To Room Nineteen | Themes

To Room Nineteen Themes

Conformity and Restriction

Susan experiences social as well as personal pressure to conform to specific cultural dictates. Her class, place, and gender all place social restrictions on her. Her class (middle) and place (suburbia) have been proscribed by specific cultural boundaries. Since she is in the middle class, she must own an expensive, large home in suburbia and maintain it well, which involves a great deal of time and money. As she attends to her home, her position in suburbia cuts her off from the more active life of the city. Her interaction in the community is limited to other middle-class homeowners and the servants who work for them.

The most pressing social restrictions, however, are placed on Susan as a result of her gender. She, not Matthew, must confine herself to the house in the suburbs because that is what was expected of women in England during the mid-twentieth century....
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