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<title> The Fifth Child a story of a perfect life falling apart </title>
A perfect life, is not that what we all want? But is it possible to control everything that happens in it. Even though we try to control everything that happens around us, most things are out of our control. We can try to create the perfect life, but we are never safe from bad or evil things happening in it. The main characters of this story turn against their families and the values of the time they live in, to create what they think is the perfect life, but something happens that destroys their idyllic world. In this essay I am going to look at the main theme in Doris Lessing's "The Fifth Child", and discuss the importance of setting for this theme. 
This story can be seen as the story of a mother's love, or about guilt, but the most outstanding theme is the sudden change. The change that can turn the life of a family up side down, and destroy the idyllic life they have created for themselves. The main characters, the young couple Harriet and David, are determined to build the life and family they want. They go against their families and the society around them to do what they think is the right thing. When reading this book, one feels that something must happen to break this perfect idyllic life, and this something is the birth of their fifth child. This changes everything. Their perfect family falls apart. Their relatives and friends pull away, and their own children are afraid of this vicious new baby. The child is different, evil and violent, and suddenly a big part of their life is socially unacceptable. Their own child is unacceptable, and even Harriet and David can make themselves love him.
Because this is a story about suddenly not fitting in, the setting is of big importance. The different settings that are relevant for this story are the time in history the story takes place, the scenery, and the moral, social and emotional conditions that surrounds the characters of the story. 
The time in history is the late 1960's.The atmosphere in England at this time, is unconstrained and the idea of a big family is regarded as old-fashioned. Fewer women want to stay at home with their children and divorces are much more common than they used to be. This also shows in the social, moral, and emotional conditions that surround the main characters, and which is connected to the time. Harriet and David goes against their families and the values of the society they live in to create a perfect family and a perfect life. Harriet comes from a "real family" with a mother who stayed home with the children. Getting married and having children has always been the obvious choise for Harriet. Harriet's mother is not at all as happy about the idea as Harriet. She knows what hard work is involved in this. David's parents are divorced and he grew up with two families, of whom neither worked very well. He wants his family to be a perfect one, with a loving wife and a lot of happy children. His family is as much against the idea as Harriet's mother. But nothing they say can stop the young couple. Harriet and David turns against the "greedy and selfish" (29) spirit of the times with their version of a normal, traditional family. 
The next important part of the setting is the scenery, in this book a big old Victorian house in a quiet neighbourhood outside London, that Harriet and David buys to create the perfect life in. The door is always open for friends and relatives and the house is filled with warmth and kindness. In the book Harriet and David think of their house as "their fortress, their kingdom" (30). The house becomes something of a retreat and people look forward to spending their holidays there. Harriet and David are convinced that this perfect life and home is something they deserve. They shut the rest of the world out, and even though they hear about things happening in the world outside, this is something that really does not concern them. The use of a quiet little town and an old Victorian house with its many warm family gatherings to describe the idyll before the dramatic change in their lives, is very effective. 
As we have seen the setting is of big importance for the main theme of this book. It is important for us to know what is "the normal" thing to do at this time, and why Harriet's and David's idea of the perfect family is regarded as strange. It is also important to know what kind of moral and social conditions that surround them and their families, because from this we can understand the way they behave. Finally, the choise of scenery, the small town and the big old Victorian house, are effective to describe the idyll that is dramatically changed into a nightmare.
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