This paper aims to explore the depiction of female identity crisis and the resulting psychological conflict in Doris Lessing’s short story “To Room Nineteen” through the portrayal of its protagonist Susan Rawlings, a middle-aged housewife from a middle-class family in a mid-twentieth century London suburb. Lessing shows that gender inequality is a problem in human society that challenges feminine identity. To evaluate this identity crisis, the author portrays a female figure, Susan who is a victim of the male chauvinist society. The patriarchal social structure ultimately annihilates feminine individuality. The underlying reasons behind gender inequality flatten the identity of Susan as a woman. Susan cannot establish her distinctiveness. Being a representative of all oppressed women in a male-dominated society, Susan longs to be a person, to be free, and to settle down based on her own decisions. She pines for emancipation from her psychological turmoil but sadly enough, her desire for liberty increases her conflicts, and mental breakdown more and more, and ultimately leads her to make a decision to commit suicide that reflects a woman’s failure. Thus the paper deals with the dilemma of female identity crisis and consequential psychological conflict in a male-dominated society.

Keywords: Doris Lessing, feminine figure, identity crisis, psychological conflicts, Susan Rawlings, “To Room Nineteen”.