The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing - Essay Example

When David and Harriet become the official owners of their new home, they promptly begin making their new family. Harriet is met with criticism from her family when she announces that she and David want to have a total of six children, if not more. Her family points out that so many children could only be met with financial downfalls, yet Harriet stands her ground, claiming that all she and David want to do is share their love with others. Despite her reservations, Harriet’s mother, Dorothy, offers to live with them and help Harriet during her pregnancy.

After four children are born - Luke, Helen, Jane, and Paul - Harriet believes that the best interest for her family would be to get all of them together and celebrate the marvelous gift of family. She accomplishes this by inviting her sister, Sarah, and her family for the holidays. Harriet wastes no time in comparing her perfect marriage and children to Sarah’s failing relationship and her daughter, who was born with Down Syndrome. David is not pleased by the change he sees in his wife, but decides against making a fuss about it.

Even though Harriet and David were set on having upwards of six children, after the fourth child is born, the couple realizes that they are financially incapable of bringing more children into the mix. Furthermore, Harriet has become too worn out from her constant pregnancies and from her day-to-day responsibilities as a mother. Unfortunately, much to their dismay, Harriet becomes pregnant with a fifth child. At first, Harriet is not too concerned about the pregnancy; after four pregnancies already, there were hardly any surprises to being with child.

She did not foresee, however, that the precious child in her womb would end up being the nightmare that would gradually unravel her sanity. Harriet first experiences issues with her fifth child while she is still pregnant. Her previous pregnancies were as bearable as pregnancies can be, yet Harriet found herself constantly doubled over with severe stomach pains. Alice, David’s aunt, comes to the aid of Harriet and helps her through this pregnancy. Alice’s guidance and companionship are no use against the unborn monster.

The pain that Harriet experiences keep getting worse as the unborn child kicks and punches violently until Harriet is at last forced to seek a doctor’s help in obtaining sedatives to ward off the pain. All it takes is for Harriet to threaten the unruly fetus with the drugs for the baby to quit his violent attack against his mother. While this eases Harriet’s experience, it pulls her apart from her husband and her children. When David makes it clear that he is hurt at the change that he sees in his wife, Harriet can do nothing but feel guilty.

Even armed with the sedatives, Harriet cannot tolerate the pregnancy any longer. She begs the doctor to take the child out of her at once, but he is reluctant to. “‘It’s because you don’t want to. It’s not you who is carrying this --’” She cut off monster, afraid of antagonizing him (Lessing 47).” Harriet is slowly being driven insane by the torture that she is experiencing. Finally, a month early, she gives birth to her baby, a son named Ben. Harriet quickly learns that the only thing worse than Ben while Harriet was pregnant is Ben now that he is out of the womb.

The other children quickly mark him off as being different. Even Harriet and David cannot deny that Ben is too