The Stone Angel (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Margaret Laurence
- First Published: 1964
- Type of Work: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: From the mid-1870’s to the early 1960’s
- Setting: Vancouver, British Columbia, and Manawaka, a fictional town on the Canadian prairie
- Principal Characters: Hagar Shipley (nee Currie), Marvin Shipley, Doris Shipley, Bram Shipley, John Shipley, Murray Ferney Lees
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Bildungsroman, Family literature
- Subjects: Family or family life, Self-discovery, Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Alienation, Guilt, Class consciousness, Emotions, Mental illness, Death or dying, Canada or Canadians, Small-town life, Old age or elderly people, Pretensions
- Locales: British Columbia, Canada, Vancouver, Canada
The Novel
The focus of the novel’s action is the failing mind of Hagar Shipley. At ninety, Hagar has become clumsy and forgetful, but ironically her mind is “rampant with memory” of her past life. Hagar lives with her elder son, Marvin, and his wife, Doris, who are themselves elderly and who are becoming increasingly unable to take care of her. Their suggestion that she be moved to a nursing home causes her to recoil in horror and insist on her right to live in her own home. Yet despite her protestations, Hagar is subjected to a surprise visit to “Silverthreads,”...
[The entire page is 2211 words long]
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