Remembering Babylon

by

David Malouf

Janet McIvor Character Analysis

Janet is the oldest of the McIvor children and Lachlan’s cousin. Janet is present with Lachlan and Meg when they first meet Gemmy. As a girl, Janet feels oppressed by her gender for much of her childhood. Lachlan constantly expects her to submit to him even though she is older and tougher than he is, simply because he is a boy, and although she respects her mother Ellen’s toughness and tenacity, the narrow future the settlement affords to both her mother and herself frustrates her. However, as the McIvors begin to be harassed and despised for protecting Gemmy, Janet begins to focus less on her own repression, and on the night of the attack, Janet waits outside in the darkness for Jock to bring Gemmy home. In doing so, Janet proves her own bravery and willingness to carry the family’s burdens alongside her parents, marking a critical moment of her coming of age. From this moment onward, Janet thinks less of Lachlan, and when she begins beekeeping with Mrs. Hutchence, she finds a suitable outlet for her aspirations and intelligence, one that is not limited by her gendered role in society. In a pivotal moment, Janet is enveloped by a swarm of bees, but rather than panicking, she discovers an inner tranquility that stems from the purity of her belief that the bees will not harm her. Afteward, she is left feeling transformed into a simpler, more powerful self. Furthermore, Janet feels as if the bees communicate with her, setting the course for her life’s work as an apiarist and a nun (a path that frees her from the domineering presence of men) who spends her days searching for the method by which bees communicate. As an old woman, while she visits with Lachlan, Janet realizes that the McIvor family loved Gemmy, even though they did not realize it at the time.

Janet McIvor Quotes in Remembering Babylon

The Remembering Babylon quotes below are all either spoken by Janet McIvor or refer to Janet McIvor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism and Xenophobia Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

The struggle between them was fierce. Till Lachlan came, [Janet] had been used to going her own way, unconditioned and free. She had no limit to herself. Now she resented his easy assumption that he was superior, should take the lead in all their doings, and that she must naturally yield to him.

Related Characters: Lachlan Beattie, Janet McIvor
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

[Ellen] lived in the demands of the moment, in the girls, in Lachlan, and was too high-spirited, too independent, to care whether other women approved of her.

Related Characters: Lachlan Beattie, Janet McIvor, Jock McIvor, Ellen McIvor
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

[Janet] saw something else as well. That in playing his part, Mr. Abbot had no more to do than Hector had. They only thought they were playing, because Leona managed things so cleverly, putting words into their mouths they they had never in fact spoken, and taking both parts herself.

Related Characters: Janet McIvor, Ellen McIvor, Leona Gonzalez, George Abbot, Hector (Hec) Gosper
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

[Janet] loved the way, while you were dealing with [the bees], you had to submit yourself to their side of things.

Related Characters: Janet McIvor, Mr. Frazer, Mrs. Hutchence
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

[Janet] was surprised, reading his letter, by its courtesy, its tentativeness, its tenderness she might have said, and recalling her own prickly tone felt foolish.

Related Characters: Gemmy Fairley, Lachlan Beattie, Janet McIvor
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:

“I sometimes think that that was all I ever knew of him: what struck me in that moment before I knew him at all. When he was up there [on the fence] before he fell, poor fellow, and became just—there’s nothing clear in my head of what he might have been before that, and afterwards he was just Gemmy, someone we loved.”

Related Characters: Janet McIvor (speaker), Gemmy Fairley, Lachlan Beattie
Related Symbols: The Fence
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
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Janet McIvor Quotes in Remembering Babylon

The Remembering Babylon quotes below are all either spoken by Janet McIvor or refer to Janet McIvor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racism and Xenophobia Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

The struggle between them was fierce. Till Lachlan came, [Janet] had been used to going her own way, unconditioned and free. She had no limit to herself. Now she resented his easy assumption that he was superior, should take the lead in all their doings, and that she must naturally yield to him.

Related Characters: Lachlan Beattie, Janet McIvor
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

[Ellen] lived in the demands of the moment, in the girls, in Lachlan, and was too high-spirited, too independent, to care whether other women approved of her.

Related Characters: Lachlan Beattie, Janet McIvor, Jock McIvor, Ellen McIvor
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

[Janet] saw something else as well. That in playing his part, Mr. Abbot had no more to do than Hector had. They only thought they were playing, because Leona managed things so cleverly, putting words into their mouths they they had never in fact spoken, and taking both parts herself.

Related Characters: Janet McIvor, Ellen McIvor, Leona Gonzalez, George Abbot, Hector (Hec) Gosper
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

[Janet] loved the way, while you were dealing with [the bees], you had to submit yourself to their side of things.

Related Characters: Janet McIvor, Mr. Frazer, Mrs. Hutchence
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

[Janet] was surprised, reading his letter, by its courtesy, its tentativeness, its tenderness she might have said, and recalling her own prickly tone felt foolish.

Related Characters: Gemmy Fairley, Lachlan Beattie, Janet McIvor
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:

“I sometimes think that that was all I ever knew of him: what struck me in that moment before I knew him at all. When he was up there [on the fence] before he fell, poor fellow, and became just—there’s nothing clear in my head of what he might have been before that, and afterwards he was just Gemmy, someone we loved.”

Related Characters: Janet McIvor (speaker), Gemmy Fairley, Lachlan Beattie
Related Symbols: The Fence
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis: