The Millstone [published in the United States as Thank You All Very Much] treats the theme of failure in a seemingly straightforward manner: the knowledge the voluntarily unwed mother Rosamund gains, her growing self-awareness, are charted for us by the heroine herself as she moves from innocence to experience. (p. 227)

Rosamund learns to deal with reality precisely in order to protect her child. She must abandon her tendency to deny herself—perhaps the strongest feature of her personality—whenever her baby's well-being is called into question….

The pregnancy is crucial in Rosamund's secret war with her unconscious desires; it forces her, to some extent, to face up to her female identity, to the fact that she is a woman, a fact she has rather violently attempted to deny without always being aware of the intensity of this denial. (p. 228)

Whether we say that the baby's affliction and the...