The CBB :: View topic - Eustacia Benson

Eustacia Benson

The CBB -> Book Discussions

#1: Eustacia Benson Author: Rachael,

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:42 am

Please discuss Eustacia (and Stacie!) here:

#2: Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!!

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 12:17 pm

I may as well start off by saying that of Eustacia and Stacie I actually prefer Eustacia. This doesn't me I like Eustacia but as she was the original 'arrant little prig' its a lot fresher than other prigs later in the series. Eustacia seems very real and well portrayed and I can understand her frustations at being sent to a new school and wanting time on her own!!! She is also brave/foolish?? enough to actually stand up to Joey and to show us Joey through different eyes. As for Stacie, I feel sorry for the length of her treatment and the fact she still suffers from the problem late in life, EBD certainly wanted to punish her thoroughly but, I feel Stacie is pale shadow of Eustacia. You tend to forget she is at Die Rosen and EBD forgot her when they left Austia in Exile!!! Stacie is much better as an adult in Reunion and Challenge and it was good to see her managing the girls as a teacher. She also has some status from her work and has become of the more successful Old Girls.

#3: Author: jennifer, Location: Sunny California

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:29 pm

Eustacia was one of the last of the Tyrol books that I read, so I had heard all about her behaviour before seeing it. I must admit, I probably would have reacted badly to boarding school, for many of the same reasons she did. I like my personal space/privacy, and go squirrelly if I can't be alone for a certain fraction of the time. I would be finding abandoned corners to read in as well, and would not take well to someone telling me when/where/what I could read. Plus, taking a relatively bookish girl, and launching her into the full scale athletic and social swing of the CS would probably be a bit of a shock. Her tattle tale tendencies were really annoying, and I can understand the other girls reactions to that, but I've never understood why she was blamed for Robin's illness. I don't think Eustacia was responsible for the accident except in a periphial sense - it really was an accident, and if Robin is so delicate that worrying about somebody being late would send her into threatened TB, then a) she shouldn't be allowed out of the house, and b) she'd probably die anyways. Where was one of the 'calming doses' when i t really would have been useful? Her transformation seems overly fast - a single accident and a nickname, and suddenly she's a nice, agreeable girl. I do like her as an adult, though. It's nice to see a woman as a true scholar and PhD in the books, rather than just working until she finds a husband, although I could see her meeting a nice fellow academic and settling into a pleasant relationship, with them both working on their research. p.s. I looked it up

Quote:

Eustacia drew back so sharply that she jerked Miss Wilson, who had trodden on a hidden loose stone at that moment. With a sharp cry 'Bill' slipped, tried to steady herself, and went down, twisting her foot under her.

#4: Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:02 pm

I think the fault was that she failed to cooperate in a potentially dangerous situation (the snow being the danger, not Miss Wilsons foot), when one could have expected personal likes and dislikes to be set aside. And she did firmly and ungraciously refuse an offer of help.I'm also not sure how much Jo really felt Eustacia was to blame for the Robins health and how much she was totally overwhelmed and looking for someone she had an excuse to lash out at. Eustacia was more a scapegoat than than a really giulty party.And the Robin had know idea what had happened, and it's not beyind imagination for someone to fall into a crevasse in a glacier, or freeze to death in blizzard... I think it was more the worry over what could have happened than staying up late that had a negative effect on the Robin.Will be back later to give my veiws on Eustacia when I've had time to clarify them.

#5: Author: JustJen, Location: waiting for a bus

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:31 pm

I always like Stacie, in fact it's one of my favorite books in the entire series. She came across has a real person with problems that I could relate to. She loses both her parents with in a year of each other. She goes to live with her aunt for a short while before being shipped off to a boarding school. At school she would rather read and study than play games etc.. I always liked the girls who stood up to Joey instead of thinking that she was the cat's bathmat. I would like to have seen Stacie later on in school. Did she become a prefect?

#6: Author: nikkie, Location: Cumbria

Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:01 pm

jennifer wrote:

I do like her as an adult, though. It's nice to see a woman as a true scholar and PhD in the books, rather than just working until she finds a husband, although I could see her meeting a nice fellow academic and settling into a pleasant relationship, with them both working on their research.

I agree with this , the only other person I can think of to have a career (excluding teachers)and not marry was OOAOML although she may marry later after the series *prepares to be corrected*

#7: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 2:50 am

Eustacia did have some annoying characteristics, but in general she’s one of the characters with whom I most empathize. As a terminally unathletic person who regularly hid in a closet to read or do homework in peace (or when I was supposed to be asleep), I’d have had an awful time at the CS! And I do find it annoying that EBD, although at least outlawing overt bullying, still allowed students and even staff to characterize people who really cared about their studies -- unless perhaps it was something acceptably feminine, such as music -- as somehow unnatural. How many people has the fear of being treated as a geek/nerd/swot kept from achieving their potential academically? I was relieved that Stacey eventually achieved some acceptance, without becoming a hearty schoolgirl clone or doctor’s wife.

