Mrs. Fortescue by Doris Lessing
"Mrs. Fortescue" is a short story by Doris Lessing that explores the complexities of adolescent sexual awakening through the experiences of a sixteen-year-old boy named Fred Danderlea. As Fred grapples with his emerging sexuality, he finds himself increasingly alienated from his sister, who has transitioned into young adulthood. This emotional turmoil is compounded when Fred discovers that the elderly woman living above his family, Mrs. Fortescue, is a prostitute. The narrative delves into Fred's shame and confusion as he confronts the stark realities of adult life, including casual conversations about sex that highlight generational differences in understanding and acceptance.
The story further intensifies when Fred, overwhelmed by his feelings, follows Mrs. Fortescue and his sister, leading to a shocking encounter that marks his sexual initiation. Lessing addresses themes of power dynamics, shame, and the harsh realities of adulthood through Fred's experiences and internal conflicts. The culmination of the story challenges traditional notions of masculinity and agency, leaving Fred with a new, unsettling perspective on his family and the world around him. Overall, "Mrs. Fortescue" serves as a poignant exploration of the complexities of growing up and the often painful transition from innocence to experience.
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Mrs. Fortescue by Doris Lessing
First published: 1963
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1950's
Locale: London, a small apartment above a liquor store
Principal Characters:
Fred Danderlea , the protagonist, a sixteen-year-old boy troubled by adolescent sexualityJane Danderlea , his more sophisticated, seventeen-year-old sister, with whom he shares a roomMrs. Fortescue , their elderly upstairs neighbor, a prostitute
The Story
"Mrs. Fortescue" is the story of a boy's sexual initiation. Fred Danderlea, at sixteen, is beginning to feel uncomfortable about his own emerging sexuality. Up until this autumn, he has had an easy, friendly relationship with his sister. Now she seems to hate him and treat him like a child from her superior position as a young woman no longer in school, free to go out in the evenings. Aided by the flimsy partition his parents have used to divide their room, he tempers his erotic dreams with visions of a lovely, tender maiden, his sister's alter ego, who redeems him from his shame. One night, tormented by libidinous inner battles, he sneaks out of the house and accidentally discovers that the ugly old woman who lives upstairs is a prostitute. He is filled with fear that his friends must know, and anger at his parents for tolerating her presence above them. When he confronts his parents with his new knowledge, they fail to react as he expects and proceed to discuss Mrs. Fortescue, her working conditions, and her relationship with her visitors as if there were nothing the slightest bit unusual about her occupation. Such "casual back and forth chat about this horror" turns him scarlet; he gobbles down his meal and returns to his room listening to the sounds above with "an ashamed, fixed grin on his face."
The next evening he follows Mrs. Fortescue and then his sister, spying on both their activities. After he observes Jane admiring an advertisement for lipsticks made to look like bullets, he returns home, fetches a revolver his parents have hidden in their liquor store, and places it under his sister's pillow. In his new "craziness," he sees phallic symbols everywhere and even squirms at the sight of his parents' double bed. Fred goes back downstairs to the store, gets a bottle of whiskey, and lies in wait for Mrs. Fortescue. Already slightly tipsy, she accepts his invitation for a drink and leads him to her room commenting that his dad has often done the same on cold winter nights.
Doris Lessing describes Mrs. Fortescue's room in great detail as seen through Fred's embarrassed and shocked eyes. The brocade curtains and satin sofa reinforce his sense of shame. The photographs of a younger and even more garishly dressed and painted woman underscore the thirty years that such activities have taken place above his parents' apartment even before he was born. Worse yet, her cherry-red dressing gown reminds him of his sister's.
Once Fred knows that Mr. Spencer, Mrs. Fortescue's regular, will not be coming, he awkwardly pushes her into the bedroom. She resists, saying, "But, Fred. . . . I don't work here," then submits with her second casual reference to the fact that his father has asked for similar favors. At first she remains "inert," but slowly "her expertise revived in her, or at least in her tired hands, and he achieved the goal of his hot imaginings . . . in one shattering spasm that filled him with no less hatred." In a fit of disgust he strips off the cherry-red gown and calls her a "filthy old whore." Her response, a tame "That wasn't very nice, was it?" reminds him of his mother.
His initiation complete, Fred flees to his room where he finds his sister calmly doing her nails, the gun now lying out on her dressing table. He points it at her, an apparent repetition of his violation of Mrs. Fortescue; her casual reply is to call him "stupid," as she always has. Nevertheless, he is able to discover something in her glance that allows him to believe she has new respect for him, that she recognizes his manhood. Triumphant, he walks through his parents' bedroom "without thinking more than: 'Poor old things, they can't help it.'"