The Patriarchal System In Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child

Doris Lessing’s ‘The Fifth Child’ presents how the patriarchal system in the novel allows oppression of women and compels them to adjust to the society’s norms and conventions, causing psychological violence against women. A patriarchy system is defined as a society where males are the authoritative figure and women are expected to be submissive to them. It is interesting to point out how Doris Lessing does not only use male characters in the novel that execute traditional male gender roles, she also uses female characters who defend the system. A character analysis of Harriet reveals that through this quote, her constant repetition of “criminal”, her interpretation of the world and the social pressure she received from her husband and her family causes the readers to sympathize and understand the experience she goes through within the system. The setting of this

The dominant characters in the fifth child orient themselves to traditional masculine identities, in this quote specifically, is portrayed through Dr. Gilly. It is ironic to see a woman oppressing a woman in the novel. The narrator reflects Dr. Gilly as an unemotional and irrational doctor who does not sympathize with Harriett but instead chooses to ignore the emotional women by executing the typical masculine gender role as stressed out in the quote above “Dr. Gilly sat looking at her desk”. Lessing shows that the patriarchy system is not only sustained by traditional masculine men but is also defended by strong, dominating women who plays a masculine identity. It is perhaps an insidious focus in a patriarchy system where other women protect the system by executing their office and identities in a traditional masculine way. It is characters like Dr. Gilly, who orient themselves to play a masculine identity and cause weak characters such as Harriett and Ben to be suppressed in the