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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Picnic at Hanging Rock, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, Repression, and Colonialism
Mystery and the Unknown
Wealth and Class
Gossip and Scandal
Summary
Analysis
At dawn, Mike sneaks from the house to meet Albert at the stables. Albert shows Mike the provisions he’s packed—including rags and iodine in case of injury—and the two set off. As they ride down the road, Mike observes the wealthy households all around waking up for the day. He notes that at many of these homes, the “virgin forest” sprawls out to meet “immaculate tennis lawn[s]” and carefully-pruned orchards.
Soon enough, the two men enter “the green gloom of the forest,” and Albert leads them to a trail that will take them to the far side of Hanging Rock. As the men approach the rock, Albert observes that Mike looks nervous—he suggests they eat as soon as they get to the creek. Once down there, Mike is shocked to see that little has changed at the picnic grounds since Saturday—the ashes from the fire he and Albert built on Valentine’s Day are even still there. Albert heats up some food and urges Mike to eat, but Mike isn’t hungry. After scarfing down some food, Albert falls asleep. Mike goes over to the creek and remembers watching the girls hopping over one by one.
It's clear that Albert is more laissez-faire about his and Mike’s independent search than Mike is by far. Mike wants answers, and he wants them now—he cannot eat or rest peacefully until he has them.
Themes
Albert wakes from his nap and asks Mike where they should start their search. The decide to split up, searching for any fallen tree or cave that might be sheltering the girls. Albert sets off up the rock from the point where Edith was seen emerging from the trail, wondering if Mike has led them both on a “wild bloody goose chase.” As Mike makes his way up another slope, he finds himself awed by the sights and sounds of the dense forest and rich natural life all around him. He wonders if he is on the same path the girls trod themselves days ago. He finds himself thinking of the beautiful Miranda, whose name he knows because he heard her friends shout it to her as she crossed the creek.
This passage makes it clear that part of Mike’s preoccupation with the girls’ disappearance stems from his infatuation with Miranda. He wants to find her and rescue her—and though his reasons for setting out into the wilderness are, here, revealed to be slightly selfish, his heart is in the right place, and he is challenging himself in new, unexpected ways.
Themes
At a certain point in his wandering, Mike hears Albert calling to him—he remembers they were supposed to meet at the creek at four. He realizes he has lost track of time, and, after marking the spot on the trail with several pieces of paper from his notebook, heads back to the picnic grounds. He and Albert sip some tea and talk about their walks—neither has anything to report. Albert suggests they pack it in for the day, but Mike says he has no intention of going home. He urges Albert to make up an excuse on his behalf. Albert warns Mike that it’s dangerous to stay out in the bush overnight, but Mike, furious with how the search has been handled, declares his intent to keep looking for the girls on his own.
Again, time seems to function strangely up on the rock. People are always tired at its base and disoriented as they climb, uncertain of how they occupy and take up space and time. These phenomena deepen the mystery—and up the danger quotient Mike is facing by staying overnight.
Themes
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Albert leaves some food and pony feed for Mike. With a warning to Mike not to let his campfire start a blaze in the brush, Albert mounts his horse and heads off the way they came. Mike knows that he can’t search or be useful until dawn, at least, and so he builds a small campfire and falls asleep. He has a restless night and wakes every couple of hours anxious for dawn.
It's perhaps a little foolish for Mike to stay overnight even though he can’t search ‘til dawn—but this fact makes his investment in finding the girls as soon as possible all the more evident.
Themes
As Mike sets off up to the rock again, he feels relief in spite of the rough terrain and dense brush. He finds the spot he marked on the trail the day before with ease and is shocked when a wallaby hops across his path. He wonders what the wallaby has seen these last few days, and what it might know. The wallaby disappears into the brush and Mike climbs on, exhausted, hungry, and out of breath, yet compelled to move higher and higher up the rock. At last, he stops to rest on a large rock, falling into a “ragged” sleep.
Mike encounters strange bits of nature on his way up the rock, spotting a wallaby just as the girls found themselves surrounded (and covered) by insects and amphibians. Again, Lindsay invokes the rock’s soporific effect—perhaps to suggest that Mike is letting the rock take hold of him, just as the girls did.
Themes
Mike wakes to a sudden stab of pain over his eye and realizes that his head is bleeding profusely. He is freezing, disoriented, and believes he can hear high peals of laughter all around him. Mike feels himself drifting back to sleep. He fights his way through bizarre dreams for an unknown amount of time before waking again, certain that he can hear Miranda laughing just ahead of him up the path. His head is still bleeding. Mike calls out for her and begins running through the brush, but soon finds that the path is barred by huge boulders. He begins climbing over the rocks, calling for Miranda the whole time.
Something has clearly transpired while Mike has been “asleep”—whether rocks have fallen on him, an animal has attacked him, or whether he has simply believed himself to be asleep while actually doing something else, it’s clear that the rock has a mysterious and powerful hold over all (or almost all) of those who venture onto it.
Themes
