Margaret Drabble’s early reputation as a Feminist was very well borne out by her early stories. She wrote about “nappies and maternity” almost exclusively for some time. Then gradually she started working on a larger canvas which goes on expanding. She wants to handle themes of greater significance such as the theme of the “Ice Age”. Women are no longer the only main characters in her stories. She is experiencing with male protagonist like Anthony Keating of “The Ice Age”. But her pictures of women are still more convincing than her pictures of men.

Her sympathies are still with the female sex as her affectionate handling of her female characters in “The Ice Age”. Her treatment of Alison is the usual sympathetic treatment who is all love and sacrifice for her family. Drabble’s sympathetic running up of Maureen’s virtuous behaviour particularly her breakdown from Len is pathetic.

Looking around for a job to suit her purpose, Maureen hit open a secretarial career. This was the exact thing she needed. There was glamour as well as money in it for a girl of presentable appearance. She got a very good post as secretary to a company director, Stanley Flood. She had a good time with Stan.

Her mother did not approve of her “trendy gear, deadly dresses and silver tights”. She wanted her to marry and live a regular settled life. But Maureen brushed her motherly cares aside, protesting:


So she kept getting ahead with Stan but never too far because he was old enough to be her father.


Then she met Len Wincobank, an ambitious, dashing young business tycoon. He employed her and soon they were close enough to be living together, enjoying sex and social life, and getting ahead in business, till the freeze came and Len went behind the bars.

Len’s imprisonment is a bitter trial for Maureen. A girl of her nature cannot live long without money, sex and friends. Still she holds out as long as she can. She must give up Len and get somebody else to live and sleep with. Drabble sympathetically advocates her case with female logic:


So she takes up a new job with a businessman named Derek Ashley – “a solid man, a big man, with a big shoulder to lean on, a comfortable man”. She sleeps with him but lives in a separate rented apartment of her own.

Alison, the central female figure in “The Ice Age”, made a promising start in show-biz but a hasty marriage followed by the birth of a daughter, then another, proved abortive to her career. Her husband was chronically unfaithful, so she left him and went back to show-biz. Then she met Anthony Keating and chose to live with him. They lived an easy, comfortable life till the “Freeze” came on as a crushing national crisis and things got difficult. Keating’s property business that was going on quite well went down like other business in the country. They retired to Anthony's Old Rook House. Then Keating had a heart attack which disabled him for all kinds of work. Alison had a hard time coping with her household chores and Keating’s precarious health at the same time.

But this was not all she had to suffer. Her two daughters had always been a source of acute distress for her. The elder Jane, a foolish, sensual, aggressive, jealous girl is now behind the bars, in Walachia, facing trial for fatal rash driving. She was out there with a boy friend, who too had fallen a victim to the fatal car crash.

The younger daughter Molly, born with an impaired health and impaired brain, is at a boarding school for retarded children. Alison has to keep in frequent touch with her as she is not an easy charge for her teacher too.

Alison, on a call from Walachia, has to leave immediately. Her stay there was a drab and dull place with too many restrictions and miseries. She had to do without many a nice little thing. Her failure to find an essential item like Tampax caused her genuine heart burning. Then there were other things to worry about. Jane’s attitude was defiant. She had always been jealous of Molly. She thought her mother paid too much attention to Molly. She did not realize that poor Molly deserved it because of her helpless mental condition. So Alison had never been in good books of Jane. And now that Jane was in hot water Alison hoped that she might have changed, realizing her faults and feeling sorry for them. But Jane’s attitude towards her was far from encouraging.

Alison, a person with conscience, is always pestered by a sense of imaginary guilt on various accounts. She thinks herself responsible for her sister’s breast cancer.


She feels guilty for Jane’s sufferings although nobody but Jane herself is responsible for her sad plight. In the same way Alison feels guilty for having left Keating alone in his illness, though he had willingly allowed her to leave for Walachia.

Alison soon realizes that her presence in Walachia is hardly necessary. It is no comfort for Jane, and she can do little about her case. The case against Jane is strong. Therefore, Alison comes back as unhappy as ever.

Molly wants more of her attention. Thus, for some time after her return from Walachia Alison has a lot to worry about. Keating improves in health as well as behaviour.

Keating has to leave for Walachia on a dual mission – to bring Jane back and to deliver some confidential documents to the British Consul in Walachia. He dies succeed in rescuing Jane but fails to make good his own escape. He is caught and put in jail where he now plans to write a book “to justify the ways of God to men”. He still “experiences hope. He experiences joy”.


The last sentence again has a feminist ring though “The Ice Age” is not at all a feminist story.