“A Woman on a Roof” is written by famous woman writer Doris Lessing. This short story is not just about the conflict between both genders, but the war of class differences concerned we can learn from it. One sentence on the beginning of the story: Then they saw her, between chimneys, about fifty yards away. The distance of “fifty yards” reflects that one class leaves alone another class in life. The life the woman spends was in an idle way lying in the sun for a healthy color of skin while the three working men have to replace gutters on a roof in the sun for supporting their lives. So the sun is helpful to the former class, but cruel to the later class.
dorisAll three men desire to get the sunbather’s attention as they need a diversion from the relentless heat. But no matter how hard they try including whistling, yelling, waving to the woman on a rooftop nearby, the woman keeps paying no mind to them. “She ignored them, no matter what they did” They become “taunted” by this woman’s indifference towards them.
Lessing’s introduction of Mrs. Pritchett serves the three men tea and flirts with Stanley. “There is no tension between Mrs. Pritchett and Stanley. This shows Stanley can have his su
ccesses with women. Upon returning to the roof the contrast of the attention he had just received from Mrs. Pritchett and the inattention from the woman on the roof is too much for Stanley to bear. All he can do now, for the sake of his own ego, is condemn her once and for all. Stanley shows a hatred for this woman’s remote coolness (Lessing 858). An attitude not yet displayed by Tom and long since forgotten by Harry, his anger reveals how he has dealt with the indifference of women before. Protected for the moment, by this lofty location, Stanley floats above his memory of past rejections. He is barely coping with the situation and shows he is losing it as he becomes more verbally abusive towards her.
However, at the beginning, Tom differs from the Harry and Stanley who are angry with the woman. Yong Tom is extremely fascinated by the sexy woman in bikini and fantasizing about her. Even he convinces that he is this woman’s hero. Throughout the story he sees himself protecting her from Stanley’s domination. He feels he is not her harasser and that she must be aware of his love for her. His dreams of her have convinced him that meeting this woman is in his destiny. He doesn’t interpret her indifference as rejection as Stanley does and has no idea how he will suffer for it later. Far gone into his fantasy, Tom imagines
the nearby crane aiding his heroic rescue of her.
Doris Lessing’s "A Woman on a Roof" seems to suggest the class differences in London by telling the story of the sunbathing woman and the three working men. Maybe in many cases, the two classes don’t share the equal status of society. But that can’t halt the aspiration of lower class for a better and more dignified life.

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