42 pages • 1 hour read
Doris LessingThe Grass is Singing
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Mary Turner
Mary Turner is a high-spirited woman who, while striving not to repeat the mistakes of her mother, finds herself thrust into the very same circumstances of abject poverty and unfulfillment when she enters an ill-conceived marriage. Once content with her life as a single woman in the city, Mary soon makes the tough decision to get married after hearing friends gossip about her bleak prospects. She marries Dick Turner quickly, though their marriage seems doomed from the first date. When she is taken from her life in the city to abject poverty on a farm, Mary unravels. She is extremely harsh to the natives, whom she despises, and she similarly despises her husband as he continues to show his incompetence as a farmer. Her desperation leads to an emotional break when she allows the servant-master relationship between her and Moses, a native, to evolve into a complicated affair of mutual reliance with disastrous consequences. It is revealed in Chapter One that Mary is killed by Moses.
Dick Turner
Dick Turner is a mild-mannered farmer who owns land in rural South Africa. He decides to marry, and hopes that Mary will come to love him in time despite his poverty. Dick is beset with financial problems and the farmers refer to him as “Jonah” because of his bad luck. Whatever he touches fails, and he realizes in time that his marriage, too, is a failure. He wants kids but does not want them to live in poverty. Dick is stubborn, like Mary. Though he dislikes the natives, he understands that he must show them some respect in order to ensure their hard work, unlike Mary. He often feels henpecked by Mary and eventually goes insane.
Charlie Slatter
Charlie is Dick Turner’s closet neighbor and “friend.” In truth, Charlie and Dick barely like each other, but the isolation of farm life brings them together. Charlie is ruthless with his natives and destructive with his land, yet has made a fortune despite his seeming lack of appreciation for the land or knowledge of farming. Charlie keeps to the rules of “the district,” the white farming community he and the Turners are a part of, and despises Mary Turner for not taking charge of her role in social life. He also dislikes Dick for being so hopeless and luckless as a farmer. Though he gives Dick farming advice, he really wants Dick’s property to use for cattle grazing. When Mary is murdered and Dick goes insane, he gets his wish, and the reader realizes that Charlie has in fact bought the Turners’ land and has wanted it from the very beginning. He is concerned with the self-preservation of white society more than anything else.
Moses
Moses is one of the natives who works for the Turners. He began as a field worker and was brought in as a house worker by Dick Turner. It is revealed in the first chapter that Moses has confessed to Mary Turner’s murder and been arrested for the crime. The narrative works to show just what happened between the Turners and Moses to reach this end. Moses is also the native who is struck by Mary with a sjambok. His face is injured in the attack. He takes all of Mary’s rebukes and racism in stride, until at last he strikes back, murdering Mary. It is hinted that he felt betrayed by Mary, whom he had developed a complex relationship with. He is arrested in Chapter One, faces trial and will soon be executed.
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By Doris Lessing
