To Room Nineteen

Throughout the story, Lessing works to deconstruct various dichotomies, in particular with regard to Susan’s feelings about fidelity. A dichotomy is “a difference between two completely opposite ideas or things” (“Dichotomy.” Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, 3 Sep. 2021, Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/dichotomy. Accessed 5 Sep. 2021.). Lessing’s work generally presents dichotomies as deceptively simple oppositions that often require damaging or impossible choices—and, thus, should be dismantled.

The opposition between what Susan is supposed to feel with regard to Matthew’s infidelity (that it is unimportant) and how she actually feels (disappointed and bitter) becomes a point of contention within Susan’s internal dialogue. On the one hand, Susan wishes to discard what she sees as antiquated notions of faithfulness and commitment: “[N]o one can be faithful to one other person for a whole lifetime” (2546). On the other hand, she recognizes that “either the ten years’ fidelity was not important, or she isn’t” (2546). Susan then admonishes herself, revealing the “either/or” nature of the conflict to be unsatisfactory: “(No, no, there is something wrong with this way of thinking, there must be.)” (2547). In terms of the story’s resolution, the affairs are meaningless: Marriage, and the faithful love that cements it, is nothing more than a socially constructed contract between two willing parties—and Susan decides to opt out.