“The Millstone,” by Margaret Drabble, is a story about a Cambridge graduate named Rosamund Stacey. The story is told in first person, and it takes place in 1960’s London. It starts out with Rosamund making her friends believe she is having an intimate relationship with two men at the same time. But in reality she is still a virgin and is quiet shy about this topic. The reason does that is because she does not want to be thought of as old fashioned. Her parents are in Africa, but still manage to provide with an apartment where she lives free of rent. Her situation begins to complicate when she encounters George Matthews; a BBC newsreader who she believes is homosexual but still feels attraction towards him. One night they have sexual relations …show more content…
Foster. Out of all the ones scattered around her book, there is one that is just impossible to miss, the name. In his book, Foster goes over the importance of biblical allusions, how they impact the story, and what an important tool they are for writers. “The Millstone,” is one of those biblical allusions, a text from the bible says "But who shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6).
Foster mentioned this in his book “the bible is full of titles,” (Foster, 45) and he could not be more correct in this situation. The title is referring to Rosamund’s pregnancy; it’s an inescapable responsibility that she has to face. She tried to evade that responsibility but was not able to; therefore Octavia became the millstone around Rosamund’s neck. Back to the title and biblical allusions, just the simple title gave the readers an insight of what the book is going to be about; hard decisions and growing …show more content…
A millstone, her pregnancy, is everything this story revolves around. Something Foster mentions is “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster, 3), Rosamund’s quest as a single mother did result in self-knowledge. Her pregnancy teaches her how to survive as a single mother, to make the right choices, it taught her things she did not know about her own body. In the end she makes the right choice and decides to raise her daughter herself. That is a serious decision that other women her age would have not taken, especially during the time this story takes