e Millstone, Jerusalem the Golden, and The Needle's Eye will serve as the paper's case studies, as we analyze the way in which determinism affects the lives of each these women, and ultimately shapes their sense of self.
1. Drabble: The Woman and the Writer
Margaret Drabble is a novelist, but she is a woman first and foremost, and it is important to consider her own life experiences when analyzing the female characters of her novels. Indeed, there is much in her texts that one might describe as auto-biographical, and the link between her life and writing is should not be ignored as the psychological maturation of women within her vorks is explored. Drabble's life certainly provides an interesting context in which to study the notion of family and environmental determinism in her novels.
Drabble was born on June 5, 1939 in Sheffield, England, though her family moved around quite a bit over the years. She was the second oldest child in a family of three daughters and a son (Moran 3). Her father, John Federick Drabble, worked as a barrister and a country court judge, and penned novels as well. Her mother, Margaret Bloor Drabble, was employed as a school teacher, and because both she and her husband were the first in their families to graduate from college (Sadler 1-2), they strongly believed that "àwomen should be educated and have jobs" (Rozencwajg 339).
The Drabbles also cultivated literary interests in their children (Moran 3), and it is interesting to note that not only did Margaret become a novelist, but her older sister Antonia, better known as A. S. Byatt, is also a scholar and novelist. Her relationship with Antonia is significant, as the issue of sibling relations plays such an important role in her novels. Drabble admits to idolizing her older sister, but there is a rivalry at play there as well. These kinds of sibling relationships often show up in her writing - "sibling rivalries and sist...