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Siblings: the Triplets
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Author:  Róisín [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Siblings: the Triplets
The idea for this series belongs to Sunglass :D

So let's start with the most siblingest of them all! How do you think the trips interact with each other as siblings? Are they sisterly? Are they similar? Do they get on in a realistic manner? Did EBD draw them well as triplets or are they just another set of three friends in the way she has portrayed them? Do we have any twins (or dare I say it, a triplet) on the board who would have experience of the twin/triplet-sibling relationship?

Please join in below :D
Author:  Tor [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I think that the triplets do behave as sisters rather than friends - there is much more overt concern for each other, and also a greater intensity of e.g. the petty jealousies that arise within friendships.

What I think of as most realistic, though, is the way EBD and her other characters treat the triplets: they often prefer to refer to them en mass (the 'trips', Lenconandmargot) and yet, conversely, like to give them distinct, non-overlapping character traits. This is very typical of the way people treat twins/triplets in my experience (I am not a twin etc, but I have plenty of friends with twins and this is a trap that is all too easy to fall into).

So, whilst I think it means we lose out a bit as a reader in getting more insight into each character, I think it is a pretty realistic portrayal of how others treat multiple birth sibling relationships. And despite this parroted, simplified representation, we still get some rather lovely scenes between Len, Con and Margot which often stand out in the later books.
Author:  Alison H [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I think that the triplets' relationship is well-drawn. They have a close relationship with each other, which is definitely something "more" than that which would be found between a group of three friends, but without seeming like three parts of a whole rather than three individuals - as opposed to, for example, Pat and Isabel O'Sullivan (in St Clare's) who seem to be joined at the hip.

I had friends at school who were twins, and, as Tor said, people often see twins or triplets as a single unit (certainly if they're of the same gender - my dad and my auntie are twins but I don't think they ever had that problem), so I think it's realistic that people often refer to them as "The Trips", but they don't act as a single unit in the unrealistic way that some GO characters such as the O'Sullivan twins do.

Margot's jealousy comes across in quite a realistic way, and the way that Len fusses over the other two is an inevitable result of the way that everyone makes such a big deal of the fact that she's the eldest (by half an hour!). It's ironic that Mary-Lou, who fusses over Verity far more than Len ever fusses over Con and Margot, is the one to tell Len that she needs to stop minding her sisters' business quite so much. Con's "quiet influence" comes across well in some of the books too, although it's unfortunate that in the later books EBD doesn't continue with her character development.

However, at the end of the series, both Len and Margot make major decisions - Len to marry Reg, Margot to become a nun - without talking things over with the other two first ... but then they don't talk things over with anyone else either.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I think that the best portrayal of their relationship - for me - is in 'Theodora' when Margot gets incredibly jealous. What I particularly like about that is that Con eventually "wakes up" enough to get properly involved. I don't think that we get to see enough interaction between just Con and Margot, and it's interesting to see the dynamics of that relationship.

I also like in 'Rescue' when Margot throws her tantrum and the other two try to hush her up before Jack or Joey can hear. It just seems like a sisterly thing to do, to try and keep the other out of trouble.

What annoys me, though, is that they are always described as having traits the reader associates with Joey - leadership, dreaminess etc - but apart from Margot's temper we don't really see a lot of them being like Jack.
Author:  Sunglass [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I'm going to disagree here, for the hell of it, and say I've never found anything of a uniquely 'sisterly' quality in the triplets' relationship with one another. Not to say that EBD can't write sisters, because I think she writes some very convincing sister relationships, but with the triplets I always find myself thinking of people who say their sister is their best friend (or vice versa). I'm not sure I could, as a reader, pinpoint any real difference in quality between the triplets' relationships with one another and those of unrelated close friends at the CS. Even the main emotional wrangling point between the triplets - Margot's jealousy of Len and Con's friendships - comes up all the time in the Swiss books between non-sibling friends, where someone gets possessive of a friend or someone she wants to become a friend, and ructions ensue.

