Margaret Drabble’s The Realms of Gold is very much a novel about the self. During the course of the narrative, the crucial conflicts take place between the main characters and their respective inhibitions. Frances Wingate, the successful archaeologist, begins to ponder both her place in the world and the gradual duress of age. Similarly, her newlywed cousin Janet Bird finds herself straddled with a husband and child, all the while not entirely certain how she let these major events come to pass. Though it is superficially a type of romance, The Realms of Gold deals more with inner turmoil and self-discovery than interpersonal relationships. Dialogue, though not rare, is less emphasized than the individual anecdotes and thought processes of the various characters, such that the reader is more immersed in the development of the single character rather than their respective associations.

In Mary Hurley Morgan’s criticism Existing Within Structures, protagonists Frances Wingate and Janet Bird are likened to the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone. While the former is a strong mother figure with power over the harvest, the latter is the innocent goddess of fertility who is abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. Likewise, Frances is a remarkably successful career woman and ample provider, whereas Janet has been bound by the confines of marriage, and is dissatisfied with her lack of power or freedom. The fleeting visits Frances shares with her distant cousin are a sort of reprieve for the housewife; an alternative view of what the cycle of life could hold. Besides being a cynical symbol of British feminism in the seventies, this parallel acknowledges the tragic elements in The Realms of Gold. Frances achieves a low point in her life while wondering if there is to be anything new in store for her, while Janet resigns herself to the forcible security of marriage and children.