Worst of Blyton's school girls.

[dsr]

Since this one's back - what about Josephine? The rich girl who terrorized her poverty-stricken friend whose name I can't remember (began with a D, I think) and then stole money )partly by accident) and ran away from school?

[timv]

I think the main problem with Josephine was not so much that she was 'bad' as that she was muddled and boastful - partly due to insecurity, as hinted at by Enid via Miss Grayling's comments about her father being partly to blame for her behaviour. She presumably tries to copy his brash and money-obsessed behaviour, thinking that at a school full of rich girls this will win friends. Miss G even says that they could do with a school for teaching parents as she thinks over Mr Jones' attitude (p. 120 of first edition)! Enid shows that Mr J is both crass and irresponsible (and is oblivious to his daughter being potentially in danger after she runs away) when she describes him as brushing off Miss G's telephone announcement that Jo has gone missing and she will have to involve the police - he thinks tough Jo won't come to any harm, it shows that she's got spirit and daring, and he'd like to see her hitting the headlines (ie in the press) (p. 111).

Mr Jones is probably meant to be the worst parent in the school series (another interesting category?), though arguably Angela's vain and selfish mother at St Clare's comes a near second. Probably the bumptious and noisy Mr Jones, who has already nearly run into Mr Rivers' car on the way to school due to his bad driving, is meant as a typical 'new rich' businessman of the post-War era when the book was written, 'sharp' and showing off but unreliable and possibly even a bit dishonest -what was known as a 'spiv' . (Think George Cole's assorted characters in the post-War films when he was young, eg Flash Harry the betting-shop man in the St Trinians series.)

Some critics have detected a bit of snobbery in Miss Grayling's reference earlier to it being an experiment to have the child of someone like him at Malory Towers, and we do see that Jo - presumably loaded with consumer goods at home - shows off al the time, boasts, and wants a grand birthday party so that she can 'buy' her form's goodwill - which she is then told is the wrong way to try to make friends. The theft episode , an attempt to get her money back from Matron's office after it fell out of her pocket and was found (she should have given it in for security, but chose not to - probably in case she was not allowed to use it all at once),shows that she wanted the money to show off with her party. Having accidentally taken too much money, she then decided to use the 'extra' too. When her form sent her to Coventry for not owning up over her illegal going out with Deirdre getting them all in trouble, meaning nobody would come to her party, she found the pressure too much and ran away - a sort of cry for help/ attention as she was so confused?

Jo does pressurise her younger friend Deirdre to join her in running away so she has company, not caring what D's family will think if she gives them unnecessary worry - D does think of this but is too scared of offending Jo and losing her as a friend to stand up to her. Jo is thus selfish and thoughtless rather than bad, and she is only a Junior ie inexperienced (11 or 12?). Compare this to Prudence in the St Clare's series - she pressurises her weaker friend Pam the same way, but to get her as a witness as she 'catches circus girl Carlotta sneaking off illegally at night' (in fact it's Sadie she ends up following). She emotionally blackmails a weaker girl for worse reasons, ie to try to get Carlotta expelled out of spite; and Pam refuses to go with her, I think as she isn't feeling well (she ends up in the sanatorium later). Prudence is worse, though I think it's a toss-up between her and Angela (in A's treatment of Pauline and later of Jane Teal) as to who is the nastiest - Angela has her mother's bad example as a partial explanation and Prudence's parents are as far as we know nicer people.

[dsr]

I think the main problem with Josephine ...

I won't quote it all, except to say that you make a lot of sense. I agree with you.

[Stephen]

As much as I love Malory Towers, Gwendoline being the recurring "baddie" always felt a bit out of kilter for me. Oh she does some absolutely nasty things which I wouldn't want to excuse, but the unhappy girl doesn't seem to be given a chance by her equally sneering classmates, and it brings out the worst of her characteristics. The very first time we see her, she's subjected to ridicule from the sharp-tongued Alicia Johns for committing the crime of being sad to leave home. Maybe SHE could be added to the list.

Controversial...?

[timv]

Alicia is an interesting case, and a prime example of how Enid's writing and characterization is a lot more subtle than critics think - and can be cited in her defence against the usual catalogue of comments from professional literary critics about her 'poor' and 'simplistic' writing that 'sets a Bad Example to school-age readers'. She is not altogether good or bad, and veers between the two without warning - she is clever and hard-working, and ambitious, quite sporty, and a 'strong' character who attracts friends .Darrell is drawn to her - but its not altogether clear that Alicia is a good influence on her, something which it would have been nice to put in the MT television series to highlight this instead of their concentrating on Gwen as the 'baddie' (and giving Gwen some of other girls' storylines, eg Daphne's thefts).

