Her children had grown up and moved on. It is normal and acceptable for children to leave the house as soon as they are old enough to support themselves, for at this time it is their turn to raise a family of their own. This often results in an "empty nest syndrome-, which is accompanied by feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and loneliness. Kate suffered from an identity crisis because everything in her life that had defined who she was - wife, mother, and caregiver - was now gone, and the loss of her position in these roles left her to care only for herself. "She felt as if every support had been pulled out from under her."" (Lessing 17). The modernity of Kate's personal world was defined not by the technological or societal advancement of the physical atlas around her, but rather the aging progression of her own life within that atlas. At the brink of her youth, Kate was both a prisoner of society and a slave to her emotions. While she was struggling to overcome the normal succession of life, she was at the same time resisting the transformation that accompanied it, and felt as if she has no choice in anything that involved her. "This small box of a room, that had in it a bed, a chair, a chest of drawers, and a mirror "yes, this is what she would choose, if she could choose - (Lessing 29). She also felt as if no one cared about the changes that she was going through; she felt alone in the world, like it was moving and she was standing still. "She is like a child the grownups have been admiring but now that have got bored with her, they have turned away and started talking and forgotten her, and no matter how she dances, and smiles and poses and shouts, Look at me! They seem not to hear. At last they say Be quiet. Run along and play'- (Lessing 55). Combined with the menopausal period she was in in her life, these changes became too much all at once, and Kate suffered from emotional instability, sadness, and even physical illness.