Existentialism is a philosophy that views human existence as an experience marked by anxiety, dread, freedom, awareness of death and the consciousness of existing. Existentialism attempts to search for the meaning of life apart from a world of socially constructed values and religious beliefs. Anxiety and dread over consciousness of mortality in an often meaningless and chaotic universe characterizes the desperation of Susan Rawlings in Doris Lessing's short story "To Room Nineteen." Discovering her marriage to be anything but the "happy ever after" scenario promised by cultural myths, Susan becomes conscious of the meaninglessness of existence and its social norms which serve to constrain freedom. Locked into her confining and artificial roles, Susan attempts to attain freedom but determines suicide is the only route of escape for her authentic self from the existential dilemma.
Existentialists believe that values are socially constructed efforts to control the wilder impulses and desires of human beings. Often such values or myths serve to control behavior in ways that have painful effects when individuals become conscious of their artificial nature. This is what occurs to Susan Rawlings when she discovers her marriage is a far cry from myths about the institution. As Nordius writes, "The Edenic garden which is the prominent setting of the 'happy' marriage soon turns into an arid 'desert' as innocence is lost" (171). Ridding one's self of illusions is one of the primary requirements to achieving freedom and consciousness in the existential viewpoint. Forced into a role of dutiful wife that society imposes on women, Susan is unhappy with her life. She understands that true freedom is being true to one's own code of values and is following the laws of nature rather than the laws that are socially constructed. To the existentialist, the trapped herd mentality follows such laws but the true Superman makes h...