English (Core) · Ch 15 — Birth
Minor Characters: the Grandmother, the Midwife and the Nurse
Minor Characters: the Grandmother, the Midwife and the Nurse
The grandmother (Susan's mother)
A tall, grey-haired woman of nearly seventy, she is wise from long experience. She senses that there will be a period of waiting and, fearing Andrew might leave, keeps him there with a cup of tea. She sits “quite motionless” in her black dress, her eyes “strangely alive and wise,” watching him. Her own longing for a grandchild is as deep as her daughter's longing for the baby, and at the end she stands against the wall, lips moving without sound — praying for the child's life.
The midwife
The stout, elderly midwife represents ordinary, resigned experience. When the child is born lifeless she gives up hope, places it under the bed among newspapers, and whimpers, “It's stillborn.” She serves as a foil to Andrew — where she accepts defeat, he refuses it.