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<title> THE FIFTH CHILD </title>
In this essay I want to identify what I see as the main theme of the novel ' The Fifth Child' by Doris Lessing. Additionally I will look at the different aspects of the setting (geographical, social and historical) and how these, in my view, are related to the main theme.
What I see as the main theme of the text is the impossibility of trying to create perfect happiness by shutting out the rest of the world. David and Harriet are both committed to family life, which they believe, will bring them happy and perfect lives. In the beginning of the text, before Ben is conceived, this is also true:
"Happiness. A happy family. The Lovatts were a happy family. It was what they had chosen and what they deserved" (p. 28). However as the story progresses it is obvious that their pursue for happiness is more of an obsession than a desire to lead a normal, content life. For them it becomes a struggle between good and evil, where the outside world becomes more and more of a threat. As their neighborhood fills with crime and brutal incidents, Harriet contemplates: "...more and more it seemed that two peoples lived in England, not one - enemies, hating each other..." (p.30). As Ben enters their lives, Harriet knows, instinctively, that he also is the enemy: "She herd herself say, 'you aren't going to do me in, I won't let you" (p.69). 
David who comes from a broken home is obsessed with the idea of creating a safe room for himself and his family. This room will be an extension and an amplification of his childhood room in Oxford (p. 12), a room he considered to be his home while traveling between his two sets of parents. David continuously refers to the importance of having a room of your own, for example when the different family members discuss the sleeping arrangements for David and Harriet's young children: "Why not let them sleep together always?' Dorothy, the others would enquire, 'A room each for such little tiddlers!' ' It's important,' said David fierce; ' everyone should have a room" (p.31). 
This "room" is created in a large Victorian house in which they hide from reality and intend to take control of happiness. Only family and friends are invited to this "...spring of hospitality whose guardians were Harriet and David..." (p.30). They view this house as a kingdom and a fortress in which the are able to cut off any obstacles to happiness. As Harriet becomes increasingly pregnant with Ben, a small, but significant, change in the setting of the house takes place. The curtains in the living room are no longer drawn (p.54), as to show that the dangerous out side world is closing in on their happiness. 
There are especially two characters who are vital in the way they enable David and Harriet to continue living with the rest of the world at an arms length. First there is Harriet's mother. She is a working class woman who helps the young family in running the house and taking care of the children. Because of her background she does this as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Secondly there is David's very wealthy father who decides to pay the mortgage on the large house. Although David had always looked down on his father's wealth, he receives the gift without hesitating: "Flashy and too easy, that was the life of the rich; but now he was going to be beholden of it" (p.20). 
 The way that David looked down on his father's way of living is similar to how, both Harriet and David, viewed the moral standards of the sixties. In their perspective this was a time of moral depravation from which they felt the need to isolate themselves: "It had been hard preserving their belief in themselves when the spirit of the times, the greedy and selfish sixties, had been so ready to condemn them..." (p.29). Just as they excluded themselves from the sixties, Ben does not show a remote sign of wanting to be part of his parents' life. Instead he joins a criminal gang in which he can feel appreciated for who he is. In the last line of the text Harriet is imagining seeing him on TV: "...standing rather apart from the crowd, staring with his goblin eyes, or searching the faces of the crowd for another of his kind".
	The different aspects of the setting are, in my view, vital for the main theme in two ways. The geographical setting (the large Victorian house) and the social setting (their social background) as they help the young couple keep their distance to the out side world. The historical aspect is significant because the spirit of the sixties made the young couple feel very different, and had a big part in their wanting to isolate them selves from the rest of the world.
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