In the weekday we mostly never think about how it is impossible to prevent time to pass on. But it does, all the time. Just like the time history environment and existence changes. Doris Lessings short story “In the National Gallery” is a thought-provoking, fascinating and a little bit pessimistic short story about nostalgia, chances/experiences, age difference, the nuances and colours of life and passion.

It is told by a first person narrator who is sitting in The National Gallery and observing some events taking place around her by an elderly well-presented man in the sixties and a French girl who is about sixteen years old. The main character in which eyes we experience the whole course of events, is sitting next to the old man on a bench by a remarkable picture of a red horse called “the Stubbs chestnut horse”, which is described as a magnificent beast with power and potency. This is where it starts as the old man is trying to teach a younger man about the paintings. The young man is restless and does not have the passion and time for studying art as the older man, and therefore he leaves the gallery.
While sitting on the bench and admiring the painting, a French group of school girls enter the room and draws a lot of attention, especially the head of the group which is a sixteen years old French girl, describes as “a package to be admired.. with a pert little face.. she was an original, the ‘card’, the wit, perhaps even the buffoon”. The old man immediately gets spellbound of her, as he starts to reveal to the narrator, who is sitting next to him on the bench, how he got rejected by the love of his life in his past when he was twelve. The French girl reminds him of his love of life as why he can’t stop staring at her. The girl gets drawn by the picture of the red horse and then falls asleep right beside the old man.

When the French girl is sleeping on the bench and compared to the sleeping beauty she is representing a whole generation. Like the young man earlier were restless and looking at the watch they simply don’t recognise life and what is worth taking chances of. And they simply don’t see or appreciate the old things e. g. reference in line line 132 “But then, they wouldn’t see the rest of the pictures in this world-famous gallery... to see the great masterpieces which perhaps they might never see again. ” and on line 146: “young things do not see the elderly or middle-aged. She might be staring straight at him, but she didn’t see him.”

As the group of French school girls enters the room they give the museum life (e. g. line 47: “Everyone was looking at them. How could we not? They were so vivacious, so lively..”. Normally the time in a museum feels like time is almost standing still, as it forces one to look back in the past while looking at the old and dusty paintings.
But just like the painting with the strong red horse which represent passion and love, the old man has once too been a strong horse driven by love and passion. unlike now where he is more like the picture, just a memory, old and dusty. As the man sits at the bench and observe the surroundings, he becomes like an onlooker at life. He is not taking action in life anymore but only having this desire to love and life, that he had missed or forgotten in the past, because he took those summers for granted e. g. line 96 “That summer went past, the way summers did in those days..” he took those chances for love for granted.
The way of showing his character and attitude is showed in his physical appearance when he is looking at the art or the girls which in his point of view might be art too (e. g. line 8 and line 37 “he leaned forward, elbows on knees, and looked hard at the horse/...staring hard at them.”)
The contrasts between the norm of silence in a museum and the girls loud entry and requirement for attention in the story also illuminate the new time and the old time that is about to become only memories. an other remarkable detail is the horse that has been called the magnificent beast and the French girl that has been called the sleeping beauty. These references associates to the beauty and the beast fairytale. As in a fairytale nothing is what it looks like cause non of it is real. What is beauty? The new growing sprouts? or is beauty to find in the old roots?
Furthermore It also gives the museum the atmosphere of something surreal, a journey through history and stories, a peephole into the past. But outside the museum reality hits the man as he decides to follow the girl out to the exit, and there it leaves the reader with an open ending and the question: “what is going to happen next?“ that is why the impressionism is replaced at the exit as a symbol of the reality and also the lack of concrete existence but only remnant coloured shadows. Moreover it gives the reader the feeling of being powerless by not being able to look into the future but only the past, and still not be able to change or stop the time. The horrifying and disconcerted tone in the ending leaves us with insecurity, because it’s a contrast to the relaxed and unaffected mood the narrator has been of while telling. Besides the fact that the old man has been so fascinated about the French girl and that her age of 16 years makes her sexually mature, and now decides to follow the girl out, gives the reader the creeps. E. g. line 152: “...it was easy to imagine raised voices, ugly laughter, even an ‘incident’ that could reach the newspaper..”. but for the record it is important to have in mind that this anxiety comes from the narrator, who is not old nor young. She is between the two extremes.

The sex of the narrator is unknown but I assume it is Doris Lessing herself. The narrator gives us the point of view as an onlooker, owing to the fact that she is not taking action in the happening, but just interpret and pass on the information to the reader. She also must be about 30 or 40 years because she is able se “notice” the elderly man. She is not too young neither old. She is sitting quietly (not giggling like the French schoolgirls) and does have a certain interest in the horse painting e. g. on line 3: “Just one picture, by itself. It should be already known to me. And there it was, the Stubbs chestnut horse, that magnificent beast, all power and potency”.

The old man has a lot of knowledge about the art, which means that he has knowledge of life too, and by guiding the young man (the pupil e.g. line 22: ”like a pupil chidden by a teacher”) through the paintings, he is trying to teach and pass on his knowledge and life experiences to him. But life has to be learned by living and making mistakes. This shows that the old man cannot prevent the pupil for making the same mistakes, but he will only find out by taking chances or regret for the rest of his life.