Student Question
When did Sara become sad and unhappy in The Little Princess?
Quick answer:
Sara becomes sad and unhappy after her father's death leaves her penniless, transforming her from a privileged student to an unpaid servant at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary. Despite her positive nature, she struggles with sadness from separation from her father, poverty, and mistreatment. Her spirits revive upon being found by her father's friend. Throughout her hardships, she maintains a princess-like attitude, except when overwhelmed after a failed banquet with Ermengarde and Becky.
Sara Crewe, the child heroine of A Little Princess, leaves a privileged upbringing in India and moves to Victorian London to continue her education. Once there, she embarks on a changeable and unpredictable life's journey. Her doting father dies, leaving Sara penniless and dependent on the charity of the stern and heartless owner of Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Once a star pupil, Sara becomes an unpaid house drudge, and the school becomes her virtual prison. She faces continual physical and emotional challenges as she struggles to work, teach, and learn in an oppressively cruel and deleterious environment.
In her portrayal of "Princess Sara," Frances Hodgson Burnett has chosen to create a positive rather than negative narrative of Sara's life; feelings of sadness and despair are overcome, rather than given in to. The reader, however, can easily glean those feelings from the very interesting storyline.
Several distinct...
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events in her young life cause Sara to experience understandable bouts of sadness, frustration, and hopelessness. The sadness she experiences after her initial separation from her beloved father, her only relative, is acute; she is not a demonstrative child, however, and suffers her loss in silence. Sara's distress is somewhat lessened by her friendships with fellow student Ermengarde and the servant Becky, although what she learns of Becky’s personal living conditions seems to sadden her to a degree. Sara's pet occupation, telling stories, is extended to Becky as well, giving the girls a measure of shared solace.
When her father's extended absence is eventually followed by his death, she experiences more pain and sadness, along with the unexpected change in her fortune and new status as a pauper. Her personality and beliefs become her best means of defense, fighting and conquering feelings that are largely the result of physical and emotional abuse. Her life becomes a vicious circle of sorts, because the humiliation she experiences and what she believes are other people's negative perceptions of her cause further bouts of sadness and self-reproach. However, she tries to turn the tables with each and every sad thought, conjuring up images of the Princess Sara disguised as a beggar or giving gifts to the populace.
When she is eventually found by her father's friend, her spirits are greatly revived. Changes in circumstances and fortune allow her to return to her former positive, albeit uncommonly mature, outlook on life. A major premise of the book is that Sarah has the ability and desire to pretend that she is a princess no matter what her personal circumstances may be. Consequently, even when she is sad, she can pull herself out of the sadness by remembering that she is a princess and should behave as a princess would. The main exception to this occurs when she has been beaten down so hard by Miss Minchin after the failed banquet with Ermengarde and Becky. She finds the sadness and pain unbearable as she falls into a hungry, depressed, and hopeless sleep with only the rat and her disgraced doll, Emily, for company. Of course, the magical transformation of her garret that occurs afterward makes her believe even more strongly in her need and obligation to act like a little princess.