Chapter Fourteen Summary and Analysis

In 1943, Lessing marries Gottfried, not because they are madly in love, but because present society would not allow them just to have an affair. She tells the story of Gottfried, who was born in Russia to German parents, then raised in Germany. When Lessing leaves her husband and her children, she is ill for some time, and it is during this illness that Gottfried comes to see her, sleeps with her, and then they marry. She writes poems during that time, and years later many of her novels and short stories are composed about characters she meets and of her own personality during this time of her life. Gottfried prefers to present a cold and unfeeling face to the world, and she realizes now they were very mismatched. One black man came to their meetings, and was never completely...