It is presumably the problem of Alicia's sharp tongue and resulting upsetting people that explains why Miss Grayling doesn't make her Head Girl though she is a natural 'leader' - Alicia doesn't care about offending or hurting people and is out for herself. With a touch of irony, Enid gives Alicia a degree of (mild) come-uppance in Book Four by having her confident of sailing through the 'public' exams (then the 'General Certificate', later 'O' Levels, now GCSE) as she has a good memory and controls her nerves but then collapsing with ?mumps during the exam so she does not complete her exams and has to re-take them. Alicia also likes staging jokes and inventive tricks to disrupt lessons when she is bored - but only now and again and for fun. not because she dislikes learning - and she is not as lazy as joker Bobby is (initially) at St Clare's. She also tells off her cousin June for not 'staying the course' of tennis training with Amanda in Book Six , and clearly in her case she would ignore A's harsh criticism and put the tennis skills acquisition first. She is thoughtlessly rude and 'cutting' to anyone who seems a good target , whether they deserve it or not - eg Irene.

One noticeable example of Alicia's selfish behaviour - in the Third Form book she wants to stage a trick on a teacher as she is bored and ignores the warning that if the girls are caught it will mean a detention period that will coincide with Darrell's first appearance with the school lacrosse (?) team - so D will miss her chance to show what she can do. She does not care about Darrell's feelings and goes ahead anyway, which shows that she does not, in modern terms, 'look out for' her friends but uses them . Not a good sort of friendship, and Darrell clearly does not think it worth making a fuss over this as Alicia will ignore it; Sally is far more thoughtful and supportive - and indeed from time to time Alicia is quite nasty to her too. (Does Sally make Alicia feel uncomfortable?) Alicia is a shrewd and realistic assessment of a 'type' by Enid; not a bad person, but a manipulative and selfish one.

[Irene Malory Towers]

Phew that is a really thorough assessment of Alicia. I have just recently reread all the Malory Tower books and I was struck by how selfish Alicia was in the fourth form when Darrell is made head girl and she relentlessly teases Darrel to provoke a reaction. In fact she undermines both Darrell and Sally when they are made head girls, partly as Alicia is miffed that she wasn't made one. And again in the fifth form resigns from the Pantomime that Darrell has written because of upsets (probably justified) from Moira, nearly ruining the pantomime. All is saved of course with Moira stepping in to prevent June (Alicia's cousin) being expelled. So in summary, Alicia is not a supportive friend of Darrell's (or Sally's) despite being fun and clever. But she is not as bad as Gwendoline who has very few if any redeeming features. However, and here is an important point, Alicia had no reason to be nasty - she has everything going for her - whereas Gwendoline does not. So perhaps in some ways Alicia is worse than Gwendoline - a controversial opinion. I am not sure.

[IceMaiden]

Gwendoline definitely. Nasty, spiteful, vindictive and hateful.

I'm also not too fond of the girl (forget her name) who pretends to come from a super wealthy home and boasts of everything they've got, when in reality they're poor as church mice. Then seems to be thoroughly ashamed of her parents when they show up at the school implying they're not good enough for her. Awful attitude and mind.

[Silky moon]

Prudence by a mile. Erica is a nasty person as well.

[Nair Snehalatha]

I feel the worst girl is Erica of St clares-- all the worser because she did all the mean things and let poor Margery take the blame.It was only.when.Margery.saved her from the fire that became an eye opener for her.Prudence is also not far behind-- she and Erica could have pulled all the girls to pieces with their crafty.minds.Gwen's biggest weakness was her boasting
Moira was a dictator but she did a very.good turn.to June and stopped her expulsion.-- She cannot be counted as a bad sort.

[Irene Malory Towers]

Yes I remember now. I was horrified at Erica's behaviour and she was the worst of them and Prudence was the next worst.

[GloomyGraham]

Sort of the worst - but also possibly the best - was Claudine's younger sister Antoinette.

Treated like a slave by the haughty Angela, she used up all of the older girl's expensive face-cream to clean the fifth-former's shoes.

Then - when ordered to make Anchovy Toast for Angela and two friends, she used shoe polish instead of anchovy paste.

Banished by Angela for her errors, Antoinette had one final trick up her sleeve.

She confessed her 'mistake' to Matron who then insisted all three older girls had to take some of her nastiest medicine.

LOL - what a legend. Tres bien Antoinette! Tres bien!

[Nair Snehalatha]

Prudence was awful- a terrible sneak and a spiteful cat -- in Summer term at St. Clares. Dierdre was another-- but it was not entirely her fault-- it was wròng upbringing -- people like Kathleen.redeemed their faults.and became.well liked-- Erica was horrid-- letting Margery.take the.blame.for her catty actions-- Margery saving Erica from the fire became an eye opener for her-- and to the others as well-- I think Erica wad the worst.school girl--in school stories-