Maybe part of the problem is that EBD's best (I think) sister relationships emerge out of a problematic home set-up - like Madge and Joey, Primula and Daisy Venables, or Joyce and Gillian Linton (or her various stepsisters). But she portrays Freudesheim as an oasis of perfection - one big happy family where everyone is equal and valued and understood, and there are no favourites or injustices or temporary sibling alliances etc. Lots of the potential complexities of siblinghood seem kind of ironed out in advance, if you see what I mean...?
Author:  Tor [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Quote:
Lots of the potential complexities of siblinghood seem kind of ironed out in advance, if you see what I mean...?


Definitely agree that Maynard clan inter-relationships as a whole lack depth because of this. But still, despite this I do feel that the triplets relationship is more sibling-like than friend-like. In fact, I'd almost go so far to say they didn't really behave like typical friends (at least by EBDs standards). It's as though - and again I'd agree is isn't always well drawn - their relationship is not defined by friendship at all, but is all about sisterhood (and I'd like that to refer to a blossoming proto-feminist movement, but sadly I just mean being sisters!).

For example, the jealousy storyline is over-used in the later books, but here it does (to me) feel different. For one, despite Con's outburst, Len and Con are aware of the jealousy, and worried about it, and heavily involved in the story line. Plus, any negative reactions they have towards Margot are tempered because of that worry. Usually the typical jealous girl story line plays out entirely between the victim and the perpetrator, and if the girl who is the 'disputed' party actually even notices, they are either thoroughly disgusted and/or dismissive of the whole thing.
Author:  Sunglass [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I think a complicating factor is that in lots of ways the triplets (apart perhaps from Margot) don't really seem to me to earn the huge amount of narrative space they take up towards the end of the series. Responsible Len and Dreamy Con are nice girls, but not particularly distinctive characters, and while Margot and her devil might have earned a place in their own right among the interesting CS rebels (she's a kind of heir to Grizel), but the other two wouldn't if they weren't Joey's daughters. (At least, I don't think so.) And because they are daughters of Freudesheim, and are stuck with being poster girls for family happiness, EBD doesn't seem to feel able to explore lots of the emotional terrain of sisterhood - I don't know, like one or more of them rebelling against the collective 'trips' designation by making a point of setting herself apart from the other two, or one being much closer to Jack or Joey than the other two are, or less keen on school (like Felicity is) etc etc.

It's as though the fact of them having to be exemplary products of Joey's happy and successful married life hampers EBD from really exploring the triplets as different characters... You see hints of more complicated stuff in Len's over-responsibility and Margot's anger, but mostly Margot is the one who acts, while the other two respond to it, or all three of them do eldest daughters/prefect stuff as a trio.
Author:  Alison H [ Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
It was the same with Peggy, who was pleasant enough but had no real distinguishing characteristics other than being Madge and Joey's niece. Potentially the most interesting member of the second generation was Sybil, but she got very little "screen time" at all. Con had the potential to become a lot more interesting than Len, but in the last few books she just reverted to being "dreamy" and not much else - although I like to think that once she got to university and wasn't stuck with the "daughter of Joey" label she really came out of herself, and that once Len was away from Freudesheim and Reg and the school she relaxed a lot more.
Author:  mohini [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Though they are collectively called as Trips, it is only later in the series that they are together.Otherwise Margot is usually in 2 forms junior to Len or Con.
They are not even in the same dorm.
As triplets, the only time I can recall is when Len suggests that they should start collection for their own Chapels, they are shown to be connected by thoughts.
Otherwise they are not seen to be hunting together.Each one goes with her own friend.Nor do they seem to find time to meet together in school.
There ought to be some mental connection between the twins or Trips where you know what the other is thinking without talking.
Somehow the theme of triplets does not seem to be developed by EDB.
The only reason I find she introduced the trips was for Joey to create a sensation.
Their quarrels seem more natural.Specially the one between Len and Margot when Len agrees to partner Rosamund Lilley.
As a reader I get a feeling that they are 3 different people, not triplets.
Author:  JB [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Sunglass wrote:

Quote:
I think a complicating factor is that in lots of ways the triplets (apart perhaps from Margot) don't really seem to me to earn the huge amount of narrative space they take up towards the end of the series


I think this is a great summing up and I agree with the comment that their position as "poster girls" for the clan prevented their characters and their relationship with each other being explored properly.

