A Woman on a Roof
The Manifestations of Men’s Desire to Control
Doris lessing is one of the most important English writers along with America’s Mary Mccarty and France’ Simon de Beauvior. She is one of that extraordinary company of women whose strong insight into the nature of intellectual life today command international interest and admiration. Her Golden Notebook is her masterpiece, involving the contradiction of class, discrimination of sex and politics. And A Woman on A Roof is not on her list, but it is a refined piece to read. The story happened in London where a woman wore a red scarf tied around her breasts and brief red bikini pants on the roof to have a sunbath. And three men on the roof were seduced. They tried any method to draw woman’s attention, but woman responded indifferently and coolly. That made angry and anguish1.
This anger and agony come from a deep desire of control to women when it suffers the destruction of “eternal
woman”2—the refusal from the roof woman. “Eternal woman” literally satisfies the men’s desire of control, such as
possession, conquest, reign, etc. In the texture, the desire of control is represented in three manifestations.
The first manifestation exists in men’s charm to fascinate women. The novel uses the common words to describe the life of common people, to reflect their common behavior and to express their common interest in beautiful woman. Shu Benhua once said: the beauty of women exists in men’s sexual impulse. In the texture, the Roof woman, with black hair, a flushed solid back, wore a red scarf tied around her breasts and brief red bikini and arms spread out. She is God’s precious named Pandora sent by the God to spread the misery and disease to men in the Greek legend. Three men are indeed tempted by this stunner, only the whistle appearing 7 times in the texture, especially Stanley. His whistle or yells or stamping or swearing never gains the active response from woman. At last his reaction to the woman’s indifference is from “adding a jest” to really angry and going home, his whistles from “wolf whistle” to provocation. Woman’s remote and cool eyesight injury his self-esteem that he was confident at his appearance and assured no woman could resist his charm. His irritation really reveals that under the condition of male worship and social preference, men’s proper pride
increases rapidly. In this sense, they take it for granted that they can handle all the situations. But the surrounding has changed. Women said NO. When refused by the roof woman, he turned to flirt with Mrs.Pritchett who helped him recovered his pride again. Then look at Harry, an old man, always smiled tolerantly to Stanley as if he experienced the same case. His indulgence shows his dread about pass of youth,
uncontrollable present and uncertain future. In that case, he wants from Stanley to review his past. Although he didn’t whistle, he still wants to get something from the roof woman, a power of youth. May he dream to live in Arab where the two genders are forbid to mingle and women always obey to men? And once Nietzsche cried loud: if you go to a woman, take your whip!3 Maybe he wants to regain his vigor from indulgence to Stanley!
The second one lies in ruling role in their life. There are four kind women around a man: wife, lover, mother and daughter. Those women all belong to “eternal women”. In his all life, he has an urge to take the ruling role over four kind women. To his wife, he is the heaven, the God; to the lover, he is a rod for vine; to his mother, he is a son and reliance; to the daughter,
he is the high mountain. There is a cluster of dialogue from texture to visualize the abstract saying. To the roof woman
At first sight, “she’s stark naked”, Stanley said annoyed and whistled.
“Bitch!” “If she was my wife.”
“ I bet her old man has put his feet down”. After he suffered Waterloo from the roof woman. To his wife
“What about your missus?”---Harry
“What about my missus?”----Stanley, preserving his independence.
“Christ,” said Stanley virtuously, “if my wife lay about like that, for everyone to see, I’d soon stop her.”
“Not a chance, not on our roof.” the soft of his wife made Stanley insist firmly.
To Mrs. Pritchett, he teased lady in badinage.
In his mind, there is a clear principle to distinguish the women,⑴wife---his possession, must stay at home,. If necessary, he will package and store her;⑵the roof woman and
Mrs.Pritchett---young ladies, the object of entertainment;⑶Lady Godiva like mother. So he thought the birth of women relying on needs of men. Woman must cater for men’s needs in the certain period. In the Bible, Eve is the rib from Adam, and ST.Thomas continued to declare that women were a kind of men with defects. Then Mr Branda affirmed: men can recognize himself independently, but women cannot. Stanley thought in his world he was the Kind, so his words were the command. But the refusal of the roof woman really astonished him. However, that can’t make him sense his ruling position had declined. He just turned to his wife or Lady Godive or Mrs. Pritichett to seek the comfort.
The third one is the strong desire of monopolizing a woman. “ Tom’s report was that she hadn’t moved, but it was a lie. He wanted to keep what he had seen to himself. She looked at them gravely, then went to the part of the roof where she was hidden from them: Tom was pleased. He felt she was more his when the other men couldn’t see her.”