Charlotte Mew and Her Friends — IB English Literature (2015)
A biography is a detailed account of a person’s life that includes basic facts like their education and relationships. Biographies are written with the aim of impressing, engaging and entertaining its readers through its portrayal of a subject’s experience of significant life events. This extract taken from Penelope Fitzgerald’s ‘Charlotte Mew and her Friends’ presents the reader with a captivating description of a Miss Harrison: a seemingly high-spirited and refined headmistress who had an astounding influence on the subject of the biography and one of Miss Harrison’s students, Charlotte Mew. The narrator’s positive attitude towards Miss Harrison’s impressive character together with the effect she had on Charlotte Mew is highlighted by the appreciative tone the narrator adopts when describing her various inspiring character traits along with how others perceived her. The events are related in an anecdotal style to sustain the reader’s interest and engagement with this fascinating figure whom the narrator captures in epic light.
The passage opens with an immediately positive image of Miss Harrison. She is said to have been ‘adored by children’ which instantly presents her as being a lovable and caring figure in a typically maternal sort of way. In addition, the narrator goes on to say ‘what she said was ‘given from above’, and what makes this statement particularly effective is that it is a direct quotation taken from another person which establishes that Miss Harrison was ‘adored’ by many of her own age as well as presents her as being a heavenly and divine figure. Miss Harrison’s divinity is further typified by the narrator’s claim that she was ‘worshipped by all visiting staff’. The narrator also interjects a formal aside saying that ‘men as well as women’ revered her to emphasise the level of influence she had on her colleagues to the extent that even men, who are usually expected to display less subordination towards female authorities, recognise her as a figure to be admired and respected. The narrator’s venerating claims and mention of how others treated her with the utmost respect give the reader an immensely positive impression of the headmistress.
As the passage develops, the narrator outlines the many literary writers whom Miss Harrison was acquainted with including Shakespeare, Emily Bronte and William Blake. This presents Miss Harrison as being deeply intellectual and her passion for literature is reinforced by the narrator’s assertion that she encouraged her female students to ‘love music and poetry’ and that during class she would ‘read aloud to them untiringly’. The adverb ‘untiringly’ demonstrates her assiduousness and enthusiasm for her occupation and her advocacy of ‘music and poetry’ exemplify her adherence to ideas about refinement and cultural elegance. What is more intriguing, however, is the way in which the narrator notes how Miss Harrison in many ways challenged established traditions and briefly touches upon the multidimensionality of her personality, which makes her character only more enthralling.
Later in the passage, the reader is presented with a slightly contrasting view of Miss Harrison’s character. The narrator affirms that ‘with all Miss Harrison’s liberality and fresh air went a certain morbidity’, the noun ‘morbidity’ carries with it connotations of mental instability and suggests that despite the headmistress’s vast impressive qualities, she was nonetheless subject to personal weaknesses. But rather than expanding upon the details of her setbacks, the narrator reverts to exalting her by complimenting her maintainance of ‘hard work’ and being a ‘model to imitate’.
Towards the end of the passage, the point of focus is on Miss Harrison’s effect on female students and Charlotte Mew in particular. The three friends who like Charlotte Mew are deeply moved by Miss Harrison’s ‘inexpressible charm’ are said to also possess a desire to become teachers, which demonstrates the great extent to which Miss Harrison was an inspiration to her students and implies that they were very much her proteges who, in the case of Charlotte Mew, even attempted to ‘dress like Miss Harrison’.
What makes Miss Harrison’s even more impressive is the way in which she challenges a particular cultural more by keeping her hair ‘short’. As well as being another feature Charlotte Mew imitates in kindred spirit, is also a testament to her forward-thinkingness, modernity and non-conformist attitude towards what was once an established norm in most societies which decreed that women should have long hair as it was widely considered feminine. Miss Harrison challenges this notion and the narrator deliberately mentions it in order to highlight her bohemian attitude.
