Nancy Mitchell in Looking for Jane: Character Analysis

Overview

Nancy Mitchell is one of the novel's three central narrators, and her story spans from 1979 to 2017. She is the adopted daughter of Frances Mitchell, the biological daughter of Margaret Roberts (who later becomes Dr. Evelyn Taylor), and a volunteer with the Jane Network, an underground abortion referral service. Her narrative thread connects the novel's three timelines: the 1960s St. Agnes's Home story, the 1970s–80s Jane Network activism, and Angela Creighton's 2017 search.

Nancy's arc is defined by secrets—the secret of her adoption, the secret of her abortion, and the secret of her Jane Network work—and the cost those secrets exact on her relationships. She is also the baby that Margaret Roberts spent decades searching for.

Plot Role

Nancy serves as the living bridge between the novel's past and present. She is the infant born at St. Agnes's Home in 1961, the young woman who witnesses a botched illegal abortion in 1979, the volunteer who joins the Jane Network in 1983, and the woman Angela Creighton searches for in 2017 after discovering Frances Mitchell's letter.

The 2010 letter that opens the novel—misdelivered to Thompson's Antiques & Used Books instead of Nancy's upstairs apartment—is Frances's dying confession, revealing Nancy's adoption and her birth mother's name. That letter sits undiscovered for seven years until Angela finds it, setting the novel's present-day plot in motion.

Motivations and Traits

Nancy's defining trait is her instinct for secrecy, which the evidence shows is both learned and self-protective. When she discovers the note from Margaret Roberts in 1980, her first reaction is to hide the evidence: her internal refrain is to keep herself to herself. She doesn't confront her parents immediately, and she makes a deliberate decision not to look for her birth mother.

Her actions reveal a woman who is brave in public but guarded in private. She risks her safety to help her cousin Clara after the botched abortion in 1979, dragging her off the subway and lying to hospital staff to protect her. She volunteers with the Jane Network despite knowing the legal risks. Yet she cannot bring herself to tell her fiancé Michael about any of it—not the abortion, not the adoption, not the volunteer work.

Nancy is also deeply practical and self-aware. In 1985, when she sees the classified ad seeking a daughter adopted from St. Agnes's Home in 1961, she reasons through the odds that it might not be from her birth mother, worries about causing pain to the wrong family, and ultimately hangs up when a man answers. She tells herself she's being responsible and sensible, but her crying in the bathroom afterward suggests fear was also at work.

Chronological Arc

1979 (age ~18): Nancy sneaks out to accompany her cousin Clara, who has arranged an illegal abortion. The procedure goes wrong, Clara hemorrhages, and Nancy gets her to a hospital. Dr. Gladstone records it as a spontaneous miscarriage and tells Nancy to ask for 'Jane' if she or anyone she knows needs help.

1980: Nancy discovers a leather case containing hand-knitted yellow baby booties and a note from Margaret Roberts: 'Jane—My name is Margaret Roberts, and I am your mother. I love you. I did not want to give you up. I will never stop searching for you.' She learns she was adopted and that her birth mother loved her. She doesn't tell her parents what she found.

1981: Nancy is present during an abortion raid and is helped by Dr. Taylor.

1983: Nancy volunteers at St. Sebastian's nursing home, where she meets Sister Mary Agatha, who reveals that babies at St. Agnes's were stolen and sold, and that she lied to a girl that her baby had died. Nancy meets Dr. Taylor again and asks to join the Jane Network.

1984: Michael proposes; Nancy accepts. She continues her secret Jane Network work, including an incident where a patient named Patricia draws a handgun during a procedure.

1985: Nancy offers her home for the network's new paste-based abortion method. She sees the classified ad from her birth mother but hangs up without responding. She marries Michael (the marriage announcement appears in February 1986).

1987: Nancy, six months pregnant, continues her Jane work. At her baby shower, her mother gives her the yellow booties—but the note is gone. That night, Michael confronts her about her distance, and she confesses she had an abortion before meeting him. He leaves angrily.

Later years: Nancy and Michael divorce. She raises their daughter Katherine, trying to be more transparent than her own mothers were. She keeps the 'Big One'—her adoption—from Katherine.

2017: Angela contacts Nancy, who initially rebuffs her. After reading Margaret's note and Frances's letter again, Nancy changes her mind and agrees to meet Evelyn Taylor. She also reaches out to Michael, taking responsibility for the secrets that ended their marriage. She tells him, 'I need to tell you about Jane.' She reunites with her birth mother, telling Evelyn she may call her Jane.

Relationships

Frances Mitchell (adoptive mother): Frances is overbearing and protective, and Nancy's relationship with her is affectionate but strained. Nancy cringes at Frances's 'gift from God' framing of her adoption. Frances's 2010 letter—written as a dying confession—is what ultimately reunites Nancy with her birth mother.

Margaret Roberts / Dr. Evelyn Taylor (birth mother): Nancy never knows Margaret as a child. She discovers Margaret's note in 1980 but doesn't act on it. The two women unknowingly work together in the Jane Network—Evelyn later realizes she has already met Nancy as a patient, at St. Agnes's, and as a fellow Jane. Their reunion in 2017 is the novel's emotional climax.