The relationship of the other two with Margot, and it's impact on "her devil" interests me. In Rescue, we see that Joey and the three or four year old triplets have colluded to keep Margot's tantrums from Jack. Her behaviour in Theodora and her sisters' reactions seems to me to be closely linked to this as they're so used to protecting Margot.

To me, they don't come across as particularly close. When they talk about their future plans in Prefects, it feels as if they don't know each other all that well. That's possibly not the best example as it's a dire book but i'd have liked to see some discussion between them about important issues eg when Hilda tells Len off for being over-conscientious in Triplets, etc.

What I like more are the glimpses of their interaction with their other siblings eg Margot and Felicity, with her dislike of games.

I was disappointed that Con becomes "the dreamy one" in the last few books, when she comes across to me as an observant person. She is my favourite triplet and I imagine her blossoming once she's away from the Platz. I hope Len will lighten up but I worry that she won't.
Author:  Emma A [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
The triplets appear to me to be well portrayed as sisters, but not necessarily as triplets - if there was no indication, other than dialogue and behaviour, of their ages, the reader would assume that Len is the oldest, followed by Con and Margot in that order. And I think (apart from narrative necessity to have them in the same form by Theodora) that EBD consistently portrays them as three separate sisters.

Since the three look very dissimilar after a few months, and there's no mistaking one for another, they're evidently not identical, which I think must be even less common than identical triplets. The whole thinking and acting alike syndrome presumably is more characteristic of identical siblings who are genetically the same person.

It is interesting to see how they're treated by others, though. Although they're referred to as the Triplets or other collective groupings, people react to them separately. No-one goes to Margot for advice (except about games), Len is the one everyone gets to sheepdog new pupils, Con has a sort of school fame as an aspiring writer. No-one ever says, "Let's see what the Trips have to say about it," whatever it may be.
Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
mohini wrote:
The only reason I find she introduced the trips was for Joey to create a sensation.


I think that's a fair point - EBD is highly unlikely to have expected, when she decided to give Joey a 'big bang' of a multiple birth, that the series would go on long enough for them to become major characters. The fact that they are triplets is not because she decided it would be interesting to write about triplets at the CS as such, but because they are attributes of Joey's being 'wholesale' and an originator of shocks and surprises. After the early childhood discussions of how their looks change and Joey not dressing them alike (which again, is really about establishing Joey-as-mother-of-triplets), EBD doesn't seem really interested in their triplet-ness as such - as someone else said, apart from the fact they all eventually end up in the same form and being prefects together, I don't think there's much about their relationship that wouldn't have worked equally well if they were singletons who were close in age.

I often wonder if EBD's obsession with the triplets' birth order, Len being the 'eldest', and making them look quite different, and putting Margot in a different form etc., stems from her wishing she hadn't given Joey triplets, and trying to sort of split them up into singletons. After all, it's difficult to split your narrative attention three ways, and given the way she gives each triplet one element of Joey's character, I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if Joey's first child had been a single girl, who would have gone on to be the series heroine, but might have been a much more rich, fully-realised character because EBD would have had more time and resources for her.

Sorry, this was a bit OT - I was just trying to account for the fact that EBD doesn't seem to give a huge amount of thought to triplethood as distinct from sisterhood, and wondering whether she regretted saddling herself with it.
Author:  Mel [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I would like to see Jo with a singleton daughter as first child, especially one that has none of Jo's characteristics. EBD goes to ridiculous lengths to ensure they are all different, ennding with their future lives - married, single, nun. (No I can't get married, my sister Len bagged that, I've got to be a mouldy nun).
Slightly off topic, but why does no child of the second generation resemble Joey who has the distinctive looks of the Bettany woman according to 'School At' ? Con and Cecil have her colouring, but are pretty and have curls.
Author:  Cat C [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Quote:
Since the three look very dissimilar after a few months, and there's no mistaking one for another, they're evidently not identical, which I think must be even less common than identical triplets.


