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Growing Up- Theodora
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Author:  Fiona Mc [ Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:46 am ]
Post subject:  Growing Up- Theodora
Theodora of the Chalet School was published in 1959, along with Trials for the Chalet School. It was published the once in hardback and three times in paperback. It has major parts of the original text cut. Theodora starts off introducing a difficult new girl who had been expelled from three different schools. A distant cousin who once taught at the school (Miss Carthew- see Tyrol days) recommended the school for Theodora and then writes to the school after the term starts to fill in the background of Theodora’s life. Theodora is offered a fresh start along with a new name of Ted and soon makes friends with Len Maynard and Rosamund Lilley. Their friendship is cemented after the three are isolated due to exposure to smallpox. Ted who starts the term in Inter V, soon catches up with her schoolwork and is promoted to Vb, the same form as Len and Rosamund. Len’s friendship with Ted encounters problems when Margot’s jealousy of her sister’s friendship rears its head. Margot believe’s both her sisters’ Len and Con should be content to be only friends with her despite the fact she has a close friend in Emmerence Hope. Margot overhears a conversation between her Mother and Rosalie Dene and decides to blackmail Ted into no longer being friends with Len. This causes problems between the triplets. Len and Con discuss the matter with Mary Lou who reassures them, they have the right to have as many friends as they choose, but to also show Margot that they consider their tie of tripletship as a big thing. Con and Margot end up having a huge row, when Margot accuses her of going off with her friends and leaving her alone. Con tells Margot exactly what she thinks of her and EBD says that Con finally grows up and is definitely a Senior after that. Mary Lou who is concerned about the issue, talks to Miss Ferrars and Mademoiselle de Lachenais and invites herself along with Vb’s expedition for Half Term. The triplets go away for a Half Term expedition and things come to a head, when Emmerence buys Margot a farewell present and an argument erupts. Mary Lou comes into the tail end of the argument and sorts the issues out when the girls return to school. In the end all the triplets resolve the issues and relationships they have between themselves and other people.

So what did people think of this book? The theme, we will be focusing on for this discussion is growing up (though please feel free to discuss anything else). This is probably one of the first books where were really see the dynamic’s of the relationship between the triplets, in greater depth. In Rescue, we see a brief glimpse of the relationship and the roles they see to play to more depth in this book. In Rescue, we have an argument erupt between the triplets while they are playing; Len tries to keep the peace, Con says exactly what she thinks and Margot throws a tantrum to get her own way. When Jack intervenes Con feels like she should have been more tactful despite the fact Jack does not tick her off for what she said. In Theodora, we see a similar dynamic play out. Margot is jealous of Len forming close friendships aside from herself and is determined to put a stop to it; Con see’s very clearly what Margot is trying to do and refuses to cover it up when talking with Mary Lou about it and Len, although not happy about Margot’s behaviour, is far more protective of Margot and doesn’t want to cause any trouble for Margot.
What do people think about the triplet’s relationship? This is the first book where essentially we see the tripletship not be viewed as the be all and end all by the triplets themselves but actually see them make new and other close friendships, and EBD shows these friendships in greater depth. Are the changes in the triplets realistic? Were these changes handled well by the Mistresses and by Mary Lou or do you feel as though, it could have been done better? Do you feel the triplets and their friends truly grow as a result of what occurred or do you think the changes were more superficial? And what of Ted herself; did she grow and change in a believable way?
Please discuss this and anything else you can think of.
Author:  ammonite [ Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I think the triplets splitting up in friendships is realistic although I know twins that still do everything together including the same uni course, placement year and hobbies and never on the 3 years of the course looked at making friends seperately or even hanging around together with others.
Margot's jealously is possibly not spotted well by the staff and Jo and Jack but this could just be a plot device to allow Mary-Lou to handle it. after this the triplets do seem to hang around seperately and EBD allows Con and Len to develop seperately which before she hadn't really.
The person I don't feel that has grown up either before or during the book is Emerence, who still appears the same age as Margot despite the fact she is supposed to be the same age (or near enough) to Mary-Lou. I feel Emerence is one of the school failures, who like the Ozanne twins, people have decided won't grow up and therefore they are left leaving school having not really completed an education and probably with great difficulty in associating with others outside of school of their own ages.
Author:  Josette [ Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I like the way we really see inside Con's head for the first (possibly the only) time in this book. Before this, she's mainly viewed from the outside as someone slightly eccentric - Richenda is described as slightly wary of her when they're thrown together on a walk because she doesn't know what to make of her. Yet she (Con) is obviously very aware of the way Margot's mind works, and - consistently with Rescue - she's quite prepared to argue with her, while Len simply placates.

I don't think her comment to Margot about the clock is really that tactless - it just happens to be the catalyst for Margot losing her head, which turns out to be for the best anyway as she wastes her blackmail ammunition. The incident does work as a "growing up" milestone in the sense of getting all three triplets to think about the way they act - pity they all rather revert to type later on.
Author:  Alison H [ Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I think this could be Mary-Lou's finest hour ... yes, she stuck her nose in, and yes, Kathie Ferrars and Mlle Lepattre should have told her to go on her own form's trip, but I think she handled a difficult situation fairly well. I think the storyline with the triplets is a good one, but unfortunately EBD backtracked on it in later books and Con went back to being too dreamy, Margot to being too stroppy and Len to being too over-responsible: it was meant to be a turning point and it wasn't.

