Picnic at Hanging Rock

by

Joan Lindsay

A mysterious English widow who is the founder and headmistress of Appleyard College. Very little is known about Mrs. Appleyard’s background and how she came to Australia—but her obsession with accruing wealth and social clout, her prim and strait-laced demeanor, and her often-callous treatment of her students suggest that she is straining toward upward mobility and potentially trying to escape from a dark past. Prior to the disappearance of three of her students and one of her employees, Mrs. Appleyard is preoccupied with instilling a regimented sense of order, grace, and compliance in both her pupils and her staff. In the wake of the disaster at Hanging Rock, Mrs. Appleyard seeks to even more carefully control the movements of those in her care—even as gossip, scandal, and instability threaten the very existence of Appleyard College. As months pass and no answer to the mystery of what happened and Hanging Rock presents itself, Mrs. Appleyard’s mental state deteriorates visibly. Desperate for control over her few remaining students, she develops a fixation with breaking the spirit of the unruly young orphan Sara Waybourne. Whether or not Mrs. Appleyard kills the girl with her own two hands, a matter on which the novel remains ambiguous, Mrs. Appleyard winds up responsible for the death of the school’s youngest and most vulnerable boarder. Having lost control entirely—and with only eight students due to return for the next term—Mrs. Appleyard travels to Hanging Rock, climbs to one of its peaks, and hurls herself off the edge, falling to her death. Mrs. Appleyard seems to blame her descent into madness on the rock itself, occasionally alluding to being able to sense the rock’s looming shadow spreading over everything in her life. Her unraveling and her death may represent, in Lindsay’s view, the predestined failure of colonial society’s oppressive organization, the decline of the Victorian era, or more generally the existential misery of living as a woman in a society centered on repression and gentility at the expense of all else.

Mrs. Appleyard Quotes in Picnic at Hanging Rock

The Picnic at Hanging Rock quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Appleyard or refer to Mrs. Appleyard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Nature, Repression, and Colonialism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Whether the Headmistress of Appleyard College […] had any previous experience in the educational field, was never divulged. It was unnecessary. With her high-piled greying pompadour and ample bosom, as rigidly controlled and disciplined as her private ambitions, the cameo portrait of her late husband flat on her respectable chest, the stately stranger looked precisely what the parents expected of an English Headmistress. And as looking the part is well known to be more than half the battle…

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

“I have instructed Mademoiselle that as the day is likely to be warm, you may remove your gloves after the drag has passed through Woodend. You will partake of luncheon at the Picnic Grounds near the Rock. Once again let me remind you that the Rock itself is extremely dangerous and you are therefore forbidden to engage in any tomboy foolishness in the matter of exploration, even on the lower slopes. […] I think that is all. Have a pleasant day and try to behave yourselves in a manner to bring credit to the College.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker), Mademoiselle Dianne de Poitiers
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

The Headmistress, after a night passed in staring at the wall of her bedroom interminably whitening to the new day, was on deck at her usual hour with not a hair of the pompadour out of place. Her first concern this morning was to ensure that nothing of yesterday’s happenings should be so much as whispered beyond the College walls.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Sara had just reached the door when she was called back. “I omitted to mention that if I have not heard from your guardian by Easter I shall be obliged to make other arrangements for your education.”

For the first time a change of expression flickered behind the great eyes. “What arrangements?”

“That will have to be decided. There are Institutions.”

“Oh, no. No. Not that. Not again.”

“One must learn to face up to facts, Sara. After all, you are thirteen years old. You may go.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker), Sara Waybourne (speaker), Mr. Jasper Cosgrove
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“If I may say so, now that you are no longer under my care, your teachers were continually complaining to me of your lack of application. Even a girl with your expectations should be able to spell.” The words were hardly out of her mouth before she realized that she had made a strategic blunder. It was above all things necessary not to further antagonize the wealthy Leopolds. Money is power. Money is strength and safety. Even silence has to be paid for.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker), Irma Leopold
Page Number: 137-138
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

The clock on the stairs had just struck for half past twelve when the door of Mrs. Appleyard’s room opened noiselessly, inch by inch, and an old woman carrying a nightlight came out on to the landing. An old woman with head bowed under a forest of curling pins, with pendulous breasts and sagging stomach beneath a flannel dressing-gown. No human being - not even Arthur - had ever seen her thus, without the battledress of steel and whalebone in which for eighteen hours a day the Headmistress was accustomed to face the world.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard, Sara Waybourne
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“You know very well I’m not one for gossip. What is it you want to find out?”

He grinned. “Shrewd little woman, aren’t you? I’ve been wondering if you ever heard any of your lady friends mention Mrs. Appleyard at the College?” In Bumpher’s experience it was amazing how an ordinary housewife seemed to know by instinct things that might take a policeman weeks to find out.

Related Characters: Constable Bumpher (speaker), Mrs. Appleyard
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:

About ten minutes later she was out in the drive waiting for the trap at the front door. She was wearing a long navy blue coat and a brown hat with a feather sticking up that I’ve seen her wearing when she goes to Melbourne. She was carrying a black leather handbag and black gloves because I wondered why a person would think of gloves at such a time.

Related Characters: Mr. Edward Whitehead (speaker), Mrs. Appleyard
Page Number: 197
Explanation and Analysis:

Nothing else was said until we came to the bend in the road where you can first see the Hanging Rock coming up out of the trees in the distance. I pointed it out to her and said something about the Rock having made a lot of trouble for a lot of people since the day of the Picnic. She leaned right across me and shook her fist at it and I hope I never have to see an expression like that on another face.

