The Summer Before The Dark

2 Pages 597 Words

“The Summer Before The Dark”
By: Doris Lessing


Kate Brown is the typical mother of four children, and the

ideal wife. She describes her life as “an ordinary life which I have

been living with regrets of not having done everything I would have

dreamed to do”. By the way she describes it, I think her life, as a

middle class person, has fallen into the routine of serving her

husband and children, mostly forgetting about her need and wants.

Also, I think that this is one of the most common problems that

happens to any women about Kate’s age, 45 years old. That is

why there is not equality among sexes in our society, because woman

are visualize as the ones that should serve to their families and

others. Kate’s feelings towards this situation made her feel

abandoned, forgotten, and worthless.


Kate lives in London with her family, but she grew up in

Portugal with her grandfather. She is really good at languages, she

knows English, Italian, and is perfect in Portuguese. Thanks for her

knowledge of language the summer, which she was going to spend

alone in Boston, she got hired for a job as an interpreter at Global

Foods Organizations. I think that by getting this job she felt really

proud about herself, and also she must felt really important because

she proved to herself that she was not useless. Besides, by getting this

job she was going to feel part of a group which depended and valued

her by her skills and knowledge, something that her family no longer

appreciated about her.


Her marriage with Dr. Michael Browns was very difficult for

me to understand. Her feelings were mixed and sometimes she loves

being with him, but other times she talks about hating him. Well,

every woman would feel like that if their husbands had cheated on

them. That is what he did, and in every and every time she has a

chance to do it,...