Doris Lessing - A Woman on a Roof

Doris Lessing 

A woman on a roof

The story is about a woman sunbathing on the roof of a building that is being refurbished by three construction workers. When the men notice the nude woman, whistling and hollering to draw her attention, she resists their advances, silently ignoring them. When the youngest of the men approaches to make the woman’s acquaintance, his advances are abruptly dismissed as the weather turns. Thematically, the story explores feminism, the male gaze, romantic fantasy, sexual desire, and resisting intimidation. 

Narrated from the omniscient third-person perspective, the story begins in London during a June heatwave. Three men are repairing the roof of an apartment building: Harry, a forty-five-year-old man; Stanley, a good-looking man of about thirty; and Tom, a seventeen-year-old newbie. As the sun bakes down, the men notice an unnamed woman sunning herself in the nude on the adjacent roof about 50 yards away. The woman has black hair and fair skin. “She’s stark naked!” Stanley says. Thinking she has total privacy, the woman sits up and ties a red scarf around her breasts. Stanley and Tom try to get the woman’s attention with wolf whistles, but the woman ignores them, continuing to smoke and read. The woman’s skin is starting to redden. Harry goes to rig up some shade on the hot roof, and in his absence, Stanley and Tom continue staring at the woman. Tom sees the woman pull down her red bikini pants, which he keeps to himself as he fancies the woman.

Main Events

First Day: Stanley and Tom whistle to the woman, but she ignored them. 

Second Day: The woman went on ignoring them and as a result of that Stanley was angry. He threatened to report her to the police.

Third Day and fourth Day: The workers were working in the basement, but the girl was not there. 

Fifth Day:  The girl was on the roof again. Tom saw her, but he did not tell it to Stanley. 

Sixth Day: When she was sunbathing, Stanley decided to stop working and began to whistle to her again. Tom decided to slip into the building on whose roof the woman was sunbathing. Tom approached the woman and stood before her “grinning, foolish, claiming the tenderness he expected from her.” The woman stared at him in silence, ignoring him as she lied on her blanket. The woman told Tom to go away

Seventh Day:  It was drizzly. After the event between Tom and the woman on the roof, the workers only continued working.