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Room 19
Susan and Matthew’s house in Richmond is initially a testament to the strength of their marriage: they buy a house close enough to Matthew’s work that he is able to come home daily—therefore avoiding, the couple thinks, the marital pitfalls that often befall husbands who rent apartments in the city. Susan commits herself to being a housewife and mother, and the couple raises four intelligent, well-behaved children. However, as the years go on, Susan begins to resent the house—she feels trapped by it, since she does not have any reason to go anywhere else, nor any reason to be anything besides a wife and mother. She is made restless by the thought that there is nowhere in this house where she can be truly alone, and consequently, nowhere in the house where she can be truly herself. Matthew’s attempts to make the spare room into a refuge fail: as a place still inside the house, Susan is still bound by her obligations. It isn’t until Susan flees to Room 19 that she discovers true solace. As she spends more and more time there, she spends less time with her family, to the point that going back to the house feels like being a guest at her own dinner table. Susan’s Richmond house thus comes to symbolize the trappings and limitations of her own domestic life
The Richmond House Quotes in To Room Nineteen
The To Room Nineteen quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Richmond House. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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To Room Nineteen Quotes
It was a long time later that Susan understood that that night, when she had wept and Matthew had driven the misery out of her with his big solid body, was the last time, ever in their married life, that they had been—to use their mutual language—with each other. And even that was a lie, because she had not told him of her real fears at all.
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This quote changes the dynamic of the relationship between Susan and Matthew. Prior to this, they had been a partnership—they had discussed, together, the thought of Susan leaving her job. They had hosted parties together in their young adulthood and decided to wait to marry as a joint discussion. When moving in with each other, they had decided to get a third, new flat instead of one of them moving into the other’s, so that the dynamics on both ends were equal. Even when Matthew had had his affairs, he'd been open with Susan, and the two of them had Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesc
She was breaking her part of the bargain and there was no way of forcing her to keep it: that her spirit, her soul, should live in this house, so that the people in it could grow like plants in water, and Mrs. Parkes remain content in their service. In return for this, he would be a good loving husband, and responsible towards the children. Well, nothing like this had been true of either of them for a long time. He did his duty, perfunctorily: she did not even pretend to do hers.
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Once again, this quote treats the Rawlingses’ relationship like a business contract. It outlines the terms of their deal clearly—Susan will remain at home and rule the domestic sphere, while Matthew will go out into the world to make money for the family but will, at the end of the day, return home to her—and in unemotional terms. However, this is Susan’s first purposeful breach of the contract, wherein she seeks some greater fulfillment than the placid contentment their life gives someone like Mrs. Parkes. In some ways this request is similar to Matthew’s affairs, in that both threaten the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit
The devils that had haunted the house, the garden, were not there; but she knew it was because her soul was in Room 19 in Fred's Hotel; she was not really here at all. It was a sensation that should have been frightening: to sit at her own bedroom window, listening to Sophie's rich young voice sing German nursery songs to her child, listening to Mrs. Parkes chatter and move below, and to know that all this had nothing to do with her: she was already out of it.
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Here, Susan is witnessing her family as if from the outside. This quote shows how far removed she has become from her family and her domestic life. She hears the sounds of their movement as if listening to strangers; she moves among them as if she were a guest invited to dinner. She has become so distanced from her identities as wife and mother that she cannot reconcile herself with the idea of stepping back into those roles. In contrast with Mrs. Parkes, who exists to serve and indeed becomes uneasy when there are no orders to follow, and Sophie Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo
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The Richmond House Symbol Timeline in To Room Nineteen
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Richmond House appears in To Room Nineteen. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
To Room Nineteen
...pregnant, however, she quits her job at the advertisement agency, and the couple buys a house in Richmond. The Rawlings even have children in a conventional manner: they first have a...
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...go off to school for the first time and Susan is left alone in the house every day of the school year, other than the woman who comes in to clean.
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On the first day the twins are at school, Susan returns home from drop-off excited for the full day of freedom ahead of her. At first, she...
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...combat her own tension by keeping herself occupied. In fact, she takes up so many housekeeping tasks that she finds herself busier than she is when the children are home. As...
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...the holiday passes, and Susan once again drops the children off at school and returns home, determined to fight off her irrational impulses.
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...she settles her bill and leaves without fully achieving the aloneness she craves. Back at home, Mrs. Parkes says she does not enjoy it when Susan leaves for so long: the...
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...a stranger. She goes off on a holiday in Wales, but she’s tethered to her home by daily calls to check in with her husband and children. She feels that the...
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...knowing where she is. When, at five o’clock, Fred comes to notify her, Susan goes home in time to attend to all her usual household chores. Even as she goes through...
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...ultimately finds that her time spent in Room 19 makes her time back at her house both easier and harder: she feels as though she is playing a part, even though...
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...only here with his consent. At any moment, he might appear to take her back home. Matthew has put an end to everything, no matter how much Susan tries to shelter...
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...needing the room for a while, as she’ll be going on holiday. Upon her return home, she looks into her own house through the kitchen window. She sees Sophie, Mrs. Parkes,...
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