I actually know (or knew) two people who were triplets (completely unrelated to each other), and the first one I knew told me that the most usual thing was for triplets to be identical twins plus one - Miranda was unusual in that she and her sister were not identical (and obviously their brother wasn't either!) The other set did consist of identical twins plus one, although I don't think three identical triplets is absolutely unheard of.

Aside from that, I really agree with the comment that the triplets were born so Joey could create a sensation - and then EBD was stuck with them.

I guess what would have been interesting would have been idential twin girls, followed 10 months later by a third girl who constantly felt left out (or something).
Author:  Tor [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Quote:
Aside from that, I really agree with the comment that the triplets were born so Joey could create a sensation - and then EBD was stuck with them.


me too!

Quote:
Sorry, this was a bit OT - I was just trying to account for the fact that EBD doesn't seem to give a huge amount of thought to triplethood as distinct from sisterhood, and wondering whether she regretted saddling herself with it.


Yes, I see this as well. In fact she generally doesn't really treat tin-hood or triplet-hood as anything different to a usual sibling realtionship. There are a few incidents I think where (I think) Con remarks 'we are triplets', or something along those lines, which implies the relationship is something more than the usual familial bond, but it isn't ever really *shown*. i think that's why I feel that they didn't really fit the 'frind' model, so much as the sibling model. The bond between them seems independent of their interactions.

I wonder of EBD purposely avoided identical twins , and the idea of an super-exclusive bond, for similar reasons to her aversion to best-friend style relationships.

I also think it is true, as JS (i think) points out, that in some ways the triplets don't even seem close, at least in respect to sharing confidences. I think their relationship is highly shackled by the portrayal of mother-daughter relations as the primary focus on EBDs part. Confidences are likely to go via Joey, or (for similar reasons), Mary-Lou. The triplets are a kind of foil for the key characters, and thus don't really develop fully themselves.
Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Mel wrote:
married, single, nun. (No I can't get married, my sister Len bagged that, I've got to be a mouldy nun).

:lol: :lol:

As regards degrees of identicalness and similarity, and the stress on the difference between the triplets' colouring, I often find myself wondering whether they nonetheless resemble each other strongly in facial features? (Aren't we told somewhere that they all have Joey's 'short sensitive features'?) I was just wondering whether a stranger meeting them separately in their late teens would be struck by a strong sibling resemblance of feature. I think it's implied their builds are quite different, with Con being smaller than the other two, Len being tall and slim and Margot (possibly) buxom...?
Author:  Emma A [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 12:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Sunglass wrote:
As regards degrees of identicalness and similarity, and the stress on the difference between the triplets' colouring, I often find myself wondering whether they nonetheless resemble each other strongly in facial features? (Aren't we told somewhere that they all have Joey's 'short sensitive features'?) I was just wondering whether a stranger meeting them separately in their late teens would be struck by a strong sibling resemblance of feature. I think it's implied their builds are quite different, with Con being smaller than the other two, Len being tall and slim and Margot (possibly) buxom...?

Given that EBD is at pains, certainly in the later books, to describe Len's "delicate, mobile" features, and Margot's "showy" looks (and poor Con hardly getting a look-in!), I'd guess that there may be only a slight family resemblance, rather than their features being very similar. No-one ever seems to remark on the fact that if their colouring was different, they'd look very alike, and people in general tend to "see" resemblances in other people they know to be related.

Incidentally (and probably OT), it's interesting to contrast these very vague descriptions of the triplets with the very vivid descriptions of Ted in Theodora. One gets a very clear picture of what Ted looks like in a way that one doesn't get with Len or Margot. But maybe that's me :D
Author:  JayB [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I vaguely recall that in New Mistress, Kathie observes that the triplets have different colouring, but similar features. But of course (if I'm right) they are not quite thirteen at that point and their features and builds wouldn't yet be fully developed. Even if they looked alike at twelve, they might well look quite different at eighteen.
Author:  Tor [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I think in my head, I give them all the same face and build, but just plonk different hair on them!!!! Despite info to contrary in the books - it perhaps reflects a lack of vividness in the descriptions, or maybe just my lazy reading!

