sexual proposal Mary refuses to marry him Then she meets Dick Turner He is lonely and poor He wants a wife to help him He wants children Mary wants to escape from gossip So she accepts his proposal quickly Lessing writes They were married by special licence two weeks later This marriage is not made of love It is born of fear and need From the start it is weak Mary s Dissatisfaction after Marriage Dick loves farming He often says that the farm will succeed He dreams of building a big thatched house But the farm fails again and again Mary does not like his dream She hates the veld She loves the town She thinks It is bad enough living in a pigsty like this She wants comfort clean ceilings and a social life Dick feels guilty for not giving her comfort Mary feels cheated for living in poverty They want different lives Distance grows between them Financial Struggles after Marriage The Turners are very poor Dick s farm is always in debt He borrows money from Charlie Slatter He cannot buy good furniture He cannot even repair the house Mary feels disgust She hates the dirty walls She suffers in the heat Poverty kills her respect for him She sees him as weak He becomes submissive asking her Darling do you hate me for bringing you here She forgives him coldly only to feel powerful Their marriage becomes a prison Loneliness after Marriage Mary is lonely on the farm She has no white friends She only has servants She treats them harshly She whips Moses She dismisses Samson She watches every servant with suspicion Dick is busy with the lands He does not see her pain He asks her to join him in the fields She refuses She says It is so hot down there You are used to it She stays in the house The heat the silence and the boredom break her mind She becomes bitter She cannot love Dick She feels only hatred Their bond dies slowly They live together but are already apart The Final Tragedy At the end Dick falls sick He loses his strength He becomes almost mad He cannot fight poverty Mary is left alone She begins to depend on Moses He is the servant she once beat She fears him but also needs him This breaks the colour bar Society cannot accept this Charlie Slatter and Sergeant Denham try to hide the scandal But it is too late One night Moses kills Mary Dick loses his mind The marriage ends in death and madness The grass sings over their failure The Grass is Singing is truly the story of a failed marriage Mary marries out of fear not love Dick marries with impossible dreams Poverty crushes their spirit Loneliness poisons Mary s mind The bond between them breaks completely Their end is tragic Lessing shows that a marriage without love respect and unity cannot survive Their broken marriage is the heart of the novel