The Wail Of The Marginal Man

Doris Lessing one of the most popular writers of British literature in the second half of thetwentieth century, is famous for her changeable styles of works and different perspectives all overthe world. And moreover due to her prolific works in which covered diversified artistic ideas,Lessing got the Nobel Prize for Literature as the confirmation of her final achievement. Herunique life experiences and living environment make her creation possess her own typical literarystyle, and even make herself own the cultural temperament of the Marginal Man, while just thisspecial disposition makes a profound influence on her novels. Reviewing from Doris Lessing’sworks, Marginal Man is the main clue in her literary creation. Most of characters she created inher works are living in the cracks of changeable era and cultural transformation. From the race ofblacks and whites to the free female under the colonial background in1950s and60s; and thenfrom the spiritual alienation under culture shock in1970s and80s to the difficult living conditionsof the middle-aged and the aged in her later works, all of these characters are the uniquemicrocosm of the Marginal Man created by means of blending Lessing’s own experiences andemotional imagery. All of these novels transmit the rise and fall of deep culture and the sense ofvicissitudes of life. With great pleasure, Lessing would like to focus on the marginal groups indifferent cultural background and racial strata. And furthermore she spared no efforts to pay moreattention to the Marginal Man and appeal to their suffering and inequalities reflected in her worksin various periods. Lessing is trying to show the cruelty and reality of this pluralistic society to thepublic and attract the collective attention to the marginal group. Therefore, her artificial creationhas also been pasted with the marginalized label.This thesis will be discoursed from five chapters: Doris Lessing and her main works will beintroduced in the beginning, and the literature reviews will be right behind it. And what’s more,the purpose and its significance will be tagged at the end of the first chapter; The second chaptermakes an entry point to the definition on marginal man, illustrating its detailed course ofdevelopment and spiritual connotations; The third chapter elaborates the characters of theMarginal Man in Doris Lessing’s representative works from three points of view, and then itmakes a breakthrough from three groups of young woman constrained by colonial ideology, themiddle-aged woman situated in the margin of the patriarchal society and the aged woman ignored and excluded by the modern society so that the definition on Marginal Man can be well confirmed.We can further understand that fleeing as their surviving way is to get rid of the shackles of life,moreover they bared the double loss coming from the external world and the innermost, then theyeventually made for resistance and came to their spiritual salvation in order to seek for theirspiritual home; The fourth chapter introduces the formative reasons of marginal man and itssignificance, including Doris Lessing’s own marginalized experiences, and the social reason ofhistorical background, and the realistic significance of reflection on marginal man in her works;The last part grasps the creative ideas and aesthetic pursuit, along with its own literary value andsignificance on the basis of final conclusion.