Midwives

Sibyl is the novel’s protagonist in the sense that the action revolves around her. Described by her daughter, Connie, as “a woman with round blue eyes and spiraling dirty blond hair” (35), Sibyl is considered beautiful and is 34 years old in the main timeline. Sibyl’s lawyer, Stephen Hastings, often calls her pretty, while to Connie, Sibyl appears so noble-looking during her trial that she resembles “one of those saintly Red Cross volunteers” (341). As a hippie in the late 1960s, Sibyl often dressed in bell-bottoms and shawls, but as a midwife working in the 1980s, she wears clothes and shoes that facilitate easy movement. She also drives a large blue station wagon that has room enough to transfer a person to a hospital in case of a medical crisis.

Sibyl draws great satisfaction in her profession as a midwife, as evinced in her journals. She takes detailed notes about her clients and their preferences, tailoring their birthing experiences to their needs. Her view of birth as a beautiful, natural experience is tied closely to her liberal beliefs and her anti-establishment stance and reflects The Debate Between Alternative and Institutionalized Medicine. However, as Connie notes, Sibyl is careful to refer high-risk clients to a hospital, defying the stereotype of the midwife who shuns institutionalized medicine at all costs. Further, when a client requires help, Sibyl immediately rushes them to a hospital. Defending her mother’s competence and judgment, Connie observes:

Twenty-eight times my mother had transferred a patient to the hospital […] All but once the baby had been fine. Once the baby was stillborn […] And on that occasion […] B. P. and the medical examiner were quite sure that the baby […] would have been born dead even if his mother had endured her labor in a hospital (150).

Ironically, Sibyl’s actions become controversial when she steps into the realm of mainstream medicine. Sibyl carries Pitocin and Ergotrate, medicines that cause uterine contractions and can sometimes stop uterine bleeding. Connie notes that possessing and using these drugs without a medical license is illegal but that Sibyl is not the only midwife who carries them. Further, Sibyl’s decision to perform a C-section on Charlotte pushes the boundary of her qualifications as a midwife. The text suggests that Sibyl’s desire to make the best of a bad situation pushes her into this gray area and ultimately stems from the same source as her passion for midwifery, with Connie observing that Sibyl’s clients have always come first with Sibyl. Ultimately, this same compassion drives her from midwifery: Sibyl’s guilt over her realization that Charlotte flinched at the start of the C-section plagues her, so much so that she loses her confidence and joy in catching babies. Sibyl is a complex, round character since she makes flawed decisions for rational and empathetic reasons.

An architect, Rand is the husband of Sibyl and father of Connie. He is 36 years old in the main timeline. Although Rand is now a respected professional who goes to construction sites, Sibyl recalls that he was anti-establishment when he met her. He was even briefly arrested by police officers during an antiwar protest, though never handcuffed like Sibyl. Connie describes Rand as having elaborate sideburns, falling as “horseshoes around his ears, descending to just below each lobe” (45). Connie also characterizes Rand as kind—a more hands-on father than others in their town. However, she notes that Rand has a temper, often arguing with Sibyl over the long hours she keeps away from home. Rand sublimates his rage in alcohol, a habit that makes both Sibyl and Connie tense. Rand is also shown to be perturbed by Sibyl’s growing closeness with her lawyer, Stephen Hastings.

Despite his quarrels with Sibyl, Rand loves her deeply, as is obvious in his fear during the trial. Connie observes that her father’s hair grays over the course of mere months since he believes that Sibyl may go to jail. When Sibyl gets cancer, Rand takes excellent care of her, becoming “part nurse, part dietitian, part partner and soul mate” (198). Connie also believes Rand comes to regret his rancor against Stephen since the lawyer secures Connie a not-guilty verdict. Rand is thus a dynamic character, as he changes by the end of the novel.

Thirty-six-year-old Stephen is a charming but ambiguous character in the novel. A prominent defense attorney in Burlington, Stephen is known for securing acquittals in sensational cases. Connie’s depiction of Stephen is tinged with a mix of affection and cynicism. As a child, she was immediately impressed by the handsome Stephen, with his elegantly graying dark hair. She recalls Stephen wearing stubble on his chin and always being dressed impeccably, clad in smart chinos even over the weekend. In his own words, Stephen wants to dress in a way that is “one click above” above most people (128). The “one-click-above” approach signifies Stephen’s competitive streak and his strategic approach. A Vietnam veteran, Stephen carries over some of his intense training into his work.

Connie’s opinion of Stephen evolves over time. Initially, she likes the fact that Stephen never talks down to her. She also engages with him because she believes that Stephen will help out Sibyl. In this context, she does not even mind Stephen’s obvious attraction to Sibyl. However, her view of Stephen changes when she hears him casually conversing with Bill Tanner, the state attorney, and discussing her mother’s case as if it were an everyday, mundane matter. In hindsight, Stephen appears shrewd and calculating to Connie, more interested in winning cases than securing justice for people. Stephen’s shrewdness can be seen in his gift for manipulating audiences and juries. He decides that Sibyl must dress well, but in a manner that downplays her looks, since glamor could alienate jurors. He clinically cross-examines Asa Bedford, Charlotte’s husband, about where he was standing in the room in which his wife died and about the arc of blood he spotted spraying from her body. Stephen also urges Sibyl never to mention her journals in court since he knows the truth that they contain. He is thus a central figure in the novel’s depiction of The Legal System’s Power to Define the Truth.

