the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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chat that Went on in the queue, the subjects of birth, pain,
fear and hope that drew the women together "in gloomy awe"
(MS
69). A significant turn In her attitude occurs whlle
she holds a baby In her arms -- a gesture which brings out
the maternal in her.
meanlng in her unborn child:
Gradually, she beglns to see some
lt did not seem like the kind of thing one could
have removed, llke a wart or a corn It seemed to
have meaning. It seemed to be the klnd of event
to whlch, however accidental its cause, one could
not say No (MS . 761
Unllke Kate of The Summer Before the Dark, for whom
motherhood means a fragmentation of identity, the birth of
Rosamund's chlld helps her ln reasserting her identlty She
learns to lnsist on her rlghts, even ~f it involves
screaming hysterics as when she demands to see her baby In
the hospital. She learns to relate not only to her
daughter, but to the larger humankind, by shedding off her
retlcence
3.1.4.3. Whereas the Deshpande women mew the physioloqrcal
female funczlons wzth distaste, :he sensations that Rosamund
experiences after her dellvery are "no longer palnful but
Indeed a promise of pleasure" (1% 117) Wltn the child in
her arms, she feels "love . and the flrsz of [her]
llfe" (MS 118) When she tells Joe Hurt of the happiness
she experiences, he says that she 1s talklng about one of