Joey, by contrast, gets right up my nose in this! Why did she have to make decisions about Ted changing her name, and did she have nothing better to do that drivel on about Ted needing to pluck her eyebrows :roll: ? & I think Jack's behaviour is diabolical - he "refuses to have anything to do with" Margot after he finds out what's gone on, which is more the sort of response you'd expect from a little kid than from your dad!

I think Ted's story is very sad :( . She was presumably an "accident", and her mother evidently made her feel unwanted, and we even see her wondering if her mother would have loved her had she been pretty like Len. & she's played up at school and got a bad name and got into a vicious circle of problems. It rings much truer than some of the other new girl background stories.
Author:  Nightwing [ Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I haven't read the uncut version of Theodora, and I badly want to, since it's actually one of my favourite books!

I really like Ted - she's portrayed as quite a realistic teen in a turning point in her life, where she basically has to decide either to 'make good', and grow up, or to continue in her bad ways and stay a kid. I'd actually draw a parallel between her and the story of Elizabeth and Betty - there we had two outrageously naughty kids, who had to make the decision between growing up and not. Ted, obviously, makes the right choice, but she could so easily have become a Betty - miserable home life, and no true friends before she met Len and Rosamund.

It actually irritates me that Len becomes Head Girl, and not Ted - I know that Len was earmarked for it, practically from birth, but I always feel like Ted was far more of a natural leader that Len was - we're told that even Len gravitates towards her, and Ted is well aware that others follow her whatever she wants. In fact, a big part of her decision to go straight, as it were, is that she knows Len and Rosamund would not only follow her into trouble but stick by her afterward, making them the very first people not to try and shift all the blame onto her!

I find Margot's behaviour in this book pretty unbelievable, actually - for her, I mean. She's shown from a very young age to have a temper, and to be selfish, but blackmail is pretty far removed from either of those faults. And, of course, she should have been expelled, but there's no way that EBD was ever going to consider that for one of Joey's daughters! But I do always feel like Margot gets a lot sort of dumped in her in this book - she's always been the 'naughty' one, so of course she's the one to commit blackmail. It just doesn't make any sense to me!

I think Con is actually the triplet who comes out best in this. There's a moment where she asks Mary-Lou if something is wrong with her because she's never wanted any friends, and OOAO is surprised because she doesn't really think of Con as a deep thinker. To me, this is the book where Con starts to show flashes of intuition that rival Len's, even if she never gets the credit for them. And I love the way she treats Margot when she finds out what's going on.

Alison H wrote:
Joey, by contrast, gets right up my nose in this! Why did she have to make decisions about Ted changing her name, and did she have nothing better to do that drivel on about Ted needing to pluck her eyebrows :roll: ?


I'd agree that Joey's involvement in the story is hugely contrived! It's almost as if EBD had decided to make it a 'Mary-Lou to the rescue' story, but had then realised she'd left Jo out altogether and shoehorned her in to the beginning..!
Author:  JB [ Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
One of the problems I have with this book is that although the triplets have been major characters since the school moved to Swizerland, it’s the first time we’ve seen Margot’s jealousy, although EBD tells us that she’s always felt this way about her sisters having other friends. We’re told that she’s jealous of Rosamund Lilley but we’ve never seen her be other than nice to Ros. We also hear Joey comment on the triplets’ friendships but she never mentions Margot’s jealous and I’d have expected her to notice it if it existed.

I wouldn’t say this was the first book when “we see the tripletship not be viewed as the be all and end all by the triplets themselves” because Margot’s closest friend has been Emerence for several years. We’ve also seen Len become friends with Prunella Davidson and then with Rosamund.

I do like that we see more of Con and that there’s so much more to her than the “moony” writer. I’m never convinced she’s all that tactless; I think she’s far more tactful than Joey at the same age.

I think Mary Lou handles things well, although I’m surprised that she’s allowed to join Inter V on their trip but, as Alison said, what could have been a turning point for the triplets turns out not to be.

I like Theodora; her story is sad and believable, and I wish we saw more of her after this.
Author:  mohini [ Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I liked Ted and also the relationship between the triplets. It is portrayed more realistically in this book.
Though why Joey was not informed about it I fail to understand. After reading this book I went back and tried to find out mention of Margot's jealousy in earlier books but could not find any reference.
And in the later books there is no mention again.
I wish Joey had known about it. She would have helped Margot conquer her jealousy.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I haven't read the uncut version, though I would love to! (Come on GGBP!)

This was one that I only read in the last year, and so was coming to it as an adult determined to enjoy it - but I really did. It's one of the books where EBD manages a different plot from 'problem new girl' without it spiralling too much into the realms of the somewhat unbelievable, like 'Redheads' or 'Adrienne'.

I think that this is the growing up of the triplets, and although EBD backtracks a little, there was certainly a more grown-up "feel" to the triplets after this. It's also nice to see Ted - among a cast of boring characters, IMHO, most of whom have been in the books for years or are very much cardboard cut out for one book only (this is where the series starts to slide, I think), she is something of a breath of fresh air!

.... Wow, that seems like a very harsh post from me!
Author:  Abi [ Tue Apr 20, 2010 9:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
Again, I haven't read the hb, but I do like the character of Ted and I feel very sorry for her as her mother obviously doesn't care for her. I actually always liked the bit where Joey gives her the name of Ted, and how she made it so clear that while the school was aware of what had happened in the past she was truly getting a new chance and wouldn't be judged on her reputation. Though it would have been better if Hilda had been able to do that, at least someone did it. I'm sure it would have made a difference to how Ted felt about being at the CS.

I'd never even thought of Margot's behaviour as being inconsistent, but I suppose it is, really (funny how you don't see these things till someone points them out!). It would have been more convincing if EBD had presented it as a sort of teenage/adolescent bust up rather than something which had been brewing for years.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I really like this book - it has a lot of plot and event, unlike some of the very 'thin' later ones - and Ted is a likeable and interesting character, a kind of schoolgirl ex-con trying to go straight! But I agree with other people that the Margot's insane jealousy plot has a lot of holes and implausibilities, including the one that everyone else has mentioned, the fact that EBD abruptly 'backdates' her as an unusually jealous and possessive character, with a dislike of Ros Lilley and Odette Mercier that has never before been even hinted at!

I also think that, despite the rationalisation for why Margot is the way she is in this book - the 'spoiling' because she was a fragile baby, the separation in Canada etc - she comes across as a fairly one-dimensionally Bad Character here, with her cold-blooded eavesdropping, plans to blackmail and general megalomania. Surely this is the kind of thing Matey warned Joey about when she created her one-dimensional villainness in Malvina?

Also - though I know the CBB has talked endlessly about Margot's devil - I do find it genuinely disturbing in this book that not only do Margot and the school and staff appear to 'believe' in him, but EBD herself seems to ask the reader to believe in him by presenting us with a verbal fight between Margot's devil and guardian angel, like a medieval morality play where the forces of good and evil fight over a soul! It all gets very gothic - the clock strikes midnight, the devil dances in delight and then the thunderstorm breaks!

There are some other things that seem implausible, but in interestingly odd ways. Like, surely Margot should have some residually complicated feelings towards Mary-Lou (guilt?) after the toboggan accident? But there's no reference to them at all - she treats her like any other interfering prefect. Why does Margot even think for a single second that Len, whom she knows so well, would be likely to stop being friends with Ted if she found out about her expulsions? In fact, given that Margot in fact wastes her blackmail information and never even begins to threaten Ted with it, why is a private barney between three sisters a school matter anyway, to the point where the HG rearranges halfterm plans for it? We keep hearing about how the staff and prefects say they can't interfere in friendships, so why this?

The one reason that keeps being produced over and over again by everyone, staff and girls, is that Joey would hear about a blow-up and 'can't be worried' - but while I appreciate it's difficult being heavily pregnant with twins in a hot summer, surely Margot misbehaving could be kept from her, given that she's not coming over to the school at all at this point? Incidentally, it amuses me that this is one pregnancy of Joey's that everyone appears to know about and talk about, presumably because they have to for plot reasons - but it's a change from the usual privacy!
Author:  2nd Gen Fan [ Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
I always thought that the pregnancy issue was handled earlier as the books went on - in Headgirl, Joey ( and the reader from what I recall) has no idea that Madge is pregnant, but by Trials (?) Joey actually tells the staff something along the lines of 'The family is having an extension'. Pity none of them asked which part of the house they were extending! :lol:
Author:  JB [ Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
Abi wrote:
It would have been more convincing if EBD had presented it as a sort of teenage/adolescent bust up rather than something which had been brewing for years.


I think it would have worked well if Margot had known that Emerence was leaving at the end of term and the thought of being without her own friend made her jealous of her sisters' friendships.
Author:  Cosimo's Jackal [ Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing Up- Theodora
JB wrote:
Abi wrote:
It would have been more convincing if EBD had presented it as a sort of teenage/adolescent bust up rather than something which had been brewing for years.


I think it would have worked well if Margot had known that Emerence was leaving at the end of term and the thought of being without her own friend made her jealous of her sisters' friendships.


Yes, that's an excellent idea and would make total sense! (It would 'explain' the purchase of the expensive clock as well - I always wonder why Margot isn't more perturbed/suspicious that Emerence buys her such a costly gift out of the blue.) And we wouldn't have bizarre incursions from dancing devils at midnight in the middle of a school story! The 'devilitis' isn't in the least necessary here anyway - the plot of three very different triplets beginning to grow up and away from one another at different rates is more than strong enough to provide a motivation for tension and blow-ups.
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