Dorothy did feel threatened. Whose child was or wasn't she? Almost unconsciously, she detached her-self a little from love. She would be canny. She would not invest too much passion in loving her parents, her acting parents, in case the love turned out to be disproportionate, unreturned, the parent not-a-parent.
In "The Children's Book" by A.S. Byatt, Dorothy experiences a sense of anxiety regarding her identity and familial connections. She grapples with the fundamental question of who she truly belongs to, feeling threatened by the uncertainty of her parentage. This inner turmoil leads her to instinctively distance herself from deep emotional attachments, particularly when it comes to her relationship with her parents. Dorothy's defensive approach to love reveals her fear of...
