Picnic at hanging rock symbols

Miranda

Symbolises innocence, purity, angelic ideal; represents perfection, transcendence, connection to nature

Sara Waybourne

Symbolises repression, confinement, emotional pain; represents the damage caused by societal expectations

Mrs Appleyard

Symbolises authority, repression, Victorian social order; collapses under the pressure of control and appearance

Edith Horton

Symbolises childishness, fear, inability to face the unknown; only girl who returns, represents retreat into safety

Michael Fitzhubert

Symbolises the outsider, curiosity, romantic idealism; fascinated by the mystery, shows obsession and transformation

Albert Crundall

Symbolises working class, practicality, loyalty; grounded and contrasts with Michael

Hanging Rock

Symbolises nature’s mystery, the unknown, the subconscious; place where time and order dissolve

White Dresses

Symbolise innocence and purity; after the disappearance, they take on a ghostly, eerie meaning

The Watch

Symbolises collapse of human control over time; shows that at the rock, human rules don’t apply

Appleyard College

Symbolises rigid social structure, repression, control over women; contrasts sharply with the wild freedom of the rock

Corsets + Gloves

Symbolise Victorian constraints on women; girls removing them shows liberation from social restrictions

Clash between nature + civilisation

Big theme reflected through the contrast of Hanging Rock vs. Appleyard College

Limits of rationality

Theme shown by characters failing to explain the mystery of the girls’ disappearance

Freedom vs. repression

Theme shown by the contrast between natural world (Hanging Rock) and strict society (college)

Loss of innocence

Theme shown by disappearance of the girls; transition into adulthood and the unknown

Irma Leopold

Wealth, beauty, privilege; survives the rock but is forever changed, representing trauma and transformation

Marion Quade

Intelligence, rationality, social justice; disappears with Miranda, representing the limits of reason

Miss McCraw

Education, reason, repressed desires; disappears, showing the failure of rationality against nature

Sergeant Bumpher

Law, order, human logic; fails to solve the mystery, showing human limits

Mr Hussey

Practicality, working-class common sense, fear of the unknown

Mrs Valange

Gossip, social judgment, narrow-minded colonial society

Mr Fitzhubert

Wealth, colonial privilege, social status

Mlle de Poitiers

European sophistication, beauty, romantic ideals