The Fifth Child: Pages 3 – 33 Summary & Analysis

In the mid-1960s, David and Harriet spot each other across the room at their office Christmas party and know immediately that they are meant for one another. They stand at the outskirts of the crowded room, quietly dismayed at the noise and the attention-seeking gestures of their coworkers, noting that their grins could just as easily be grimaces of pain. Harriet, when viewed from across, the room forms little more than a pastel blur: unfashionable, stern, a body better suited for gardening than dancing. David, an observer, watches curiously as couples come together on the dance floor and separate. He is handsome enough to have lured girls’ attention before, but his evaluative gaze eventually puts them off. Harriet is a graphic designer in the sales department and David is an architect.

Harriet and David are well-matched because of their antiquated ideas of sex in the 1960s: David has had only one affair with a woman he didn’t like, who believed he was trying to reform her. She said, “I do believe you imagine you are going to put the clock back, starting with me!” After they parted ways, David found himself disappointed to learn that she had slept with most of the firm. At the party, David watches as she blows him taunting kisses from the dance floor, and he smiles back, not regretting his decision.

Harriet, a virgin, has been teased by her friends for seeing her virginity as a present she might give to a carefully chosen partner. She dislikes that promiscuity has become common and she blames women especially for what she sees as their acts of immorality. Harriet is well aware that those same girls are saying of her, “It must be something in her childhood that’s made her like this. Poor thing.” Indeed, Harriet wonders if there’s something wrong with her because of the number of men unwilling to put up with her refusal. She spends time with a younger girl friend until that friend, too, loses her inhibitions. Harriet decides she is a misfit and seeks reassurance from her mother who confirms that Harriet is old-fashioned and that other girls would love to be like her.

Harriet and David spot each other and begin their approach at precisely the same moment, moving to another room where they find a seat and talk to each other hungrily. They then retire to his apartment where they lay on his bed, kissing, talking, holding hands and then falling asleep.

Harriet moves into David’s flat right away and they decide to marry in the spring, believing they’re meant to be. It is revealed that Harriet grew up one of three daughters, to parents Harriet is proud to say never divorced. She expects to spend her life raising a family instead of being a career woman. David’s parents, however, had divorced when he was seven, and David felt split between his homes. His mother, Molly, had remarried an academic, Frederick—both are “kind, if remote,” and they live in Oxford. David spent most of his childhood with his mother, calling his room in her house his truest home. His wealthy father, James, had remarried wealthy Jessica and he lives the life of a jetsetter, relocating regularly. The division between his parents has caused David to envision a very different, stable family life for his own children.

The house they find outside of London is enormous, three stories, and perfect for a very large family, which, it turns out, is exactly what they both want. They want as many as six kids, a truth they know they should keep to themselves for fear of judgment. The home is too expensive for them, but they decide to proceed, agreeing they’ll manage somehow. They’ll have to wait a couple years to begin having children, ensuring their double income until David moves up the payscale enough in his architecture firm to pay their mortgage alone.

On the day the sale closes, Harriet and David wander the house, admiring every small detail and planning their life. They spend the day making love in their bedroom despite not having contraceptives with them. Harriet notes that David seems to be making love with purpose, and by the end of the day, they’re certain they’ve conceived. When night falls, it feels as though the room has changed into a cave, and that Harriet doesn’t actually recognize David. He quiets her with a surprisingly strong grip, and they wait for the ordinariness to slowly return to the room.

It is confirmed that Harriet is pregnant and Harriet and David worry about how they’ll pay their bills, and also how they’ll be judged for having taken this responsibility on. David knows he could ask his father for money, but he never has before, unlike his sister who preferred his father’s lifestyle. One afternoon, Molly and Frederick visit, surprised at the size of the house and at the large family that David and Harriet have planned. At dinner, Molly notes that they’ll have to ask for help from James, which David finds uncomfortable to think about, but knows to be true. Molly comments that raising children is a lot of work, and David says it will not be so bad for Harriet as it was for Molly because Harriet is maternal, a slight Molly takes with a grain of salt.

Molly suggests that James should visit, and soon afterwards he arrives with his wife, Jessica. They stand outside the house with David and Harriet evaluating it. James confirms the house is a good price probably because it’s too big for most people. He offers to take on the payment of the 30-year mortgage, admitting that he didn’t give the couple much of a wedding present. Jessica reminds James they’ll have to give something of equal value to David’s sister Deborah, but James says they already have, and that, anyway, they have more than enough money. Jessica laughs at this and David acknowledges that he’ll now be beholden to the wealth that he’s otherwise rejected in his life. Jessica asks how many children they plan to have and jokes about how it wouldn’t be her choice.

Harriet and David assume that Harriet’s mother, Dorothy, a widow, will agree to live with them and help Harriet with childcare. Dorothy appears immediately judgmental of the size of the house, though she keeps her opinion to herself for several days. She had a hard time raising her three daughters with her husband in a house where there was never enough money, and she knows “the cost, in every way, of a family, even a small one.” One evening, Dorothy sits the couple down to warn them against rushing into everything. She observes that the young couple is behaving as though they might lose anything they don’t pin down right away. Harriet and David agree that this is their point of view. Bad news plays on the radio behind this discussion. Dorothy begs them to reconsider, saying that sometimes David and Harriet scare her.