Actually, it may be the lack of description... as the face they all share in my mind seems to be an oval blur... :roll:

Quote:
"delicate, mobile" features


I always have a wee giggle at mobile features, and like to imagine either a outsize ability in gurning, or a Piccasso-esque visage. It doesn't help much in terms of really forming an idea of what Len looked like. Delicate features make me think of a young Elizabeth Taylor, possibly.

Margot *is* the heir to Grizel isn't she. I wish EBD had let her become the main heroine (or anti-heroine). She keeps trying to be.
Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Emma A wrote:
Incidentally (and probably OT), it's interesting to contrast these very vague descriptions of the triplets with the very vivid descriptions of Ted in Theodora. One gets a very clear picture of what Ted looks like in a way that one doesn't get with Len or Margot. But maybe that's me :D


I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's absolutely right. Is it another side-effect of the fact that the triplets are partly scripted in as attributes of Joey's, and therefore EBD feels she's stuck with the basic model of Different Kinds of Pretty? Plus the triplets get very conventional descriptions, with the emphasis on complexion and hair (in a way that I think can sometimes sound tiresomely beauty-queenish), whereas with Ted, a new character EBD isn't so invested in, you get a less generic description, of a shortish, thin girl with chronically messy straight black hair, a narrow face and a mulish, unhappy expression (but unexpectedly wonderful eyelashes...) And her looks matter to her character, because she's plain and resembles her dead father, which makes her silly mother think little of her etc etc.

If EBD allowed herself that kind of latitude of description with the triplets, what kinds of descriptions would we get, I wonder...
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I think that partly the arguably poor writing of the triplets is down to the fact that they are most promient in the very late books, once Mary-Lou has sort of gone, by which point EBD's writing generally seems to have gone a bit offish. The intention is clear - Margot was going to be the next Grizel, a bit of a rebel, Len was going to do the typical CS thing of marrying a doctor early and settling down (with a small bow to changing attitudes by getting her degree first - mirroring Juliet, maybe?) while Con went on to become a writer.

I think that they had the potential to be incredibly interesting characters, but that EBD perhaps missed some opportunities - when she writes them well, I think that she does write them very well. She just isn't consistent about it.
Author:  Tor [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Quote:
Len was going to do the typical CS thing of marrying a doctor early and settling down (with a small bow to changing attitudes by getting her degree first - mirroring Juliet, maybe?)


interesting parallel! I also think Gisela is a good proto-Len. And like Len, i don't think she was a particularly great leader, just v responsible and kind, but not particularly charismatic.

*ducks any bread-twists thrown my way*
Author:  MJKB [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Tor wrote:
Quote:
"delicate, mobile" features

I never quite understood what that meant, expressive faces perhaps?

I've always had a problem with the 'Len as eldest sister' role. The way Margot is drawn suggests that she would never have allowed herself to be shunted into third place.
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Tor wrote:
Quote:
I also think Gisela is a good proto-Len. And like Len, i don't think she was a particularly great leader, just v responsible and kind, but not particularly charismatic.

*ducks any bread-twists thrown my way*


*eats her bread-twist instead of throwing it*

I'd probably agree, actually! Except that Gisela works in a small school setting, and I'm not convinced that Len works in a big school. Also, Gisela can tell where her responsibility begins and ends (she knows when things are getting out of hand and she needs to ask Madge for help) whereas Len seems to have a tough time grasping that she's not actually responsible for every little thing that has ever happened anywhere!

Gisela also works because she isn't the main character. As a prefect she's the mature foil for the Middles and Juniors, and she's interesting because she's a 'foreign' girl trying to take on an 'English' role; afterward, when she's left school, she's a kind of older-sister figure for the girls.

Len, on the other hand, is the main character, and I don't think she works because she's too perfect. When we had Joey and Grizel as leading characters in the early books, they had faults that they were constantly trying to overcome, and even Mary-Lou had quite a lot in the way of learning when to draw the line between cheekiness and helpfulness. I think it would have worked a lot better if Margot had been the one centre-stage, struggling with her temper and her jealous tendencies and her wish to be more like Len. Con might have worked as well - I think of the three she is really the one the most like Joey, with her dreaminess and her tendency to just blurt out whatever she's thinking.
Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Nightwing wrote:

I think it would have worked a lot better if Margot had been the one centre-stage, struggling with her temper and her jealous tendencies and her wish to be more like Len.


