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Rolf
A former midwife and one of the members of The Five Fishes. She treats Theo “as if they were already conspirators” from their very first meeting. Miriam is strong, intrepid, and selfless. Before the novel begins, her brother was brutally imprisoned for petty theft. Her brother eventually escaped and tried to hide in Miriam’s house, but was captured and then murdered by the State Security Police. Miriam uses this anecdote to appeal to Theo to bring the Fishes’ list of grievances before the Council of England. When the Fishes are forced to go on the run, it is Miriam who comes (at Julian’s behest) to bring Theo along with them. Miriam is also the one who reveals to Theo that Julian is pregnant. In this way, Miriam acts as a kind of “midwife” to Julian in the book, helping and protecting her throughout her pregnancy. In fact, Miriam dies while playing this same role: after Luke’s death and Rolf’s abandonment, Miriam gives her life attempting to find supplies to help Julian through her labor.
Miriam Quotes in The Children of Men
The The Children of Men quotes below are all either spoken by Miriam or refer to Miriam. 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:
).
Chapter 31
Quotes
“I killed her.”
Miriam’s voice was firm, loud, almost shouting in [Theo’s] ear. “You didn’t kill her! If she was going to die of shock it would have happened when you first showed her the gun. You don’t know why she died. It was natural causes, it must have been. She was old and she had a weak heart. You told us. It wasn’t your fault, Theo, you didn’t mean it.”
No, he almost groaned, no, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean to be a selfish son, an unloving father, a bad husband. When have I ever meant anything? Christ, what harm couldn’t I do if I actually started to mean it!
He said: “The worst is that I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it! I enjoyed the excitement, the power, the knowledge that I could do it.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Miriam Quotes in The Children of Men
The The Children of Men quotes below are all either spoken by Miriam or refer to Miriam. 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:
).
Chapter 31
Quotes
“I killed her.”
Miriam’s voice was firm, loud, almost shouting in [Theo’s] ear. “You didn’t kill her! If she was going to die of shock it would have happened when you first showed her the gun. You don’t know why she died. It was natural causes, it must have been. She was old and she had a weak heart. You told us. It wasn’t your fault, Theo, you didn’t mean it.”
No, he almost groaned, no, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean to be a selfish son, an unloving father, a bad husband. When have I ever meant anything? Christ, what harm couldn’t I do if I actually started to mean it!
He said: “The worst is that I enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it! I enjoyed the excitement, the power, the knowledge that I could do it.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
