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#1: Runaways Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:10 pm

Just started thinking the other day about the number of times girls run away from the Chalet School (discounting Jo going after people to rescue them!). In School, Grizel runs off to climb the Tiernjoch, Cornelia runs off in Head Girl, then there's Eustacia... then later there's Gay, Annis Lovell...Jocelyn Marvell in one of the later Swiss books... I gave up on trying to compile a full list (anyone offering?) but just wondered if the staff had some sort of action plan to follow in such situations. Does the running-away plot seem over-used?

#2: Author: Nicci, Location: UK

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:18 pm

Yes, it does start to wear thin doesn't it. Especially when they leave 'because its a horrid school'. Come of it, its bloody wonderful. They should have shipped those kids off to bad boarding schools just to show em.
Then again, quite a few ran away because it seemed fun 'out of the school stories' etc. That I understand more.

Talking of repeating plotlines, Angela Brazil's Manor House School - having to move the school because of bad drains?? Either England had a serious drainage problem, or Elinor couldn't think up her own reason for moving.... Rolling Eyes

#3: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:22 pm

When you read lots of school stories lots of them seem to have similar elements, lost and found relatives, treasure in unlikely places that saves the day, new girls don't fit in until somehting happens then they do, new staff who annoy everyone and then either win them round or leave in disgrace, a run away rescued by another girl or staff member, someone suspected of breaking rule who won't say anyhting because of sneaking but it all comes out in the end,etc etc

#4: Author: caz, Location: Cambridge

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:28 pm

Well, there are supposed to be only seven original plots in the world, aren't there?

#5: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2004 1:20 pm

Yes, there are. All good stories are based on the same seven plots. It's what you do with them in between in terms of character, plot etc.

#6: Author: Clare, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:20 am

Can anyone tell me what the seven original plots are please? It's a bit too late for my brain to figure them out...

#7: Author: Jennifer, Location: Sunny California

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:21 am

Let's see,

School: Grizel (to climb the Tiernoch)
Joey to follow Grizel
Jo of: Joey and co to go to the ice festival
Princess: Elisaveta, followed by Jo
Head Girl: Grizel (to see the falls)
Cornelia (to find the caves)
Eustacia: Eustacia (to go home)
In Exile: Gertrude Beck (heading home)
At War: Daisy, Gwen and Beth (to follow the poachers)
Gay: Gay, to see her brother
Island: Annis Lovell, heading to North America
Problem: Joan Baker (heading home)
Redheads: Someone gets mistaken for Copper and kidnapped, Val I think
Challenge: Jocelyn

Any others someone can think of?

So it looks like the whole running off story line was actually used more in the earlier books - maybe she got tired of it.

#8: Author: Guest,

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:48 am

In "Goes To It", Gwensi sort of runs away to hide from Jo and the others.

#9: Author: catherine, Location: York

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 5:12 pm

Rosalie Way does the same in CS and Rosalie.

#10: Author: pim, Location: the place where public transport doesn't work properly!

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 5:20 pm

Not forgetting Carola who runs away to school rather than from it.

#11: Author: catherine, Location: York

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 9:00 pm

And there's Win who runs away in Wins the Trick, although it's not exactly from school, I admit.

#12: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 10:17 pm

Clare wrote:

Can anyone tell me what the seven original plots are please? It's a bit too late for my brain to figure them out...

We did this in uni on Wednesday... Smile

Cinderella
Unrecognised virtue at last recognised; the hero doesn't have to be a girl, it does not have to be a love story—the Tortoise and the Hare is the same plot. The essence is that Good is despised but recognised in the end—something we all want to believe.

Achilles
The fatal flaw; the basis of all classical tragedy, though it can also be comic, as in many farces.

Faust
The debt that must be paid, the fate that catches up with us sooner or later.

Tristan
The standard triangular plot of two women and a man or two men and a woman.

Circe
The spider and the fly; Othello, and The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

Romeo and Juliet
Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy either finds or does not find girl—it does not matter which.

Orpheus
The gift that is taken away. The action may be based on the tragedy of the loss itself as in Juno and the Paycock, or based on the search following the loss as in Jason and the Golden Fleece.

#13: Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 10:31 pm

That's fascinating, thank you.

Now who can fitthe CS books/plots in here.

#14: Author: Clare, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 6:29 pm

Thanks for that Kate! I'll have to print that off so that I remember it.

Not really a runaway, but Dickie and Peggy run off in the storm in "Peggy" when they hear a ship's distress signals. They were told to go straight to school, but Dickie started running when she heard the sounds. They came back pretty promptly though!

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