Fact and Fiction in Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1990)

This is a rare thesis written by Sarah Frith on the subject on Hanging rock. I will just point out some of the major things she discussed and at times add my own comments. It's a well-done thesis.

'Scholars have viewed the novel as a study of the conflict of humanity vs. nature, in symbolic terms as the embodiment of an archetypical religious myth, as a philosophical treatise on the passing of time and merely as an ambiguous an sinister disappearance.'

It's easy to see how it can be seen as humanity vs. nature and as some kind of religious/spiritual thing that happened. There is obviously something in the book and the movie that deals with something strange going on with time, and a basic practical explanation is that the girls were found by some guys and dealt with.

I'll add a couple more here. One is that the girls had accidents and somehow fell into a cavern in the rock, were injured, never escaped and died there. Another possibility that has been presented is that the girls maybe entered some kind of dimensional/space-time warp and went elsewhere and/or elsewhen. One other possibility that has been presented is that the girls were abducted by extra-terrestrials.

The thing that is most fascinating about all of this is that so many people have taken such a great interest in explaining what happened in a story that is fictional. There have been people argue with on about the stuff I have on my own web site, basically saying that the event was actually real.

...there is no historical evidence that such a disappearance ever occurred.

It wasn't. There is not one single scrap of evidence that such a thing happened at that time. People did disappear from time to time, there is no doubt about that, but no group of girls did as in the story.

The author of the thesis does a lot of comparison between the Appleyard College and the Clyde Girl's Grammar School that Joan Lindsay attended and discusses how the two schools are pretty much the polar opposite of each other with the Appleyard Collegecoming out on the wrong end of the stick every single time. She also says she based some of the fictitious characters on ones she knew at Clyde Girl's Grammar School.

Through Appleyard's imposing headmistress, Mrs. Appleyard, Lindsay satirizes the attitude that social status is the most important value no matter what the cost.

A thing to note is that the author does not make such a statement without backing it up with information and logic, both.

In relation to the element of missing time, the author notes that Joan Lindsay was known for:

'...her aversion to clocks.'

One very interesting thing is that Joan Lindsay got married on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1922, and the events in the book are supposed to take place on a Valentine's Day.

She then goes into a detailed description of each school, including the staff and what they taught. Appleyard College comes out pretty bad in the analysis, the school doing far less for intellectual growth than for a fitting-in and getting-married type of approach.

Mrs. Appleyard's personal goal was simply to make as much money off the school as she could.

The author notes that Joan Lindsay had a 'contempt for formal Public school education...'

The author later discusses another work of Joan Lindsay's where she says:

'I wrote Picnic at Hanging rock for my own joys and sorrows in attempting to translate a long-seen vision into words that would make the fateful picnic into a living reality.' Joan's vision of past, present and future time coexisting offers an alternative to the conventional view of the passing of time as viewed in a linear fashion.'

She then refers to the last chapter, published separately, which focuses again on the suspension of time.

In relating the novel to the times it occurred in, she says:

'Beyond the presentation of these motifs from her own life, the novel is a powerful period piece and a vehicle for Joan Lindsay's examination of the taboos, prejudices, manners and morals of the late Victorian society. Lindsay writes incisively of the social forces at work at the turn of the century.'

Later, she writes:

'Through the character of Mrs.Appleyard, Joan Lindsay satirizes the attitude that social status is the most important value regardless of the cost.'

Something which has not really changed. Think of how many of the young adult novels deal with teenagers in school trying to get into the 'best' clique, even if said clique is composed of murderers, monsters, aliens or whatever. Mrs. Appleyard treated people differently according to their wealth and social status and very little has changed to this day.

There is some slight prejudice, it seems, in the book in relation to women who focus only on learning and studying and ignore social activities.

'Through the comical character of Greta McCraw, Joan Lindsay is satirizing the academic woman, inferring that alife guided by learning alone is far from complete.'

This prejudice goes further when McCraw is pointed out to be unattractive, who has lost her feminity because she has entered a 'man's' field of specialization. Later, the author notes:

'...she has nonetheless endorsed the philosophical tradition of the accomplishments and the enduring notion that there is a natural affinity between the female mind and the humanities.'

This can be rather easily interpreted as saying that the more 'delicate' areas of knowledge, such as the humanities, is fine for women, but science, mathematics and similar areas are not. One thing to keep in mind, of course, is that women had a quite limited role in Victorian society. The best way to see this is probably to watch some of the excellent BBC series that deal with that time period where you can see that women's hope rests on attracting a good and preferably wealthy man to marry and that anything being housewifely duties is not considered proper.

The importance of time is noted again when the author says:

'Miranda used to say that everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place.'

There's also the normal footnote citations as in any thesis. It makes a very interesting read.

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