Regeneration - Role of Women (Notes)
Regeneration – Role of Women
Sarah Lumb – Sarah is a completely fictional character. The girlfriend of the character Billy Prior, she is working-class, "Geordie", and works in a munitions factory in Scotland producing armaments for British soldiers. Ada Lumb, her mother, appears briefly and has a very hardened attitude towards love and relationships.
Sarah Lumb - The girlfriend of Billy Prior. Sarah is a young, working-class woman who works in a munitions factory in Scotland. Like her mother, she is very practical. She is not sure that true love between a man and a woman is possible, but she is willing to give it a try. As a woman, Sarah has been shielded from many of the horrors of the war. Nevertheless, she is angered that a society that sends its sons out to be killed refuses to face the consequences of the war.
Ada Lumb - The mother of Sarah Lumb. Ada is a practical woman who does not believe in love between a man and a woman. She desires nothing more than for her daughters to be the beneficiaries of a stable pension from their deceased husbands. Ada is very involved in her daughter's life, and she cautions Sarah about the risks of pregnancy. Ada is toughened by the reality of raising two daughters alone in a time when women do not make much money.
Regeneration focuses on troubled soldiers' mental states during WW1. The Craiglockhart setting allows Barker to explore the psychological effects of warfare on men who went to fight and also their feelings about the war and the military's involvement in it. While the focus of the novel is firmly on the male perspective (indeed Barker claimed she had partly chosen this novel to prove she could 'do men as well as women'), there is a small but important female presence.
When WW1 began in 1914, women in Britain were still very much the oppressed gender. Campaigns for women to be allowed the vote were well established. It was only one year previously that Emily Davison had thrown herself under the King's horse at
Sarah Lumb – Sarah is a completely fictional character. The girlfriend of the character Billy Prior, she is working-class, "Geordie", and works in a munitions factory in Scotland producing armaments for British soldiers. Ada Lumb, her mother, appears briefly and has a very hardened attitude towards love and relationships.
Sarah Lumb - The girlfriend of Billy Prior. Sarah is a young, working-class woman who works in a munitions factory in Scotland. Like her mother, she is very practical. She is not sure that true love between a man and a woman is possible, but she is willing to give it a try. As a woman, Sarah has been shielded from many of the horrors of the war. Nevertheless, she is angered that a society that sends its sons out to be killed refuses to face the consequences of the war.
Ada Lumb - The mother of Sarah Lumb. Ada is a practical woman who does not believe in love between a man and a woman. She desires nothing more than for her daughters to be the beneficiaries of a stable pension from their deceased husbands. Ada is very involved in her daughter's life, and she cautions Sarah about the risks of pregnancy. Ada is toughened by the reality of raising two daughters alone in a time when women do not make much money.
Regeneration focuses on troubled soldiers' mental states during WW1. The Craiglockhart setting allows Barker to explore the psychological effects of warfare on men who went to fight and also their feelings about the war and the military's involvement in it. While the focus of the novel is firmly on the male perspective (indeed Barker claimed she had partly chosen this novel to prove she could 'do men as well as women'), there is a small but important female presence.
When WW1 began in 1914, women in Britain were still very much the oppressed gender. Campaigns for women to be allowed the vote were well established. It was only one year previously that Emily Davison had thrown herself under the King's horse at