Every female character within the novel is connected through Stephen. The main female characters are part of Stephen's private life; these are the people with which Stephen is closest to throughout the Novel. The minor characters are the females, which Stephen interacts with throughout his public life.

Julie, Stephen's wife and Thelma, a close friend both have very different characters, they both represent the roles of modern females within our society both these characters go against the view proposed of the government.

McEwan has expressed both their characters as being extremely strong and independent in their own ways. However some aspects of their characters seem to fit some of the governments proposed views of women. An example of this is that both women have extremely strong maternal instincts. Although Thelma never has children of her own, she diverts her mothering instincts to Charles.

Stephens's mother is one of the few women within

These three minor characters, I feel are Mc Ewan's way of telling society that women should not be treated in this way and should be treated like the potential child bearers that they are.

Not to be because in his eyes women like Miss Rein are nothing but because he believes in the governments eyes she is seen as nothing.

See her not to be worthy of a proper office but instead give her a broom cupboard.

"She was an odd mixture of shyness and independence" This could be indicating that this is how McEwan sees all women. Claire only begins to fulfil the traditional women's role when she marries Douglas.

Two of the three minor female characters are both members of the government committee. We don't get much information about their background or their lives but the reader gets the general idea of them from their names, "Miss Rein" Rein being the French word for nothing. Although McEwan has assigned a negative name for a reason I believe it

Throughout the novel McEwan seems to respect and admire the maternal and caring instinct

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 706
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)