The Characters
The dominant character is Miss Jean Brodie, who represents a type: a “war-bereaved” and “progressive” spinster of Edinburgh, deprived of her first love, who was killed in World War I, driven by frustrated sexual energy and devoted to “new ideas and energetic practices in art of social welfare, education or religion.” She is a proto-Fascist. She admires first Benito Mussolini then Hitler. She is out of place in the “traditional” girls’ school where she teaches, constantly at odds with Miss Mackay, whose “reasoning power,” she believes, “is deficient.” She is a committed feminist, independent and decidedly eccentric.
In a real sense, she is a great teacher, thanks to her personal charisma. As Harold W. Schneider has written, Brodie is “intelligent, energetic, individualistic, personally attractive; a woman of taste and a challenge to the stuffiness and narrow-mindedness of the people around her,” such as Miss Mackay and her accomplice, Miss Gaunt, who actively promote Brodie’s downfall.
On the other hand, Brodie is obviously flawed in her judgment and quite doctrinaire. Her artistic and political beliefs spring from emotional instinct. “By the time we arrive at Miss Mackay’s study” toward the end, when Sandy has decided to destroy the woman’s career, Bernard Harrison notes, “we are mostly on Sandy’s side, and the novel has turned . . . from a light social satire to a vision of metaphysical evil,” an astonishing “Transfiguration of the Commonplace,” to borrow the title of Sandy’s later psychological treatise.
Brodie’s nemesis and antagonist is Sandy Stranger, whose cold, detached rationality is transposed against Brodie’s emotional instincts. For that reason Brodie is the more understandable, and perhaps ultimately the more sympathetic, character. Sandy is named a “Stranger,” an alien, a Judas figure. From a political point of view, her action against Brodie is justifiable, but her strange personal antipathy toward the woman is extremely complicated; her determination to seduce Teddy Lloyd, for example, for whom Sandy has no genuine affection, seems merely an attempt to demonstrate that she is as good as Rose. Sandy is meanspirited and spiteful, and Spark often emphasizes her swinish attributes.
The other girls of the Brodie set are mere foils for Sandy. They are defined by their abilities and their aspirations, but Sandy’s character traits are not so superficial. To Brodie, Sandy can only be “famous for her vowel sounds” and “her small, almost non-existent eyes.” Brodie has no true insight into her character and therefore can only fatally misjudge her. Sandy cannot be trusted on the basis of instinct.
Miss Mackay, the hostile headmistress, and the equally hostile Miss Gaunt, are flat characters representing authority, conventionality, and traditional decorum. Gordon Lowther is a relatively uninteresting, convenient bachelor, and Teddy Lloyd the unreachable married man, certainly capable of philandering, but idealized beyond reach by the romantic Brodie, who thrives on unrequited love.
Characters Discussed
Miss Jean Brodie
Miss Jean Brodie, an individualistic teacher of younger students at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland. Considered attractive because of her “Roman features” and brown hair coiling at the nape of her neck, Brodie is in her forties, an age that she regards as the prime of her life. She is an early admirer of Benito Mussolini, whom she credits with having eliminated unemployment and litter in the streets of Rome. She later extends her admiration to Adolf Hitler as well and is forced into early retirement. She considers her pupils to be “the crème de la crème ” and has devoted her life to them. Her first lover, Hugh Carruthers, died during World War I; her second lover, Teddy...
(This entire section contains 1089 words.)
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Lloyd, is married. Longing for romance but deprived of it, Brodie attempts to live vicariously through the affairs of her students. Her plan for one of these affairs fails, however, and the other outlets for her passion—politics and her unusual approach to education—ultimately prove to be her undoing. Brodie dies shortly after World War II, still unmarried at the age of fifty-six and unable to understand how she could have been betrayed by one of her own students.
