Lessing's Beloved?

Both Toni Morrison's Beloved and Doris Lessing's The Summer Before The Dark have provided insightful commentaries on social standards from a feminine perspective for the benefit of fans and scholars alike. Yet their viewpoints in the two works being reflected upon here differ somewhat in their respective positions. Morrison's Beloved is that of a black woman in post-Civil War America, while Lessing's is one from the point of view of a middle-aged woman in 20th century England. Though there are shared themes in the two works, there are also different perspectives that combine to give us a greater understanding of the female role in society.

Toni Morrison's statement on social prejudice is centrally focused on racial bigotry, though she also points out that being a black woman makes it an even more difficult struggle. Doris Lessing's work deals with the more subtle prejudice felt by the older segment of a society; again we see how this bias is even more pronounced where women are concerned. They both demonstrate how social pressures force people of certain social categories to succumb to their expectations; both authors also point out that these pressures are more intense when women are the target. Yet the radical difference between the social positions of the heroines of the two stories make the comparisons even more enlightening.

In Beloved, we find Sethe as an independent, highly-motivated black woman who escapes the ravages of war only to relocate in a displaced black community struggling to establish its own identity. Her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, is another strong-willed individual who is a centrifugal force in bringing the community together. Only Sethe's conflict comes in the form of slave traders who have determined that her newborn child is their legal property. Sethe chooses to kill her child rather than surrender it, which takes the story left of center onto a supernatural plane which provides the rich allegory found throughout the tale.
Her defiance of authority and social mores takes us along an interesting tangent. She carries the past around with her, living amidst it in the form of the ghosts that haunt her life. Despite this preconception that others have of her, she raises a daughter as a single mother and finds suitable employment to sustain herself. When Paul D comes into her life, she is still a complete woman who needs the love of a man to enrich her life. Yet she is still strongly independent, able to go on without him when the situation grows untenable for him due to the supernatural contingencies. In a time when black families and communities were being torn asunder, Morrison's heroine remains strong despite the pressure of her peers to get with their social program. Marriage and a home away from the haunted house become a compromise she cannot make.

Lessing's heroine differs in already having `been there, done that'. Kate Brown is a forty-five-year-old woman whose husband is off on a business trip and children off on their own paths in life. She decides to take on employment and set out into the world for a spiritual journey that we experience at her side.

She is painfully aware of her fading beauty in her middle years, though this is quickly remedied by the rejuvenating feeling she enjoys in reentering society as a `single woman' once again. Having found a new purpose, she gets a new hairstyle, a new wardrobe, and even a `boy toy' in a younger lover. It is in the omniscient narrative where we find her reflecting on the social constraints imposed upon her in her life in England. Looking from the outside in, she is now able to see just how much of her individuality is compromised by being a mother and wife in middle-class society. This newfound freedom gives us a different perspective that serves well to illuminate the position of such a woman in modern-day society as well.

Despite the revelations, both authors concede that life is what it is, and we all are eventually caught up in its slipstream. Sethe endures a harrowing experience in losing the reincarnation of her daughter, and in her crushing loss she is able to regain the love and support of Paul D who returns to her side. Though her spirit is bent, it is never broken, and as a complete woman it is the need for love and security that will eventually fill the void in her life. Kate, alternately, draws her strength from the knowledge of what she has back home to fall back on. Michael is constantly in her thoughts, as are her children. Though her spirit is rejuvenated by this newfound freedom, she never loses sight of who she is and where she came from. She knows she has to return, and it is never a daunting thought, only the completion of the circle that she is finally free to travel.

Again the social prejudices come into play as Sethe can no more escape the struggle of the black community than Kate can elude the restrictions of her age. Both authors make it painfully clear that society places labels on people that even the strongest spirits find impossible to escape.

It is not enough that the protagonists are women. Sethe still is forced to endure the stigma of being a black person in post-slavery society. Kate has to deal with being an older woman, especially during her romantic interlude with Jeffrey during which they are both seen as oddities. Both authors offer these scenarios in sharing with us a compound dilemma that a large segment of the population is forced to contend with even in modern-day society.

As a final observation, we can see that it is ultimately their womanhood that is the source of their strength and salvation. Paul D is there to serve and protect the woman, just as Michael will be home when Kate finally returns. Both Morrison and Lessing expound upon the female condition and the social difficulties women face, but being women is also their greatest virtue, and it is this which makes their lives complete and allows them to transcend whatever obstacles society places in their way.