Related Characters: Mr. Ben Hussey (speaker), Mrs. Appleyard
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

To the left, on higher ground, a pile of stones . . . on one of them a large black spider, spread-eagled, asleep in the sun. She had always been afraid of spiders, looked round for something with which to strike it down and saw Sara Waybourne, in a nightdress, with one eye fixed and staring from a mask of rotting flesh.

An eagle hovering high above the golden peaks heard her scream as she ran towards the precipice and jumped. The spider scuttled to safety as the clumsy body went bouncing and rolling from rock to rock towards the valley below. Until at last the head in the brown hat was impaled upon a jutting crag.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard, Sara Waybourne
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 200-201
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mrs. Appleyard Quotes in Picnic at Hanging Rock

The Picnic at Hanging Rock quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Appleyard or refer to Mrs. Appleyard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Nature, Repression, and Colonialism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Whether the Headmistress of Appleyard College […] had any previous experience in the educational field, was never divulged. It was unnecessary. With her high-piled greying pompadour and ample bosom, as rigidly controlled and disciplined as her private ambitions, the cameo portrait of her late husband flat on her respectable chest, the stately stranger looked precisely what the parents expected of an English Headmistress. And as looking the part is well known to be more than half the battle…

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

“I have instructed Mademoiselle that as the day is likely to be warm, you may remove your gloves after the drag has passed through Woodend. You will partake of luncheon at the Picnic Grounds near the Rock. Once again let me remind you that the Rock itself is extremely dangerous and you are therefore forbidden to engage in any tomboy foolishness in the matter of exploration, even on the lower slopes. […] I think that is all. Have a pleasant day and try to behave yourselves in a manner to bring credit to the College.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker), Mademoiselle Dianne de Poitiers
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

The Headmistress, after a night passed in staring at the wall of her bedroom interminably whitening to the new day, was on deck at her usual hour with not a hair of the pompadour out of place. Her first concern this morning was to ensure that nothing of yesterday’s happenings should be so much as whispered beyond the College walls.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Sara had just reached the door when she was called back. “I omitted to mention that if I have not heard from your guardian by Easter I shall be obliged to make other arrangements for your education.”

For the first time a change of expression flickered behind the great eyes. “What arrangements?”

“That will have to be decided. There are Institutions.”

“Oh, no. No. Not that. Not again.”

“One must learn to face up to facts, Sara. After all, you are thirteen years old. You may go.”

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker), Sara Waybourne (speaker), Mr. Jasper Cosgrove
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“If I may say so, now that you are no longer under my care, your teachers were continually complaining to me of your lack of application. Even a girl with your expectations should be able to spell.” The words were hardly out of her mouth before she realized that she had made a strategic blunder. It was above all things necessary not to further antagonize the wealthy Leopolds. Money is power. Money is strength and safety. Even silence has to be paid for.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard (speaker), Irma Leopold
Page Number: 137-138
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

The clock on the stairs had just struck for half past twelve when the door of Mrs. Appleyard’s room opened noiselessly, inch by inch, and an old woman carrying a nightlight came out on to the landing. An old woman with head bowed under a forest of curling pins, with pendulous breasts and sagging stomach beneath a flannel dressing-gown. No human being - not even Arthur - had ever seen her thus, without the battledress of steel and whalebone in which for eighteen hours a day the Headmistress was accustomed to face the world.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard, Sara Waybourne
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“You know very well I’m not one for gossip. What is it you want to find out?”

He grinned. “Shrewd little woman, aren’t you? I’ve been wondering if you ever heard any of your lady friends mention Mrs. Appleyard at the College?” In Bumpher’s experience it was amazing how an ordinary housewife seemed to know by instinct things that might take a policeman weeks to find out.

Related Characters: Constable Bumpher (speaker), Mrs. Appleyard
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:

About ten minutes later she was out in the drive waiting for the trap at the front door. She was wearing a long navy blue coat and a brown hat with a feather sticking up that I’ve seen her wearing when she goes to Melbourne. She was carrying a black leather handbag and black gloves because I wondered why a person would think of gloves at such a time.

Related Characters: Mr. Edward Whitehead (speaker), Mrs. Appleyard
Page Number: 197
Explanation and Analysis:

Nothing else was said until we came to the bend in the road where you can first see the Hanging Rock coming up out of the trees in the distance. I pointed it out to her and said something about the Rock having made a lot of trouble for a lot of people since the day of the Picnic. She leaned right across me and shook her fist at it and I hope I never have to see an expression like that on another face.

Related Characters: Mr. Ben Hussey (speaker), Mrs. Appleyard
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

To the left, on higher ground, a pile of stones . . . on one of them a large black spider, spread-eagled, asleep in the sun. She had always been afraid of spiders, looked round for something with which to strike it down and saw Sara Waybourne, in a nightdress, with one eye fixed and staring from a mask of rotting flesh.

An eagle hovering high above the golden peaks heard her scream as she ran towards the precipice and jumped. The spider scuttled to safety as the clumsy body went bouncing and rolling from rock to rock towards the valley below. Until at last the head in the brown hat was impaled upon a jutting crag.

Related Characters: Mrs. Appleyard, Sara Waybourne
Related Symbols: Hanging Rock
Page Number: 200-201
Explanation and Analysis: