Receiving credit where it is not due in such cases does not get a student anywhere nowadays – the true standard must be set. The role of women has changed dramatically over the last century; they now generally need to, and are expected/preferred to be able to get out there and earn a living and doing so by achieving academic merit is the most common method of reaching this goal.
- What have you learnt about Laura’s personality from these {first fifteen} chapters?
Laura’s personality takes a few twists and turns throughout these chapters. Before she arrived at the college, she was assertive, headstrong, passionate, impulsive, possessed a will to learn and a ‘natural buoyancy of spirit’ (pg 8). She had a fairly proud air about her, and was generally fairly selfish, with the odd exception – “Mother should see that she did know how to give up something she cared for, and was not as selfish as she was supposed to be”. She enjoyed being the centre of attention, and was dubbed by Sarah as being ‘a bit too clever’ (pg 16). However, she was not without heart, and had a sensitive side that she tried desperately to conceal at all costs, lest it befall her.
Upon her arrival at the College, she was forced to quench many of her characteristics. Her impulsive and assertive behaviour resulted in her being crushed and humiliated, and, subsequently, she became very defensive, and lost much of her said optimism.
She was very aware of her assumed inadequacy, and was constantly distraught over its consequences. However, once she gained confidence and became somewhat socially accepted due to her ‘good birth and …aristocratic appearance’ (pg 95-6), she began to assume the right to look down her nose at people (so to speak). She became impatient, haughty and ungracious with peers she did not particularly like who tried to be amiable (Chinky being the best example) – a trait that she had always freely exercised with her sister Pin – however this was usually a result of her hitting out at the handiest person due to some emotional shortcoming.
Overall you would have to dub Laura Tweedle Rambotham as indeed having a fairly selfish attitude, however it can be gleaned that the girl is good at heart – she simply fell subject to the unfortunate event of being pushed into a corner by her peers, and thus having to conform to some extent in order to ‘survive’. Laura does by no means ever conform to any ideals that she firmly objects to, with her rejection of the ‘goal for women’ – marriage – being a perfect example, however her intense desire to please those she desired acceptance from – ‘for the desire to please, to be liked by all the world, was the strongest her young soul knew’ (pg 34) – is a prominent feature of her person, and one that was also cause of much of subsequent anguish.
- How does Laura imagine she will be received at her new school? Outline what Laura envisioned before she reached the school, and then the reality of what actually occurred.
This is a very interesting passage that reveals just how naïve and myopically wrought Laura was before she entered the College. On the journey over, she envisioned ‘for the hundredth time, the new life towards which she was journeying, and, as always, in the brightest colours’ (pg 25). She imagined that she would be received with admiration and awe in a stately setting, and that she would acknowledge her new companions with ‘an easy grace and an appropriate word’ (pg 24). They would not chide her for her dress – rather, they would ascertain that she wore her clothes with a certain elegance that ‘made up for their shortcomings’ (pg 25). They would stand amazed at her cleverness and charisma, and she would form a kind of eternal friendship with one of her admirers that would be ‘the wonder of all who saw it’ (pg 25).
Laura’s only preoccupation was obviously that she would be accepted and liked at her new school – a fixation that contrasted vastly to the manner in which she was indeed received. Indeed, her first experience of social interaction entailed being scorchingly rebuked by the headmistress, as well as being sassed by the first fellow student she lay eyes on; ‘she (Lilith Gordon) put out her tongue, and said: “Now then, goggle-eyes, what have you got to stare at?” Initially, ‘no one took any notice of her, except to stare’ (pg 40), and she felt ‘forlornly miserable under the fire of all these unkind eyes, who took a delight in marking her slips’ (pg 40). Her clothes were widely acknowledged as being gaudily inadequate, and her surroundings, while not open to a large amount of scrutiny, were certainly not grand and luxurious – ‘the afternoon sun, beating in, displayed a shabby patch on the carpet. It showed up, too, a coating of dust that had gathered on the desk-like, central table.’ (pg 30) In the lowest class ‘she sat bottom, for a week or more’ (pg 59), and for over a month she was ‘a listless and unsuccessful pupil’ (pg 64). Her visions of comradery were soon shattered, and the friendships that she did manage to strike up were shaky and certainly not to be envied. She was regarded as socially dubious and ‘the greatest little oddity’ (pg 57) the College had seen for quite some time; here she was certainly not the assertive and reputable Wondrous Fair.
However, it is interesting to note that after some time, Laura was socially accepted ‘by even the most exclusive’ (pg 95), despite ‘her niggardly allowance, (and) her ridiculous clothes’ (pg 95), because of her assumed race – ‘loud as money made itself in this young community, effectual as it was in cloaking shortcomings, it did not go all the way; inherited instincts and traditions were not so easily subdued’ (pg 95). This is a good example of the girls’ generally myopic view on life.
- When Laura meets her fellow boarders, she is subjected to a barrage of questions from the other girls. What do the various questions reveal about the girls’ views on life?
The questions fired at the bewildered Laura revealed, in its most basic form, that the girl’s believed that financial status was what gave you social acceptability. This said appropriateness was most often contained within the brief, but weighty question – ‘What’s your father (do for a living)?’ If the inevitable response did not signify that the unfortunate pater made a considerable living from a civilised profession, then the burdened daughter was considered as having very low social eminence, and vice-versa. For everything was associated with what your father did – how much money you ‘brought in’ per year, the number of servants you kept, and the clothes you wore. What is being shown is a classic case of ‘judging a book by its cover’ – the girls are not concerned with whether or not you are a nice person with a good heart and soul. It reveals that the girls believe that such material attributes is what will get them through the ranks in life – a very shallow outlook that is extremely hard to overturn.