In Chapters 4 through 6, McGahern highlights how Rose’s marriage to Moran fundamentally shifts family dynamics and new character developments. For Moran, marriage to Rose brings about the possibility of happiness. With Rose, Moran is revealed through a new, softer layer. But Moran is a complex character, and McGahern also emphasizes that he is incapable of fully committing to this potential for happiness. On his wedding day, “he [feels] a violent, dissatisfied feeling that his whole life [is] taking place in front of his eyes without anything at all taking place” (45). Life passing before Moran is indicative of his own closed mindset. He can transform his life into a less lonely and happier one, but he prevents himself from experiencing joy. Moran is so haunted by his past that forming happiness in the present is difficult. This emphasizes the theme of The Individual in a Changing World.

Moran’s potential happiness also impacts his children because he is such a powerful influence as the patriarch. His daughters, especially Maggie, benefit from his new marriage, which emphasizes the message that the family unit can be the source of stability and self-confidence. For Maggie, having a mother figure in the house frees her from domestic chores and allows her to pursue other ambitions and socioeconomic mobility because she is no longer responsible for taking care of her father’s home. Her move to England represents a popular trend among young Irish women from rural communities in the mid-20^th century, as well as the reality of the trend of Irish emigration; it is estimated that half a million Irish people left Ireland in the 1950s due to the poor economic situation (“Irish Emigration Patterns and Citizens Abroad.” Ireland Department of Foreign Affairs, June 20, 2017). Because farmland would typically be passed on to sons, women were less inclined to stay in their small country towns, and many instead pursued jobs abroad. With this, Maggie (and Moran’s other children who emigrate) take on allegorical roles, representing the Irish diaspora more broadly.

In these chapters, Rose is characterized as compassionate, intelligent, adventurous, and strong. Like Maggie, Rose traveled abroad to work when she was a young woman. She tries to free herself from the domestic boredom of looking after her parents by creating her own family, though she inadvertently finds herself penned in by Moran’s temper and her new obligations. Although Rose’s commitment to Moran goes against her family’s wishes, she is an independent thinker who pursues her own desires. Rose is a role model for Moran’s daughters and brings a new light to the family home. The title of the novel, Amongst Women, is in part an ode to Rose’s entrance into the family and the maternal influence she has on the home. Her role highlights the theme of The Importance of Women.

While Rose improves the mood in the Moran household, McGahern also uses the family to emphasize how people are essentially isolated from one another. A family may live together under one roof, but each individual member is going through their own interior struggle. As Rose settles into the home, she learns new things about Moran, such as his foul temper and its ripple effect on his children:

[Rose] notice[s] that whenever Moran enter[s] the room silence and deadness would fall on them […] Only when they [drop] or [rattle] something, the startled way they would look towards Moran, did the nervous tension of what it took to hide about so silently show (53).

Rose must analyze the family dynamics from the outside because there is no open discourse about their obvious conflict. The children are frightened of Moran’s temper and have no choice but to deal with it by accepting it and hiding from it. Moran is devoted to his family, but he doesn’t recognize the tension he creates in that family. This emphasizes the theme of The Individual Versus the Collective.

McGahern develops another layer of Moran’s characterization by using Rose’s compassionate but acute perspective. Moran’s temper is a product of his anger, suggesting that Moran’s traumas have not been resolved. Being a veteran and feeling ostracized from his larger community, Moran recedes from society into his anger. Rose notes that part of the challenge is that Moran’s temper is unpredictable, and no one can know when Moran’s temper will switch from good to bad or from bad to worse. However, Rose’s perspective complicates Moran’s characterization because she loves him despite his flaws. The paradox of loving a man she fears foreshadows her isolated life with him.