Jane

Jane is a friend in Michael’s social circle whose appearance at a gathering becomes the occasion for a painful disclosure: she has suffered seven miscarriages. Her account gives weight to an absence that had first been explained away as feeling unwell, while her distress reveals how much hope she had invested in the latest pregnancy.

Place in the Social Circle

When Cushla asks whether Jane will be there that evening, Victor explains that she is slightly off-colour. Later, at Penny’s gathering, Cushla spots Jane with Victor and goes over to greet them. The exchange is initially governed by manners: Cushla compliments Jane’s dress and asks how she has been, expecting a vague reply. Instead, Jane’s face collapses and she hurries upstairs. Her departure from the company turns a social greeting into an encounter with suffering that Cushla had not anticipated.

The narrative describes Jane as the youngest of the women in the group, though at least forty. In the bedroom where Cushla finds her, she is crying in an electric-blue body stocking, with a life-sized Rod Stewart poster pinned to the purple ceiling. The contrast between the party’s polished sociability and Jane’s exposed distress makes the bedroom a place apart from the rooms where guests circulate and assess one another.

Repeated Miscarriages

Jane tells Cushla that she has had another miscarriage, her seventh. She says she carried this pregnancy for eleven weeks and that a person lets herself hope. The duration matters: this was not only another loss but a pregnancy long enough for expectation to take hold. Her words explain why she could not attend Penny’s opening, a circumstance Cushla had not understood as evidence that anything was wrong.

Cushla offers sympathy and fetches toilet paper for Jane to wipe her face. Jane’s grief is shown through both speech and action: she mops her tears, worries at the tissue, and appears, in Cushla’s backward glance, almost like a girl with rounded shoulders. The scene does not supply a medical explanation or make the loss a symbol detached from Jane’s experience; it stays with the repeated nature of the losses and the hope attached to this one.

Relationship with Victor and Narrative Role

Victor is present when Cushla finds Jane, and Jane says he has had quite enough of her. The remark reveals Jane’s fear, or understanding, that her repeated miscarriages have strained their relationship; the scene does not establish Victor’s own view. He stands aside as Cushla leaves the bedroom, while Jane remains there, still wiping her face.

Jane’s brief appearance changes Cushla’s reading of the evening. What had seemed like a routine absence now has a private cause, and the expected small talk gives way to an intimate disclosure. The scene also places Jane’s grief beside the gathering’s social performance: compliments and good manners provide the approach, but cannot conceal what she is enduring.