Loneliness

Throughout the novel, the author uses her main character Jean Swinney’s isolating circumstances in order to explore the ways in which loneliness might entrap the individual. Ever since her father left her mother and died in the war, and her sister married and moved overseas, Jean has been beholden to her elderly mother’s care. Although Jean is only 39 years old in the narrative present, the parameters of her life are defined by her duties to her mother and her work at the office. She is therefore alienated from others because of these dynamics, and thus forced into lonely living conditions. Therefore, when Jean meets and becomes acquainted with the Tilburys, she cannot help but attach herself to them. In Chapter 8, when Howard and Gretchen invite her over for a social visit, Jean accepts. The narrator explains saying, “The truth was that congenial new acquaintances...