I was reading this discussion and thinking that, apart from Len and, to some extent, Con attempting to cover up for or defuse Margot's rages, I feel I have very little idea of what the triplets privately feel about one another. (Other than love, obviously.) It hadn't really occurred to me that Margot was dying to be more like Len (I was assuming she wouldn't have wanted the extra responsibility), but I see what you mean. Are there also intimations that Len (and maybe Con too) privately resent Margot's freedom as 'youngest' to be badly behaved? Though EBD never tells us that as such.

It just occurred to me that there are potential reasons for certain character elements in each of the triplets within their inter-relationship as triplets. Margot's anger as a teenager could have something to do with deciding that if she can't compete with the other two by being a good girl, she'll get attention by being bad - are Con and Len noticeably closer to one another than either is to her, possibly due to being separated from her when they were younger, and being in different forms for so long, and does Margot possibly resent that? Con's dreaminess might have something to do with being the 'middle' triplet who's used to getting overlooked...?

But EBD doesn't ever actually tell us this. Officially, the triplets are the way they are because of inherent character traits - Len is 'naturally' responsible, and Margot has 'a greater share of natural wickedness', as Joey keeps telling people.
Author:  CBW [ Fri May 01, 2009 7:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
Quote:
Margot's anger as a teenager could have something to do with deciding that if she can't compete with the other two by being a good girl, she'll get attention by being bad - are Con and Len noticeably closer to one another than either is to her, possibly due to being separated from her when they were younger, and being in different forms for so long, and does Margot possibly resent that? Con's dreaminess might have something to do with being the 'middle' triplet who's used to getting overlooked...?


I think you might have a point here.

Being triplets, grown up attention was always going to be split.

Len was always first and so would have got Mama's attention. (and wasnt' she Ana's favourite too or have I imagined that?)

Margo was number 3 but she is by far the strongest character. She wanted attention and realised that being bad was her best chance of getting the lion's share from everyone.

Con is stuck in the middle and has to compete with perfect Len and naughty Margot. If she didn't fight for it she probably didn't get much individual attention when they were little so she just got into the habit of retreating into her private world where she was in control.
Author:  Sunglass [ Fri May 01, 2009 12:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Siblings: the Triplets
I've realised what it is that I find odd about the way EBD writes about the triplets, and which makes them a bit different to some of her other main characters. It's related to what I said above - that the reader could to quite a large extent 'explain' their personalities by their effects on one another, but that EBD tends instead towards depicting them as 'naturally' dreamy, responsible and 'wicked' from birth, rather than suggesting that, say, Margot's rages and tendency towards jealousy and rebellion, are because she feels excluded from the closer Con-Len relationship, and rather than trying to equal them as the good girls she's always compared with and trailing academically behind, decides not to try. (It might explain, too, why she's a long way the first of the triplets to form a close friendship outside the family.)

The thing is that elsewhere, EBD continually 'explains' peoeple's characters in relation to their family life - Ted Grantley is rebellious because her mother doesn't love her; Mary-Lou is precocious because she was reared in isolated circumstances by an older mother and a grandmother ; Jessica Thingy is unhappy because she resents her mother's devotion to her disabled stepsister; Emerence is an arsonist madcap because of her parents' 'free' theories of child rearing etc etc. Teenage Joey herself is the way she is very much because she grew up with two older siblings who didn't exclude her from having a voice in family decisions etc. Joan Baker is the way she is because of 'heredity', as Rosalie Dene is still saying after Joan's been at the school for a while.

But EBD seems to not want to hold the Freudesheim (and Plas Gwyn etc) home environment responsible for the character traits of the triplets, so she falls back on the idea of 'inherent' personality traits to a greater extent than she does with lots of other characters. Presumably otherwise, she'd have risked pointing a finger at Jack and Joey's parenting. Or suggesting that maybe having saintly Len for an older sister wasn't always an unparalleled blessing for either Con or Margot?

But I think it's possibly one of the reasons EBD holds back a bit on exploring the triplets' triplethood...?
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