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<title> The best can become the worst, - the ironi of fate. </title>
This is an essay about the main theme of Doris Lessing's 'The fifth child'. The theme is that although you have every opportunity for living a good life you can't judge your own fate. David's and Harriet's dream is to live a happy life in a big house filled with children. They start to fulfil their dream but aren't ready for the consequences - the fifth child, Ben. In this essay David's and Harriet's fate will be examined and the importance of the setting for that theme. 
Harriet and David, two ordinary persons for their time, believe that they have the right to be happy and have a happy family, 'It was what they had chosen and what they deserved' p 28. They were ordinary because their moral differed from the moral of the sixties. What made them different was their attitude to sex. Harriet was still a virgin when she married David and that was unusual in the sixties. David was also different, he wanted to start a big family, which was unusual in England at this time. However, the main theme is that even though you have all the qualifications for having a happy life, in Harriet's and David's case a big house, financial aid from David's rich father, domestic help form Harriet's mother and the most important factor, love between a man and a woman, you are in no condition to judge your own fate. 
David and Harriet start to fulfil their dream, to create the idyll with a lot of children. Their families criticise them for rushing into this and David and Harriet 'were wondering why it was that people always criticized them', p.23. However, they take no notice of the criticism and give birth to four healthy children in a time period of six years. 'Happiness. A happy family. The Lovatts were a happy family' p.28. Although they are criticised relatives form all parts of England, and different social classes, come and visit them on Christmas-, Easter-, and summer holidays. Their happy and harmonious life climaxes before Harriet becomes pregnant with Ben - the fifth child.
Ben is the play of fate that the Lovatts are exposed to. Already as a foetus Ben is very lively and when he is born his mother feels that he doesn't belong to them. Ben is described as a goblin and an alien, but in my opinion he has an illness close to autism. He is described as hyperactive, strong, and as if he had an own thought pattern, and all this correspond to a lower grade of autism. However, it seems like Harriet knows that the life they had before they got Ben was unreal. This is revealed when she wants to say to Bridget, a girl with bad family relations, 'Look here, Bridget, don't expect so much. Life isn't like that!', p.40. Indicating that their way of life is more or less impossible in the long run.
When Harriet's sister Sarah got a child with Down's syndrome, Harriet believes that this is Sarah's and William's punishment for having quarrelled with each other. 'Harriet said to David, privately, that she did not believe it was bad luck: Sarah and William's unhappiness, their quarrelling, had probably attracted the mongol child...' p.29. In the same way she thinks that she and David are being punished when they get Ben. 'We just wanted to be better than everyone else, that's all. We thought we were.' p.142. David doesn't agree with his wife and he says it was just bad luck. He has difficulties to handle his wives bitterness. 
The social setting is relevant for the theme. As I noted earlier Harriet's and David's moral were very different from the moral of the sixties. They want to do things the natural way, for example they are against birth control pills, therefore, an abortion is never thought of when Harriet struggles with the foetus. The criticising relatives, who greedily take part in the Lovatts' happy family life, turn their back against them when Ben is born. They don't want to take the negative consequences of the Lovatts' life only the positive. Their solution to the problem, is to send Ben away to an institution. David is on the relatives side and leave his wife without support. Harriet becomes the scapegoat because she takes the responsibility for the life they have created, that is she cares about Ben. She brings Ben home again at the expense of the family's happiness. In the end there is nothing left of what they once had, all their children have left and they are alone in their former happy kingdom.
It is the irony of fate that Harriet give birth to an unhealthy child but also their will against contraceptives that bring this child into the world. They blindly goes through with their dream, without leaning back watching what they have created. However, this novel is about how fate or nature can play a trick on us although we have all the opportunities to a successful life. The worst can happen even to the best.
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