A's Analysis of Extract 2

Introduction:
This text is an excerpt from the novel written by Doris Lessing who’s entitled: the fifth child. The scene takes place in the afternoon, David and Harriet will discover their new mansion and this is in this extract where they are going to make love for the first time.

 we will see in a first time  the feelings of Harriet and David during the discovering of the mansion  and the description of this mansion; in a second time we will see that behind the joy and happiness is hiding a dark side in this house that allows us to anticipate about their future lives.

I) discovery and description of the mansion

In this excerpt D.Lessing tells us that Harriet and David are very happy about their new house”their hearts thudding with happiness”

Then she continued with the description of this mansion: three floors, with a big living room and kitchen, many bedrooms for the children and family, and the big attic

Through the visit of their home they already imagine what will happen in each room:  children who are not yet born, they imagine theme playing magical games in the attic and also they imagine all the bedroom full of children.

In this extract we can see  that for David and Harriet this mansion  it’s a kind of a fairytale because their dreams come true and moreover D.Lessing compare the mansion to a kingdom and  Harriet ad David are the queen and the king of this one and nobody will control them they are free to live like old fashion persons.

At the end of this extract Harriet and David they made love in the big room where they was already a bed which belonged to the previous former. That for tell us that they want that is the heart of they kingdom the place where all will happen.

II) This happiness hides a dark side

In this extract we can moreover see that there are negatives aspects that can destroy this happiness:

First we can compare the mansion to an ivory tower because they can be disconnected with the world and they need go out to feed they love because they have old fashion values and it can be dangerous for theme

Also in this extract it’s describe a lilac tree which emphasize love but the author tell us that this tree give a shadow into the room s which can be positive because it‘s can protect of the sun ray but can also have a negative meaning threat, rotten fruit=Ben.

 Moreover she tell us that the tree was with “vigorous buds, soon to burst into flower”  so it’s means  that the season where the scene takes place is springs and it emphasize fertility that why Harriet was “at the height of her fertility” and she knew it. And that why she says :”no ,stop” because they have  plan to don’t have children during the following two years because of financial problems because they have just purchased this mansion they did not have  the financial resources to take care of children.

And finally we can also compare them  to the milkmaid story ,there are imagine everything and nothing will happen like there were imagine it and also it shows there unconsciousness because they are making love in this extract without contraception

Conclusion

To conclude we can say that this extract is important because it‘s present the place where all will happen: the birth of the children and the life which they imagine this is hear where Harriet and David made love for the first time.