Harriet argues that in some countries, large families are not nearly so rare and David agrees. Dorothy counters this by saying that people in poorer countries expect half their children to die and don’t need to worry about educating them, and rich people can have lots of children because they have the money for it, but middle-class people must be careful to have only as many children as they can properly support. In her eighth month of an uncomfortable pregnancy, Harriet worries aloud about why she and David are always criticized, and Dorothy, sensitive to having offended her daughter, mentions that at the beginning of the last war, people said it was irresponsible to have children at all, but she had them anyway, and David and Harriet find themselves vindicated.

Just after Christmas in 1966, Harriet gives birth to Luke in the family bed. He’s a good-natured baby who is easy to care for. David and Harriet grasp this new version of their happy family possessively. Right away, the house becomes a hub of family life, drawing family for a long visit around Easter including David’s father, his mother and her husband, and Harriet’s sisters Angela and Sarah and their families. It’s clear to all that Harriet’s family is of a lower class than David’s. The big dining room table attracts people day and night, and the house is filled with laughter that thrills the young couple. Harriet and David keep it secret that they are pregnant again, despite their plans to wait before having more children.

When Harriet and David tell Dorothy shortly after, she takes the news quietly, acknowledging that they’ll continue to need her help. Harriet is, again, uncomfortable and she vows to wait longer before their third child. The same guests from Easter arrive to celebrate Christmas for some ten days, including some additional family and friends, and they all agree that Harriet and David have a gift for hosting. David’s sister Deborah also arrives, unmarried, normally not fond of family gatherings like this, but drawn in by this one. Neighbors appear at the party, but the sense of familial bonds pushes them away, and Harriet and David’s values are reinforced by this effect.

The second child, Helen, is born in the family bed, too, in 1968. Helen moves into the baby room attached to Harriet and David’s bedroom, and Luke is moved to the next room over. Despite Harriet’s fatigue, she insists the extended family visit for Easter—Dorothy and Harriet’s sisters must do the work of hosting. That summer of 1968, the house is full of visiting family and friends. Guests offer to contribute to the costs, but it’s never quite enough because they’re aware that the Lovatts receive financial help from James. In truth, money is always tight. Harriet’s sister, Sarah, casts a shadow on the atmosphere by quarreling with her husband, William. A divorce is not possible because they’re expecting their fourth child, though.

Christmas and Easter are again celebrated by the larger family. Sarah’s daughter Amy is born with Down Syndrome, confirming that Sarah and William must stay together to properly care for their children. Dorothy wishes there were two of her so she might help both Sarah and Harriet, and occasionally she leaves the Lovatt house to help Sarah instead.  Harriet and David’s third child, Jane, is born in the family bed in 1970. Dorothy scolds Harriet and David for moving too quickly and all of the children shift down a room to make room for the new baby. David and Harriet are blissful; they believe their happiness is “what they had chosen and what they deserved.”

David fails to receive the promotion he expected he’d get. William also loses his job. Sarah jokes that she and William get all the bad luck, but Harriet mentions to David that she doesn’t believe it’s bad luck. Instead she thinks that Amy was born with Down Syndrome because of Sarah and William’s constant fights. David criticizes this fatalistic line of Harriet’s thinking. Crime has increased in the small town over the past five years. Gangs of disrespectful youths hang about cafes in town, brutal crimes and burglaries have become more common. Harriet and David force themselves to read the news, but would prefer to remain safe and sequestered in the unaffected sanctuary of their home.

In early 1973, the fourth child, Paul, is born in the house after another uncomfortable pregnancy. The family visits for Easter and stays for three weeks, and James needs to write an additional check to pay for it. The children move into one room to make space for guests, and Dorothy wonders why the children couldn’t always stay together. David refuses this idea, insisting, “everyone should have a room,” and the family bristles at this odd sticking point in his vision for happy family life. Angela, Harriet’s other sister, admits that she feels that Sarah and Harriet use all of Dorothy’s time and leave none for her. Sarah feels the need to hide little Amy behind a blanket because the sight of her upsets people. Harriet is irritable because she is overtired.

William speaks up, saying what the rest of the family is thinking: that Harriet and David should stop having children. Harriet says they plan to wait three years to continue growing their family, but insists that this is the type of life most people want. It’s just that they’ve been “brainwashed out of it.” James says that the idea of family life being best is antiquated, but Harriet questions why he wants to spend time with them if that’s the case. David’s young cousin, Bridget, the product of a complicated family life, says she hopes for the same type of family life when she gets older. The family carries on fighting about whether the Lovatt children will be educated privately or publicly. James vows to help with those costs within limits. Eventually, the family gives up on convincing Harriet and David and they go for a picnic.

The family visits again for summer. Bridget is present again, soaking in the idyllic atmosphere of the family, and David and Harriet recognize, almost uneasily, their excessive happiness. They justify this feeling by believing that life is this happy if the right choices are made. Before Christmas, Harriet finds out she is pregnant with a fifth child, to the couple’s dismay, despite their efforts against it. Dorothy is away helping Sarah and her children, and though Harriet has tried out three different girls as helpers, none of them has worked out well. Harriet complains that she thinks the new fetus might be poisoning her. Dorothy, despite her condition, begs David to host Christmas again because it’s easier when she has help around. David worries about the cost of having company over again, despite his having taken on extra work to cover their expenses.