The Millstone
Margaret Drabble
ISBN:9780156006194
About the book:
Discussion Questions:
Q. It’s the 1960s and a sexual revolution is underway, but why can’t Rosamund join in? After she loses her virginity to George, why is it impossible for Rosamund to tell him that she loves him? Do you think George loves her? Are they too much alike?
Q. Why doesn’t Rosamund tell George she’s pregnant? Is it believable that she wouldn’t tell him? Why does she decide not to have an abortion? What does Lydia’s experience with abortion tell us about this society?
Q. Rosamund admits to a belief in a malicious deity, though as her pregnancy advances, why does she change her mind? When she holds a stranger’s sleeping child on her lap in the clinic, what important realization does she have?
Q. When she reads Lydia’s thinly disguised manuscript and the unflattering portrait of herself, why doesn’t Rosamund ask her to leave? Is this portrait accurate?
Q. Are Rosamund’s parents to blame for her inability to connect with others? Rosamund discovers that her parents must know she has had a child, yet why don’t they come back from Africa to help her? Is their staying away an act of love or indifference?
Q. The most powerful moment of the novel happens when Rosamund causes a scene in the hospital. Is she out of control or is the opposite true? What gives her the courage to hold her ground against the cruelty of the Sister in charge? Why does the Sister want to keep her away?
Q. When Rosamund finally sees Octavia, what does she realize about her daughter’s love for her? What does she learn about grief and suffering from the other mother she meets in the hospital?
Q. When they meet again, do you think George suspects that Octavia is his child? Why does Rosamund lie about when she was born? Has Rosamund stopped loving him or is it more complicated than that? Could knowing that Octavia was his child perhaps transform George, too?
Q. Do you think the author is saying that a mother’s love for a child is so satisfying that she doesn’t need any other kind? Is it possible for women to experience unconditional love only through childbirth?
