slowly goes paranoiac. On her arrival, Mary is stupefied to discover their standards of living but she stays optimistic for a long while.

The Turners share the suffering of all African farmers but since they belong to the вЂњpoor whitesвЂќ, they are forced to feel it even more profoundly. They live in a miserable, yet self-imposed poverty without any promise of redemption. She moves into his cottage which is situated in the middle of the savage terrain. Mary, who grew up and has lived her whole life in the town, marries Dick Turner, a farmer who is in perpetual combat with nature. Lessing uses a technique similar to EliotвЂ™s: parallel to the African space, she also presents the main charactersвЂ™ cottage as the central place of events. It is not only the futility and eventual death of the Western myths that is accentuated in the passage but the hopelessness of ever changing for the better. With the appearance of the chapel in the middle of the barren landscape the poem becomes truly desolate. In one of the most cited passages - which is incidentally LessingвЂ™s epigraph as well - the poet establishes a juxtaposition between the arid landscape and an enclosed space of a chapel. EliotвЂ™s The Wasteland, which blends antique myths and representations of contemporary society, finally resulting in a sombre and pessimistic vision. Doris Lessing famously takes her title from T.

Doris lessing the grass is singing