Michael Birch (husband/ex-husband): Nancy loves Michael but keeps her defining secrets from him. When she finally confesses the abortion in 1987, he leaves. Their marriage ends, and Nancy later takes responsibility, acknowledging she married him without telling him about her birth, her Jane Network work, or her abortion.

Clara (cousin): Clara's botched abortion in 1979 is the catalyst for Nancy's introduction to the world of underground reproductive care.

Katherine (daughter): Nancy tries to break the cycle of secrecy with her daughter, maintaining a policy of transparency except for the 'Big One' of her adoption. She and Katherine are close, and Katherine is described as honest and open—much more like her father than like Nancy.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Helping Clara (1979): Nancy's decision to get Clara to a hospital and lie about the abortion's circumstances leads to Dr. Gladstone's 'Jane' advice, which plants the seed for Nancy's later activism.

2. Not confronting her parents (1980): After finding Margaret's note, Nancy keeps the discovery to herself. This decision shapes her pattern of secrecy for decades.

3. Joining the Jane Network (1983): Nancy volunteers with the network, risking legal prosecution. This work defines her for years but also deepens the divide between her public and private selves.

4. Not answering the classified ad (1985): Nancy sees her birth mother's ad but hangs up when a man answers. She tells herself it's responsible and sensible, but the evidence suggests fear. This decision delays the reunion by decades.

5. Confessing to Michael (1987): Nancy finally tells Michael about her abortion. He leaves. The confession is honest but comes too late to save the marriage.

6. Agreeing to meet Evelyn (2017): After initially rebuffing Angela, Nancy changes her mind and agrees to the reunion. She also reaches out to Michael, taking responsibility for her secrets.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Nancy embodies the novel's central theme of secrecy and the cost of silence. Her life is a series of withheld truths—from her parents, from Michael, from Katherine—and each withholding compounds the damage.

She is also a living symbol of reproductive autonomy and the fight for safe, legal abortion access. Her 1979 experience with Clara's illegal abortion is dangerous and traumatic; her later work with the Jane Network is an act of resistance. She experiences both the trauma of the underground and the solidarity of the network.

The yellow booties are Nancy's most powerful symbol. They connect her to Margaret, who knitted them and tucked a note inside. They appear at Nancy's discovery in 1980, at her baby shower in 1987 (with the note removed), and in Evelyn's memory of the Goodbye Room. They represent the thread of maternal love that survives institutional cruelty.

Nancy's story also connects to the trauma of forced adoption and the long shadow of institutional abuse and the search for identity and biological origins. Her discovery of the note forces her to re-examine her entire identity, and her eventual reunion with Evelyn completes that search.

Finally, Nancy's relationship with the Jane Network and with Dr. Taylor illustrates female solidarity and mutual support networks. She joins the network as a volunteer, and it's the network—through Angela's search—that ultimately reunites her with her mother.

Questions and Answers

1. Why does Nancy decide not to respond to the classified ad from her birth mother in 1985?

Nancy sees an ad seeking a daughter adopted from St. Agnes's Home in 1961 but hangs up when a man answers. The evidence shows she reasoned that the ad might not be from her birth mother, that she didn't want to cause pain to the wrong family, and that Margaret might have changed her mind about wanting her baby. She also tells herself she's being responsible and sensible rather than reckless. The deeper truth, suggested by her crying in the bathroom afterward, is that she was afraid of what she might find.

2. What does Nancy discover in the leather case, and how does it change her?

In 1980, Nancy finds a set of hand-knitted yellow baby booties and a note from Margaret Roberts: 'Jane—My name is Margaret Roberts, and I am your mother. I love you. I did not want to give you up. I will never stop searching for you.' The discovery reveals her adoption and her birth mother's love. It forces her to re-examine her childhood and her parents' lies, and it plants the question of her biological identity that she carries for decades.

3. Why does Nancy keep her Jane Network work secret from Michael?

Nancy never tells Michael about her abortion, her adoption, or her volunteer work with the Jane Network. The evidence shows she worried about how much of her life she would have to hide once married, and she acknowledges the secrecy wasn't fair to him. She confesses the abortion in 1987, but by then the accumulated secrets have eroded the marriage's foundation.

4. How does Nancy's relationship with her daughter Katherine differ from her relationship with her own mothers?

Nancy tries to break the cycle of secrecy with Katherine. The evidence shows she hasn't kept secrets from her daughter, at least none other than the 'Big One' of her adoption. She and Katherine are close, and Katherine is described as honest and open—much more like her father than like Nancy. Nancy's effort to be transparent is a deliberate response to the lies she grew up with.

5. What happens when Nancy finally meets her birth mother?

In 2017, after Angela confirms Nancy's identity and reveals Evelyn's true story, Nancy agrees to meet. When they meet, Nancy tells Evelyn she may call her Jane, and the two embrace. Jane tells her mother she has been looking for her. The reunion completes the search that Margaret Roberts began in 1961.

For more on how Nancy's story resolves, see the ending explained page, or browse common reader questions.