the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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body. Hirsch remarks: "Nothing entangles women more firmly
in their bodies than pregnancy, birth, lactation,
miscarriage, or the ~nability to conceive" (1989 : 166).
Though the thought of having a baby leaves her "absolutely
stone cold'' (MS 48), Rosamund is "in some perverse and
painful way quite proud of [her] evident fertility" (MS 48).
3.4.4.1. Rosamund 1s more pained by the physical strain of
childbearing and chlldrearing than the social stlgma of
belng an unmarried mother. The plcture of "human misery" --
the pregnant women at the cllnlc -- seem to her "an
unbelievably depressed and miserable lot" (MS 65) -- and
make her remark on the discrepancy between the mystlcpe of
motherhood whlch euphem~stlcally describes pregnant women as
"ships ln full sall" (MS : 65) -- and the stark reallty that
reveals itself in their grotesque appearance, the anaemic
and exhausted faces, swollen legs, heavy and unbalanced
bodies
She feels trapped Inside a human llmit for the
flrst tlme ln her llfe, but deterrnlnes to learn to llve
lnslde it, by trylng to tell herself that she is not dead,
but al~ve twlce over
3.4.4.2. Rosamund's fear and cyniclsm towards motherhood
gradually begln to dissolve, as her recurring vlslts to the
clinlc begin to establish a klnd of sororlty between herself
and the other pregnant women. Earlier, she had resented the