Mary Turner Identity

Doris Lessing’s work of fiction in her first novel The Grass is Singing, nevertheless reveals how an author can use a central character to raise issues of personal identity, memory and the opportunity life presents any of us for ‘becoming’. The protagonist of her novel the young unmarried Mary Turner, who begins the early stages of her life as an independent, strong women. However, she is pushed by society to conform to the everyday normalities of life, including marriage and raising a family. Mary Turner is a woman who originally differs from the norm and has no desire to marry or pursue marriage like the rest of her friends. However, her status as a single woman becomes the subject of gossip among her friends. It is from this point that Mary’s identity undergoes a great …show more content…
My husband was keen on her himself once, but he thinks she will never marry. She just isn’t like that, isn’t like that at all. Some missing somewhere (Lessing 40).
After hearing such gossip, Mary begins to doubt her identity as a regular woman in society. Lessing presents the opportunity that life presents Mary for ‘becoming’ as “she cannot recognise herself in the picture they had made for her” (41). Not only does this portray Mary’s sudden identity crisis as a woman, but it portrays that opportunity for Mary in ‘becoming’ someone she is not. As Mary reaches this new stage of awakening she goes from being a woman that “isn’t like that” to being a woman that relies on this idea of marriage to fulfil her emotionally. Thus, life presents Mary with the opportunity for ‘becoming’ something she is not and leaves her in a state of confused identity. She looks in the mirror, seeing a person that is challenging everything that is normal and ideal. Zak explains that in this situation, Mary undergoes a state of identity crisis: “Her protective stance collapses when she is forced to see herself