Harriet

Harriet is the novel's central character and protagonist. Her name is, perhaps, indicative of her apparent nature and identity as portrayed in the narration ... old fashioned, traditional, perhaps a little withdrawn or shy. Interestingly, however, and as the story unfolds, she is also portrayed as being profoundly passionate, unwaveringly determined to make her long-cherished dream of a full, busy family life come true. She pursues this dream in the face of several, increasingly daunting obstacles. These include a shortage of money, resistance from family members and, in the novel's later sections, the inability of Ben, the "fifth child" of the title, to accept the life and the love that she and her husband David have to offer. In this sense, she is what might be described as a typical, or traditional, protagonist, a central character pursuing a single goal through increasing obstacles to a point of either success...