criticism on Doris Lessing’s "A Woman on a Roof"

On Doris Lessing’s "A Woman on a Roof"

April S. Martinez

Doris Lessing’s "A Woman on a Roof" allows us to understand how some men view woman: as mere objects for display and possession. Lessing shows how each of the male characters reacts and deals with rejection from a woman sunbathing on a nearby rooftop. We discover how three men’s preoccupation with sex keeps them unaware of how their advances may be unwanted and ignorant of their action’s possible consequences.

All three men share the desire to get this woman’s attention. Working on a rooftop of a block of flats in the hot, hot, sun, these men seek a diversion from the relentless heat. They whistle, yell, and wave at a near naked woman on a rooftop nearby, but the woman pays no mind to them. Their isolation on the rooftop and the woman’s relentless indignation fuels the men’s decent into a world of lewd behavior, thereby creating an atmosphere of harassment and rejection. They become "taunted" by this woman’s indifference towards them.

All three men have distinctly different attitudes towards the situation they have created. Each has experienced rejection from women. In fact, each displays a level of hardness that affects his attitude. They each react differently to the woman’s indifference and each take his efforts to different levels.

Tom, the youngest, represents a primary level, a man untouched by rejection. Stanley, the instigator, clearly at a secondary level to Tom, shows a man slightly touched by rejection. Stanley hates the blows of rejection to his manhood. Harry, on the other hand, represents a final level where he considers the woman’s presence trivial. He is long since married and possibly has suffered many indignities with regards to the scowls of women.

The three men momentarily find distraction from the heat as they become obsessed with the sunbather’ s exact location. They report her movements to one another. Stanley likens her presence on her roof to "a crime gotten away with." He states that "he would never let his wife do what she is doing" (Lessing 857). Acting as judge and jury, all three men seem to deny her the right to be on her roof doing as she pleases.

The woman acts as if she has managed to escape the mindless need to entertain men (Allen 200). The woman on the roof has not offered one invitation for comment or attention, yet the men feel she has. By being caught by their eyes was invitation enough, yet the woman ignores the men no matter what (Lessing 858). She remains the symbol of a new age woman who disdains harassment from men.

Tom believes he is this woman’s hero. Throughout the story he sees himself protecting her from Stanley’s domination (Lessing 858). He feels he is not her harasser and that she must be aware of his love for her. His dreams of her have convinced him that meeting this woman is in his destiny. He doesn’t interpret her indifference as rejection as Stanley does and has no idea how he will suffer for it later. Far gone into his fantasy, Tom imagines the nearby crane aiding his heroic rescue of her.

Stanley shows a hatred for this woman’s remote coolness (Lessing 858). An attitude not yet displayed by Tom and long since forgotten by Harry, his anger reveals how he has dealt with the indifference of women before. Protected for the moment, by this lofty location, Stanley floats above his memory of past rejections. He is barely coping with the situation and shows he is losing it as he becomes more verbally abusive towards her.

In the middle of the story Lessing takes us away for a moment as she reminds us of a folktale of long ago. She refers to the woman as Lady Godiva and Tom shares the same name as Godiva’s voyeur (859). The small amount of clothing on the woman on the roof is not much less than Godiva’s long hair. Tom’s admiration and longing for the woman is nothing more than "peeping" and like the folktale, Tom is set to be punished eventually.

Lessing’s introduction of Mrs. Pritchett into the story serves to exemplify Stanley’s reason for his confidence with women. Mrs. Pritchett serves the three men tea and flirts with Stanley (Lessing 860). There is no tension between Mrs. Pritchett and Stanley (Atack 206). This shows Stanley can have his successes with women. Upon returning to the roof the contrast of the attention he had just received from Mrs. Pritchett and the inattention from the woman on the roof is too much for Stanley to bear and he announces he is going home. All he can do now, for the sake of his own ego, is condemn her once and for all.

The situation is heating up as the temperature soars into the 80’s. Stanley begins stomping and screaming at this woman. Harry struggles to take control of the situation as he sees no end to Stanley’s and Tom’s obsessive behavior. He takes responsibility to knock the men off early before asking his boss. Stanley is clearly no good for work for the rest of the day and Tom has become delusional as he is now free to pursue his woman.

It is now Tom’s moment of truth. He surprises the woman by pouncing in on her space. She stares at him and asks him "what do you want?" (Lessing 861). Expecting to be welcome, he stammers over his explanation of being there. She offers no idle conversation and rejects him with the words "go away" (Lessing 861) . Tom doesn’t immediately realize what has happened because of a phenomenon called "delay of stupidity." Tom will suffer from his impulsive actions and move up to Stanley’s attitude level. Eventually, Tom will land at Harry’s level, as Stanley has, accepting (reluctantly) that not every women is an object for man’s passion.

Retreating and feeling broken, Tom gets drunk "in hatred of her." This lesson has "fixed" him as if to say: "see what you get for being so stupid?" (Lessing 862). The delay in Tom’s realization of his stupidity was inevitable. On the roof, Stanley and Harry displayed "lessons learned" in their attitudes. They knew when to quit. Tom took his unbridled actions all the way because he knew no better.

The men return to work the next day with a new distraction on their minds. The weather has changed suddenly and is no longer attractive to sun bathers. Without the presence of the woman on the roof there are no sexual thoughts to preoccupy them. For Tom and Stanley, the consequences of their actions are forgotten and only evident in their new levels of understanding.

Works Cited

Allen, Orphia J., Short Story Criticism. Vol 16. Ed. Thomas Vottler. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Co., 1990.

Atack, Margaret., Short Story Criticism. Vol 6. Ed. Thomas Vottler.Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Co., 1990.

Leasing, Doris. "A Woman on a Roof." The Harper Anthology Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1981.