The Middle Ground: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Margaret Drabble

First published: 1980

Genre: Novel

Locale: England

Plot: Psychological realism

Time: The late 1970's

Kate Armstrong, a thirty-one-year-old mother, divorcée, and successful writer of articles about women and the under-privileged. A brown-haired woman from a middle-class background, Kate is going through a midlife crisis in both her private and professional lives. Up to this point, she had been energetic, successful, witty, and lucky. She postponed a career to take care of her family, then returned to journalism when her children entered school. Her husband, Stuart, an unsuccessful artist, became envious of her success and began having affairs, and she divorced him. When the book opens, she is depressed, restless, self-absorbed, and frantically trying to balance the responsibilities she feels toward her parents, her children, her friends, and herself. Her house, as busy as a bus station, serves as a metaphor for her life of turmoil. The book ends with Kate realizing that she does have some control over her life and finally coming to terms with herself.

Hugo Mainwaring, Kate's friend, a writer on international affairs. A worldly man with a Cambridge education, Hugo is quiet and reserved, yet often the mediator in social situations. During an assignment in Eritrea, he lost half of his arm while saving a child's life. At the beginning of the novel, he is experiencing a midlife crisis caused in part by a failed marriage, a son recently brain damaged by an overdose of anesthetic during a routine operation, and boredom. By the novel's end, he, too, has made some changes by expressing his fondness for Kate and agreeing to be fitted for an artificial limb.

Ted Stennett, a specialist in tropical disease and epidemics, Evelyn's husband and Kate's lover. Aggressive, ambitious, competitive, and talkative, Ted is passionately interested in and successful at his profession. These same qualities, when transferred to his personal life, lead him to pursue a string of women successfully, despite his physical unattractiveness. At the novel's end, Ted places his disillusionment with marriage and fatherhood in perspective as he reflects on the negative repercussions of his past womanizing.

Evelyn Stennett, a full-time social worker, Ted's wife, and Kate's friend. Well-bred, well-educated, and serious, Evelyn works hard helping those who are less fortunate than herself. Her personal life is marred by a socially maladjusted son, who abuses drugs and alcohol and engages in skinhead behavior, and a husband whose womanizing she chooses to ignore. Toward the novel's end, she is seriously injured in a domestic conflict while visiting one of her clients. Her eventual release from the hospital inspires Kate to organize the party that concludes the novel.

Peter Armstrong, Kate's brother, an office worker turned machine tester. At the age of forty, Peter experiences a transformation that results in his becoming what Kate calls “normal.” Kate suspects, however, that he is responsible for anonymous letters to her criticizing the views she presents in her journalism.

Judith Street, an art historian, Hugo's former wife. An intelligent, independent, well-educated woman, she falls apart after her son suffers permanent brain damage. Kate and Judith do not get along.

Nancy Mainwaring, Hugo's mother, a manager of an art gallery. An elderly, stylish woman, she alternately neglected and smothered her son while he was growing up.