Rowan

[charverz.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that Rowan is one of my favourite AF characters.  At first blush she seems to be competent, mature, self-sacrificing only when it is necessary.  But AF's characters are never as simple as they appear.

So I'm opening this up to a discussion of what are Rowan's weaknesses or blind spots?

While her decision to run Trennels to spare her father's/Giles's naval career can be seen as heroic (a word Rowan would never apply to herself, except wryly), could it be that it was a handy way out of having to make a career decision? After all, she says that she wanted to be an architect, but can't draw.  If Cousin Jon hadn't been killed she would have gone back to do her Sixth Form year, as Head Girl - and then what?  So she jumps at the chance, rather than have to face some very difficult soul-searching.

Comments

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Well, she's got a very sharp tongue - which Peter and Ginty (sometimes Lawrie) get the worst of at times. In a way she is also a little too cool - always dry and rather scathing - if you met a real seventeen year old like that you might find them a little too much, or even feel they were trying too hard. But it doesn't come over like that in the books, - she seems very naturally competent and in control.

I like her too but she's not my favourite - too little vulnerability.

The abandoning Kingscote thing always seems very random, as does the architecture proclivities - she doesn't seem to have much of an aesthetic side, never talks about longing to visit European cities, show any interest in buildings. But I don't see why she should have done it to wriggle out of tricky career decisions. Most likely she would have been bright enough to go to university, and could have had plenty of time to ponder those questions there.

Actually I reckon AF probably found it rather unwieldy, having so many Marlows at Kingscote. And having such a very sensible older sister around was bound to cramp the twins' potential for escapades. so I reckon she decided to chop down her cast.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

I suppose it would be tedious to have Rowan continually in the Head's office being chided for not keeping her sisters in line, and passing it on with interest to Lawrie and Nicola. Especially if she's Head Girl.

Perhaps competence and control are the outer Rowan, and maybe there are doubts inside. Certainly Rowan can lose the cool, as in RAH and in EOT where she gets the giggles with Patrick. I think both of those are special because they are rare flashes of a very human Rowan.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I do like that conversation with Patrick - the fact she gets embarrassed, for example. I like the fact she's a religious skeptic - that seems right for her. She's also quite hurt, it is implied, by Karen's behaviour in RMF. And she slips up there too - puts her foot in it (whiskey talking) and possibly pushes Karen into the marriage as a result. So she does have a very human side.

I suppose we usually see her through her younger sibs eyes, but there are clearly other aspects to her. Actually one of the (many) things I like about the books, all the older characters seem like they would have lives of their own - they are not just cameos.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Yes, the older characters definitely have interesting unexplored characters. Giles is a prime example. His comments at the end of RAH make me wonder how wedded he is to his Navy career. Obviously he isn't going to bail out on it, but that's because it's now his job. And I'm sure the received Marlow Code is "finish what you start", which is what makes Karen's ditching Oxford such a jolt to the family.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Bright enough for university, but not necessarily certain of going there. Fifty years ago a university education was not as common as it is now, and I wonder how many officers (Royal Navy, Army or R.A.F.) could afford to send their children, scholarships aside.

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

Fifty years ago, you didn't have to pay to go to university and got support grants (means-tested) while you were there, so they could probably have managed it for Rowan had she wanted it rather more easily than they could have done today.

[hooloovoo_42]

Hmmmm. The timeline of the stories moves so much that it's hard to work out just exactly when Rowan would have been at university. Autumn Term seems to be not long after WW2, whereas Attic Term is post decimalisation.

Certainly in the 60s & 70s, she could have got a grant, but in the 40s & 50s, things would have been different.

But if they could afford school fees (ok, there was the problem with Nicola having to leave if the fees went up), they could have managed university costs. But if she wasn't bothered about going, there wasn't much point in it.

Rowan

[(Anonymous)]

She's a great character, and utterly convincing while one's reading - but on reflection, I've never quite managed to believe in Rowan in Autumn Term: I've been teaching since 1975, and have never met a 15-year-old with Rowan's capacity for spontaneous, controlled irony.

Sue Sims (shouldn't be 'Anonymous', but can't remember my LiveJournal sign-in details)

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I find her disconcerting in a rather pleasant way, because she reminds me so much of one of the prefects at my school in around 1960. I really admired the prefect (not in a pashy way) and have always wondered what she did after school - she wasn't the Old Girls' Association type.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I've always supposed that the remark about wanting to be an architect was a joke - and/or a reminiscence of herself at a very young age - a bit like wanting to be a missionary because you've seen Ingrid Bergman (was it?) acting Mary Slessor, and being put off by discovering that you need an RS qualification.

[lizarfau.livejournal.com]

I can't bear Rowan. In Falconer's Lure she bullies Ginty into entering the Festival. Ginty says she doesn't want to enter the diving; Rowan says "Yes, you do"; then later, when Ginty still says she doesn't want to: "I know. And very silly you'll look when someone asks you why you're the only one who isn't doing anything. What are you going to say then? 'Ow, I dunno. I didden wanna'?" What a bitch. Then, Ginty, against her wishes, signs the entry form because Rowan's standing over her. Of course, down the track, Ginty doesn't compete - and Rowan gives her a contemptuous look that makes Ginty feel "as if she'd been hit". Mrs Marlow then tells Ginty that next time she doesn't want to enter something, just to say so. Which Ginty did, more than once, but in the end gave in to Rowan's bullying.

Then, of course, there's Rowan's very bad advice to Nicola not to ring Esther after the events of The Attic Term.

She has moments when she's okay, but I really don't get why so many people like her.

[lizarfau.livejournal.com]

Also, wasn't Rowan more likely to be games prefect, not head girl, had she returned to Kingscote?

Rowan

[(Anonymous)]

I always wonder if Rowan isn't AF. She doesn't miss school, thinks she is perfectly well educated - can read and write - and doesn't seem to want to go to university. She is amazingly adult in behaviour for her age. Even popping down to the local and the whisky drinking is very worldly for her background and times. She seems to be the voice of reason, like AF's own authorial voice.

Re: Rowan

[(Anonymous)]

I admire Rowan, I think because she so obviously knows exactly who she is. I think that's why she doesn't flutter about looking for the right career, as Ginty is obviously going to do before she settles on marrying well. Ginty, Lawrie, Peter, Patrick, Tim, Esther, and probably some others that I'm forgetting are all at a fairly normal stage of teenage insecurity - they have a tendency to try on different personalities for size. Nicola has an unusually strong sense of self for a teenager, which I think is one reason why she's so likable. She may find it upsetting when Tim prefers Lawrie or Patrick prefers Ginty, but she's never tempted to adjust her own personality to suit theirs. We see Rowan from the outside, and from the point of view of her admiring younger sister, so we never see her insecurities, but I imagine she's really a lot like Nicola. AF really seems to admire that sort of person - Jan Scott is another, and I suppose Miranda is to some degree as well.

-- Katy

Re: Rowan

[charverz.livejournal.com]

"Ginty, Lawrie, Peter, Patrick, Tim, Esther, and probably some others that I'm forgetting are all at a fairly normal stage of teenage insecurity."

I think back to Nick's line in Falconer's Lure when Patrick admits to being afraid of the dentist - something along the lines of such admissions were fine for Patrick as a boy, but "when you were thirteen and a girl you had to be careful." (I'm at work so don't have my copy to hand). That line always struck me as a very truthful one as far as girls' feelings (I'm not a girl, and I have two boys), but boys are just as insecure, but perhaps try to hide it more. Patrick especially strikes me as nervy, and Peter has a hard time finding the right balance.

Re: Rowan

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

Miranda to a large extent - but she does feel sensitive about being Jewish, and the discrimination she feels arising from it, don't you think?

Miranda

[(Anonymous)]

I think she feels sensitive about it, but not enough to try to hide it or downplay it. She has no problem telling Marie Dobson that she ought to be in the Christmas Play because all the characters in it are Jewish. I think Miranda's constantly-shifting Best Friends are a possible indication that she's trying on new personalities for size - also the fact that when we first meet her it's as the bitchy queen bee who gives Third Remove Kitchen and Jumble. But she seems to have grown up quite a bit by the time she actually becomes friends with Nicola, and she never does ditch Nicola for someone with more interesting hair.

-- KSC

Re: Miranda

[(Anonymous)]

Oops, I meant to sign that Katy. That's what happens when you wait a month to reply to a comment.

Katy

[charverz.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Rowan has been moulded into someone who is expected to have the answers, even when she doesn't. Since my impression is that Kay is a bit of a write-off where taking care of the family is concerned, doubtless Rowan got stuck with helping her younger sisters until Ann got old enough to take over.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I find both Rowan and Nicola interesting as characters, but suspect I should have loathed them in real life. Nicola is saved in the books by access to her thoughts, but as we so rarely get that with Rowan, her lack of sympathy can come across much more strongly.

I wonder if one might do something with the idea that Rowan is nothing like as secure in herself as the image she projects, and that she finds other people's expressed weaknesses (or what she interprets as weaknesses) a threat as a result.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

One scenario is that Rowan's in charge competence is a protective mask for her inner fears that she's taken on more than she can handle (like Miranda in End of Term), and she spends her days walking the edge. She opens up a lot to Nick in the late-night scene with the sick lamb in the kitchen, but does she give her the whole story? Rowan above all does not want to be pitied.

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

Rowan fan, here.

I think she was trying to be always calm and collected, in comparison to Kay's and Ann's fussing.

I'm totally on her side with Ginty, though.

Amanda

Rowan

[(Anonymous)]

While rowan was always a favourite, I find her decision about taking over Trennels very annoying; principally, because it is entirey for Giles benefit - so that he can stay in the service. it seems bonkers and self sacrificing and I am always furious at Mr and Mrs Marlow for allowing her to do it. What happens to Rowan when that absolute ponce giles arrives back with Mrs Giles to take over when it suits him? It makes me furious.

Re: Rowan

[charverz.livejournal.com]

Yes, but did she do it for Giles, or for her father? My impression (though it is awhile since I read the book) is that it was her father who was looking at retirement.

[charverz.livejournal.com]

I was looking for a quote in RAH the other night, and re-read the scene on the beach with Nicola and Rowan.

It seems to me that Rowan's "this isn't me" line is the proof of what I've said above. She has had to keep a stiff upper lip while being tormented by thoughts of her brothers being drowned. And when it turns out for the best, she goes off and quietly goes to pieces for a couple of minutes, before re-assembling herself and returning.