Picnic at Hanging Rock

Marion and Miranda and are senior girls at Appleyard College. They are both 17 years old. Along with their friend Irma, Miranda and Marion are lured by indefinable forces toward Hanging Rock. Their decision to take off their stockings and shoes symbolizes a movement away from propriety and rationality, and toward the chaos of wild spaces, epitomized by Hanging Rock.

Miranda hails from Queensland (her surname is never given). She is practical, beautiful, and extremely kind. She is a best friend and pseudo-mother figure to Sara, the youngest girl at the college, and she is even patient and kind with Edith, the “college dunce.” At the base of Hanging Rock, Irma watches Miranda comfort Edith, who is crying, and considers how “beautiful and kind” Miranda is (29). Mike sees Miranda jumping across the creek on their way to their fateful journey toward Hanging Rock and thinks that she looks like a beautiful swan. He is motivated by the memory of Miranda to return to Hanging Rock, where he believes that he hears her laughing. However, it is Irma, not Miranda, who is recovered at the spot Mike indicates to Albert.

Marion Quade is an orphan whose legal guardian, a solicitor, has little practical hand in her life. Marion is, according to Miss McCraw, “the only member of the class to take Pythagoras in her stride” (13). Her disappearance at Hanging Rock emphasizes the fact that the rock’s strange magic can influence even the most discerning minds.

Irma is the heiress to a fortune; her parents own various mines and estates around the world. She is always fashionably dressed with beautiful adornments, such as the emerald bracelet she later gifts to Mademoiselle de Poitiers. Like Marion and Miranda, Irma is drawn by unknowable forces up the face of Hanging Rock. Despite the fact that they are overdue back at the picnic grounds, Irma takes off her stocking and shoes and “dance[s] barefoot,” feeling as if she might “float away, over the warm, smooth stones” (30). To Edith, she seems to be possessed.

Irma’s corset is missing when she is recovered, although, when she left the college, she had been wearing “a pair of long, lightly boned, French satin stays” (94). This illustrates that Hanging Rock is a site of liberation and freedom, as well as of Gothic horror and violence. The women adopt some of the wildness of the wild space that they occupy.

Irma is rescued by Albert, who follows the directions of Mike’s note. Irma recuperates at the gardener’s cottage at Lake View, and she never recovers her memory of the events of the week she spent at Hanging Rock. She and Mike enjoy a brief friendship, which those around them suspect may be romantic, but Mike abruptly cuts this off when he leaves for Melbourne and then Queensland, saying goodbye to Irma in a curt note. Irma is haunted by the events of Hanging Rock and the aftermath at Lake View for the rest of her life.

Sara is 13 years old, the youngest student at the college, and an orphan. She struggles with life at Appleyard College, and is constantly getting in trouble; on the day of the picnic she is made to remain behind and memorize a poem she previously failed to.

Sara’s only friend and confidant is Miranda, with whom she shares a room. In the days and weeks after Miranda’s death, Sara becomes listless and depressed. Instead of supporting her well-being, her teachers discipline her harshly for not concentrating in class, and Miss Appleyard threatens to send her back to an orphanage when her guardian is late paying her school fees. Sara ultimately dies by suicide by throwing herself from the school tower. Her death illustrates the way that her teachers failed in their duty of care toward her.

Miss McCraw is the mathematics teacher at Appleyard College. She is a sensible and practical person. The girls at the college view her as a little academic, aloof, and strange for her love of numbers over fashion: “The very sight of a sheet of paper dotted over with numerals gave her a secret joy” (5).

Miss McCraw’s characterization as a rigidly sensible person highlights the strangeness of her disappearance. It is later revealed that “Miss McCraw was not wearing a skirt” as she strode from the picnic ground toward Hanging Rock (56).

Miss McCraw’s discarded possessions at the picnic ground further illustrate the strangeness of her uncharacteristic departure: “[H]er book had already been found with her kid gloves exactly where she had been sitting” (46). The undisturbed nature of the possessions conveys the idea that Miss McCraw was suddenly and unexpectedly spirited away, taking nothing with her. Furthermore, her untraceable tracks mirror those of the four girls. Miss McCraw is never seen again. Her disappearance illustrates the fact that Hanging Rock brings even the most discerning and rational individuals under its lure.

Albert is a practical straight-talker who works as a coachman at Lake View. In this role, he primarily manages the horses on the property. Albert had a rough upbringing, spent some time at an orphanage, and was also unhoused for a time, sleeping rough under bridges and in alleyways. His arms are covered in mermaid tattoos.

For Mike, Albert’s independence and practicality are incredible. The two strike up an unlikely friendship. Albert and Mike see the four school girls pass their own picnic site on their way to Hanging Rock, on the fateful journey that Marion and Miranda never return from. Albert doesn’t seem particularly affected by the tragedy, but he helps Mike to return to Hanging Rock to search for the girls, and then saves Mike’s life after he is left unconscious at the Rock’s base. Albert’s fortunes change when he receives a check for 1,000 pounds from Irma’s father. He quits his job at Lake View and decides to accompany Mike on his trip to North Queensland.