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Edith Horton
The youngest boarder at Appleyard College. Sara Waybourne is small for her age, but what she lacks in size, she makes up for in attitude. Dreamy and defiant, Sara is an orphan whose finances are overseen by a legal guardian, Mr. Jasper Cosgrove. Mr. Cosgrove is not a hands-on guardian, however, and he frequently leaves Sara in the care of Appleyard College during breaks and holidays—much to the dismay of Mrs. Appleyard, who finds the incorrigible Sara difficult and odious. The lonely Sara idolizes her roommate, Miranda, and is devastated when she disappears during the picnic at Hanging Rock. With Miranda gone, Sara struggles to fit in with her fellow students and to make nice with Mrs. Appleyard—she falls ill toward the end of the novel, taking to bed and refusing to eat, and is eventually discovered dead in a hydrangea bush behind the school with her face crushed beyond recognition. Sara’s death is a mystery, and whether she took her own life or was killed by Mrs. Appleyard is left deliberately ambiguous—another of the novel’s mysterious unknowns.
Sara Waybourne Quotes in Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Picnic at Hanging Rock quotes below are all either spoken by Sara Waybourne or refer to Sara Waybourne. 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:
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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.”
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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.
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Chapter 16
Quotes
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.
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Sara Waybourne Quotes in Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Picnic at Hanging Rock quotes below are all either spoken by Sara Waybourne or refer to Sara Waybourne. 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:
).
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.”
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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.
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Chapter 16
Quotes
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.
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