#8: Author: Bunty, Location: London

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:01 pm

I think Eustacia is very well-drawn and one of the most appealing 'bad Chaletians'. EBD is constantly emphasising her courage and honesty - even when she steals the library key from Joey's desk it's made clear that she genuinely doesn't realise this is wrong, and her difficulties with finding her way around the schoolgirl code (exemplified by her tale-telling) are entirely understandable given her background. Her most unpleasant quality for a modern audience is probably her snobbery (when she loudly voices her opinion that the peasant girl with TB should be left to die with her own people rather than moved to the San) - interesting how EBD makes this a feature of so many of her 'bad girls' (Thekla, obviously, springs to mind). Interesting, too, is that way that characters (and I think the narrative voice) constantly criticise her for being 'unloveable', hence making her a kind of anti-type of the Robin. Eustacia's refusal to be sweet and charming, we may feel, earns her disproportionately harsh punishment.

#9: Author: Rachael,

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:01 pm

Bunty wrote:

Her most unpleasant quality for a modern audience is probably her snobbery (when she loudly voices her opinion that the peasant girl with TB should be left to die with her own people rather than moved to the San) - interesting how EBD makes this a feature of so many of her 'bad girls' (Thekla, obviously, springs to mind).

There's an interesting article in one of the FOCS magazines (see Kathye, I have been reading them!) that hypothesises that Eustacia may have suffered from Asperger's Syndrome i.e. what she states is technically quite factual (she comments on the peasant home being unhygienic etc so the peasant girl would be unlikely to survive, doesn't she?) but she hasn't got the emotional wherewithal to dress it up in such a way as to be acceptable to a more socially aware audience I was inclined to agree with the article (not necessarily on whether she had Asperger's or not, as I have no real knowledge of it, but that perhaps her comments weren't meant in a snobbish way) - it also suggested the same condition for her father ... Clearly she improves dramatically but even when she returns to teach at the school, she does struggle with the girls' needs ... Thekla, on the other hand is a snob - completely Rolling Eyes

#10: Author: Bunty, Location: London

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:38 pm

It's an intriguing thought. Certainly she says what she thinks without emotional content and without thinking about the effect it may have on others. I'm not sure if I've got the article you mention - I got a big pile of FOCS newsletters for Christmas but haven't sorted through them all yet - but I hope I have! I do like the idea of her father having it, though. It seems that her upbringing was entirely focused on her intellectual development, and if her Asperger's-type behaviour was learned rather than congenital it might perhaps explain why - eventually - she is able to acquire some emotional intelligence rather than remaining trapped in her Asperger's world. It is a great moment, isn't it, when she accuses her aunt, in her clipped cold tones, of behaving heartlessly towards a poor orphan? Trying to think of other examples of Eustacia's snobbery. She's culturally very isolationist (deeming the plumeau unhygienic, refusing to wear her shawl in the Tyrolean way (am I remembering right?))

#11: Author: Rachael,

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:50 pm

Yes - that's right And you're probably right about it being nurture rather than nature - her mother died v young didn't she, in which case being raised by the professor must have been ... er ... interesting! Very Happy

#12: Author: jennifer, Location: Sunny California

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:41 pm

I think "poorly socialised" would describe it as well. She basically has no experience with how to interact with people in a non academic sense, and doesn't have a good feel for other people's reactions to her behavior - for example, why the girls would object to her telling tales. And the sheer number of changes she's gone through - from being an only child raised in a very non standard way, to an orphan, sent off to a foreign boarding school because her aunt and uncle don't want her, and with the knowledge, whether consciously realised or not, that there is nobody in the world who loves her or wants her. She's expected to conform to an alien set of customs and ideas, and is reprimanded for not fitting in well, and changing her ways immediately. The emphasis on snobbery is interesting, given that Joey and the others can be just as bad at times. Providing charity for the peasant children is fine, but you don't want your children to mix with 'that sort' because of the bad habits they'll pick up. They both agree that their class is better, and disagree mainly on how you should treat those who are inferior - with pity or with contempt.

#13: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:42 pm

I think Eustacia is a character you see differently as you grow older. When I read the book when I was younger I didn't like her, to me she spoilt the happy family atmosphere of the school. Reading now as an adult I feel really sorry for her. Did her parents actually want her? Did they ever cuddle or love her? I don't think so. Have a picture of her mother treating parents and children and wanting to tell the mothers that they were wrong but not being able to then suddenly she has a baby of her own and can do what she likes with it. So all her crack-brained (for want of a better word) ideas come forward and are added to his ideas about learning. Then we end up with a child who has had a very rigid upbringing, no knowledge of other people, only her parents ideas then suddenly she is pitched into a normal happy family. Eustacia did not seem to know her aunt's family well so that suggests they had nver interracted as a family. It would be bad enough losinh ones parents and going to live with people one knew well but with near strangers it must have been worse. Then to be plunged into a boarding school so far away must have added to her insecurity. I can quite see why she acted as she did. Noone listened (as she would see it) to her point of view so she clung to her old ways, but probably her aunt's words kept coming to her mind and she would know these were the type of girls her aunt wanted her to be like and again she stayed true to what she knew as her parents child. I put her sudden change after the accident down to spending a long time in an ordinary family. We all know of Madge's sweet nature in the early books and this combined with the shock of the accident broke through her reserve. Yes I know that is what EBD probably wnated us to read but in Stacie's case it is what I see as happening.

#14: Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:51 pm

Susan wrote:

I think Eustacia is a character you see differently as you grow older. When I read the book when I was younger I didn't like her, to me she spoilt the happy family atmosphere of the school.

But sometimes the introduction of a character who is antisocial and stands out from the norm helps to emphasise that family atmosphere. I like Eustacia/Stacie, largely because of Joey's reaction to her as a result of the Robin's illness. Even reading the books as a child, I could see that Eustacia wasn't directly to blame and Joey was just pointing the finger at her because she needed to blame someone. It does strike me as something of a shame that once she reforms and becomes 'Stacie' she seems to lose most of her character, being referred to mainly for her injury and intellect, not for any personality traits. She does seem to regain her spirit in adulthood, but I think it's strange to create such a forceful personality and to then strip her of that character for the remainder of her schooldays. I would have loved to see her as a prefect.

#15: Author: Emma A, Location: The Soke of Peterborough

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:40 pm

Being like many people on the list, I liked Stacie for her qualities of bookishness and interest in learning, and agree that EBD treated her rather harshly. However, EBD does return to her in subsequent books (though not in any great detail), where it's stated that she is musical - in New House, for example, she learns to play the zither for Evvy and Corney's St Clare's orchestra, and in another book (Lintons?) she gets to sing a solo in the Christmas play. So I think EBD might just have forgotten about her when it came to Exile, particularly as we don't know how the rest of the school left Austria after Joey and Co.'s dramatic escape. Also she was of an age (and of a studious bent) to go to university at that time, and probably did. I agree with Susan that spending time with the Russells, being forced to interact socially with a very different family (and remember, all her cousins were boys, who would probably have had very little tolerance for a girl, even if she hadn't have acted like Eustacia when she first came to live with them) probably helped Stacie to adjust better to school once she had returned, together with her growing friendship with Evadne, in particular.

#16: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:56 pm

By the time of Exile was Stacie still living at Die Rosen, or would she be going back to her aunt & uncle for holidays as her back was pretty much ok by then? So rather than being forgotten, she might have been intentionally not included because she wasn't there then. One thing I like in Stacie's injury is that at least it isn't completely better the following term. I know it's hard on her to suffer like that for such a long time, but it's more realistic than some other injuries which are just a memory a few weeks later. I think her parents, although no doubt well-meaning, had a lot to answer for, and to blame Eustacia for the way they brought her up to be and knows no different is most unfair. Considering her situation, I think Eustacia actually handles things quite well when she goes to the Chalet School - ok she breaks rules she knows nothing about - the unwritten sneaking rule for example - but considering she's never really mixed with people before it's very hard for her and nobody is understanding to her at all - and if Jo knew her situation beforehand (trying to remember if she was there when Mademoiselle read the letter to Madge and I think she was), she treats her very shabbily all things considered. At least when she feels she has to get away from people she goes and finds somewhere quiet - maybe she shouldn't have gone to the library or chemistry lab, but Simone used to run off to the pinewoods when she shouldn't have gone that far and nobody came down heavily on her for it - instead of staying with the people who are driving her crazy and ending up probably losing her temper! When she's in a different environment from the school - treated kindly by Madge & Jem, having her own room rather than sharing, not being expected to live up to standards she knows nothing about - it's not surprising really that she becomes a nicer person, reflecting the behaviour of those she sees around her. Phew! Not sure where all that came from! Liz

#17: Author: Squirrel, Location: St-Andrews or Dunfermline

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:51 pm

On the whole aspergers thing - yes from my own experiance i would say that it plays some part in her make-up, whether socialised or not I couldnt say. I do have a diagnosis of AS, and while I would not have thought about it without the comments on this page I was already thinking that I would have been reacting in similar ways, as I saw the ways that people explained some of her behaviour. This is especially the case when you take into account that peopel with AS tend to like routines, and find it difficult when they are changed. Now when you take it that she is living with her father, and has the routine of being in charge of the house, then her father dies and she is plunged into a family and is no longer able to be in that place of responciblity, no sooner has she got a new routine than she learns she is to have yet another change and being placed in a boarding school in a different country, where she cant even have the little familiarity of returning to the place she is learnign to call home. I know of people for whom even going to a different school is a nightmare never mind it being a boarding school in a different country... As soon as you add this into the mix there are so many different reasons behind why Eustacia would act in the way that she does. Next time I think I shall be reading this story with very different eyes...

#18: Author: Sarah_G-G, Location: Sheffield (termtime), ? any other time!

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:38 pm

I couldn't comment on the Aspergers issue as I've never come into contact with it, though it seems to make a lot of sense from what has been said on this thread. I'm another one who sympathised with Eustacia's desire to read and spend time alone, especially since from the sound of it she was used to spending time in a big house with only her father and servants (who, let's face it, there's no way she would have associated with) so to suddenly meet loads of people and have to be with them constantly would have been incredibly hard for her. I would also add that for her to change her ways would be to admit that they were wrong and in this case, not just admitting that she was wrong, but that her recently deceased father was wrong. If all she has to hang on to of her father is what he taught her, then of course she would want to keep that and would bristle at being told that he was in the wrong, which is basically what was happening when people told her to change her behaviour. My mum died when I was 11 and I know that a lot of things she said and did stayed with me and influenced my behaviour (still do, I should think) and if she had told me something that others objected to, I have no doubt that I wold have clung to her memory unless and until it became totally clear that it was stupid to do so, even if I could sort of see their point. This seems to be what Eustacia did.

#19: Author: Donna, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:28 pm

I've come to this rather late, but I've just re-read all the Tyrol books, and it's struck me that poor old Stacie is never allowed to forget her accident and what caused it. Every time her name is mentioned, it carries with it some reference to her accident/injury/past behaviour, to the extent that the books become rather repetitive. Now I know that part of that is because her back injury continues to cause her problems, but EBD carries it to extremes.

I was another who never really liked Eustacia (despite probably having a lot in common with her) when I was reading as a child, but as an adult, I just feel sorry for her - I often have bursts of wanting to be alone with a book and I imagine it was ten times worse for someone who wasn't used to having lots of people around. The Chalet people weren't really very understanding about her background - and plenty of them knew it - I seem to remember someone even knew who her father was - and they didn't seem to make allowances for her. She is probably one of the few girls who arrived at the school with no idea of what to expect - most other girls had usually at least read school stories, even if they hadn't actually been to school.

#20: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:38 pm

Donna wrote:

She also drags it up herself quite a lot. It's sort of like her identity, her calling card. She makes a point of it in "Reunion" when the party of which she is a part goes up a mountain. Also, when, in Challenge, OOAO is going after Jocelyn, that's Stacie's excuse why she can't go. I don't necessarily blame her, as a bad back can be a terribly debilitating thing, but she probably doesn't need to bring it up herself. As you said, Donna, other people probably would.

#21: Author: Donna, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:05 pm

KB wrote:

Donna wrote:

Maybe she's been conditioned to it by then? I imagine that if something like was being rammed down your throat from the age of 14, when you already know you've done something silly, it's likely to stick with you for life. Maybe by the time of Reunion and Challenge, she does see it as the only thing of note in her life - which is very sad if it was true.

*what do you mean, she's a fictional character?* Smile

#22: Author: samw,

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:42 am

More than anything else, Eustacia is probably let down by the school rather than her aunt and uncle. It does appear that she barely knows her aunt and her family, but her aunt does come when her father is dying. Mrs Trevanion obviously cares about Eustacia and is honest with her about why they are sending her to boarding school, and also writes to the school explaining the situtation. She also came after the accident to be with her.
The school should have been a bit more careful in how they handled Eustacia, who really had very few allowances made for her, especially compared to some of the others. The school learnt some lessons from Eustacia, and then made sure that the new girls were properly looked after, as it appears sheepdogging became more common afterwards

#23: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 6:04 am

I don't actually think official 'sheepdogging' began until the Swiss books, although girls were put under the charge of other girls in an informal way. I suppose the school had two options with Eustacia - give her the one-on-one attention that her father had given her, making allowances for all of her differences from other girls, or else try to make her fit in and knock off her corners a little. While the second method may have been a little harsh in Eustacia's individual circumstance, the school could not have known that in advance, and not could it really sacrifice all other girls to give Eustacia that individual treatment. The very best circumstance to allow Eustacia to remain as closed-minded and unsociable as she was at the beginning of the book would have been for her aunt to leave her at Oxford and employ someone to teach her.

#24: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 2:09 pm

I wasn't very sympathetic about Eustacia in 'Eustacia goes to the Chalet School' but she grew on me after the accident.

The CBB -> Book Discussions

output generated using printer-friendly topic mod, All times are GMT + 1 Hour

Page 1 of 1