Despite his questionable ethics and cutthroat work strategy, Stephen genuinely comes to care for Sibyl. Though Sibyl flirts with him, she ultimately rebuffs Stephen’s advances. In Connie’s current timeline, she is not in touch with Stephen. Stephen communicated with the Danforths for a few years before fading out of their lives. As he has gotten older, he practices less criminal law.

Connie’s first serious boyfriend, Tom, is a secondary and supportive character. Though he is supposedly the town bad boy, the novel presents Tom as a sweet, dependable teenager who respects Connie’s boundaries. Seen through Connie’s eyes, Tom is so beautiful that he appears girlish, with his light blond hair and green eyes. Two years older than Connie, Tom often dresses in dark-colored turtlenecks, hangs out with a pack of “vaguely truant” boys, and smokes Marlboro cigarettes, traits that make adults in the town wary of him.

Connie begins to try catching Tom’s attention when she is 12, and they have their first kiss in a muddy field when she is 13. Connie notes that the kiss is relatively chaste and that Tom breaks it off too soon. Even as their relationship progresses over the next few years, Tom does not push Connie into unwanted sexual contact. Tom and Connie break up soon after he leaves for state college. He is married in the current timeline and works for a company that designs medical software. Thus, he and Connie sometimes run into each other.

Tom represents sanctuary and dependability for Connie since he stands by her in the difficult period of her mother’s arraignment and trial. While Connie fears the scandal may drive him away, Tom even shows up at the courthouse to offer her support. He also shields Connie from the school gossip around Sibyl. Though Rand and Sibyl are initially wary of Tom, they come to like him for his depth of character. For Connie, the slightly older Tom is also a substitute for Rand, as she notes. Since she feels unable to ask her father for physical reassurance, and since Rand is too preoccupied to spend time with her, Tom steps in to provide her with emotional nurturing.

Asa is a Quaker pastor who moves to Reddington with his family in 1980. Originally from a tiny Alabama town called Blood Brook—the name appearing portentous in retrospect—Asa comes to lead a congregation drawn from Vermont and Quebec, across the border. Asa and his parishioners believe that the Second Coming (the prophesied return of Jesus before Judgment Day) will happen in their lifetimes. Thus, his sermons have an apocalyptic edge, urging people to live in virtue as judgment is nigh. However, while Asa is known for his powerful oratory style, Connie notes that Asa’s appearance belies his fierce sermons; he is a gentle-looking, round-faced man who wears glasses. While babysitting his son, Foogie, Connie observes that Asa is very easy with children, one of those grown-ups who can be a child around younger people. She also notes that Asa has a thick Southern accent, a novelty in Vermont.

Tragedy befalls Asa when his wife, Charlotte, dies in childbirth, though Sibyl’s C-section on her saves Asa’s second child, Veil. During the crisis, Asa appears to be in a state of shock that both the state and the defense later use to try to prove their case. Though Asa does not think Sibyl harmed Charlotte when she operated on her, he comes to believe that Sibyl did not check Charlotte’s pulse before performing the operation. During the trial, Connie is shocked to see Asa’s appearance, as in his grief, he seems to have aged decades in a matter of a few months.

Asa ultimately does not press a civil suit against Sibyl after she is acquitted of involuntary manslaughter: A devout Christian, he shuns revenge. In Connie’s current timeline, Asa is remarried and living in Texas with Veil, Foogie having moved to another town with his family. Asa hugs Connie and wishes her peace, which shows that he has let go of the past and cements him as a character who symbolizes forgiveness.

Charlotte is the mother of Veil and Jared (Foogie) and the wife of Asa. Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Charlotte moves to Vermont with her family in 1980. When babysitting Foogie, Connie meets Charlotte and notes that she is petite and skinny, barely bigger than a young teenager. Her skin is pale, her eyes gray, and her voice soft and whispery.

Despite Connie’s impression of her as fragile, Charlotte requests a home birth for her second child. In Sibyl’s estimation, Charlotte is a low-risk client, as her first delivery went smoothly. Later, it would emerge that Charlotte was previously treated for anemia and hypertension, facts that she did not share with Sibyl. Charlotte ultimately dies in childbirth, though the novel leaves the exact cause of death ambiguous. While she faints during her arduous labor, which sends her into respiratory distress, Sibyl’s CPR may temporarily revive her. However, Sibyl cannot detect a pulse on her and consequently performs an operation on Charlotte to save her baby. In retrospect, Sibyl thinks that she saw Charlotte flinch when she made the incision, suggesting Charlotte could have been alive at the time (at the time, Sibyl believed the flinch to be a postmortem reflex). However, it is unknown if Charlotte would have lived even if Sibyl had not operated on her.