Sandy Stranger
Sandy Stranger, one of the ten students who have become known collectively as “the Brodie set.” Distinguished in the junior school for her tiny eyes and her skill at elocution, Sandy does not outwardly appear much different from the other Brodie girls; they are all dressed in the same panama hat and deep violet uniform. She is imaginative, creating stories in her mind that involve herself and the characters from whatever book she currently is reading. Sandy later enters a convent, where she becomes Sister Helena of the Transfiguration. She writes a psychological treatise titled The Transfiguration of the Commonplace and becomes unexpectedly famous. Her sudden betrayal of Brodie is suspected by her former mentor only shortly before Brodie’s death.
Jenny Gray
Jenny Gray, Sandy’s best friend. The prettiest and most graceful girl of the Brodie set, Jenny enters a school of dramatic arts during what would have been her final year at the Marcia Blaine School.
Mary Macgregor
Mary Macgregor, the least intelligent of Brodie’s inner circle and their scapegoat. Mary goes on to become a shorthand-typist, joins the military during World War II, and dies tragically at the age of twenty-four in a hotel fire while on leave.
Eunice Gardiner
Eunice Gardiner, a small but athletic girl. Eunice is both a gymnast and a swimmer. While at the senior school, Eunice alone of her set does not share Brodie’s contempt for the “team spirit” and competes enthusiastically in intramural sports.
Monica Douglas
Monica Douglas, who is skilled at mathematics and famous for her hot temper. Monica is one of the least attractive of the Brodie set, having a broad and very red nose, long dark hair worn in pigtails, and fat, stubby legs.
Rose Stanley
Rose Stanley, who is known for her sex appeal even while young. Rose is a tall girl with short blonde hair, pale skin, and a huge-boned face. Although something of a tomboy when she is eleven years old, she later uses her knowledge of boys’ interests to make herself even more popular. Rose is groomed by Brodie to have an affair with Teddy Lloyd, but she manages to free herself from her teacher’s influence and marry a successful businessman shortly after leaving school.
Joyce Emily Hammond
Joyce Emily Hammond, a newcomer to the Marcia Blaine School, sent there because no other school could handle her. Her family is extremely rich, and she arrives at school each day in a chauffeur-driven car. Although eager to enter the Brodie set, she is a misfit and insists on being addressed by both of her first names. Joyce Emily still wears the dark green uniform of her old school and is encouraged by Brodie to go to Spain to fight for Francisco Franco. She is killed, however, when the train on which she is riding is attacked.
Miss Mackay
Miss Mackay, the red-faced headmistress of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls. Miss Mackay objects to Brodie’s teaching methods and has become her implacable enemy. Intent on ending Brodie’s career, she tries to win the Brodie set over to her side. After several unsuccessful attempts to obtain evidence of Brodie’s sexual misconduct, Miss Mackay receives from Sandy the necessary hint that politics, not morality, will be Brodie’s undoing.
Miss Gaunt
Miss Gaunt, a teacher at the junior school. As gaunt and forbidding as her name implies, she insists on complete silence in her classroom. Miss Gaunt regularly wears a dark green jersey and an unfashionable knee-length skirt of a gray material like that used for blankets. Miss Gaunt’s brother is the minister of the local parish, a fact that only intensifies her air of rigid and confining respectability.
Teddy Lloyd
Teddy Lloyd, the art master at the senior school. Although Lloyd is married, he and Brodie share a secret love for each other. On a single occasion, they have a moment of weakness and kiss. Lloyd is half English and half Welsh, with golden hair and a hoarse voice. He lost his left arm during World War I. This mark of distinction and his general air of sophistication make Lloyd seem a highly romantic figure to the girls of the Blaine School.
Gordon Lowther
Gordon Lowther, the singing master for both the junior and senior schools. He is Brodie’s supporter and, for a time, her lover. Brodie begins her affair with Lowther only because she is trying to free herself from her love for Teddy Lloyd. Lowther is a small, short-legged man with reddish blond hair and a mustache. He is shy but has a smiling and gentle manner that causes others to feel kindly toward him. After the death of his mother, Lowther never can regard himself as master of his own house; he becomes dependent first on his housekeeper, then on the Kerr sisters and Brodie, and finally on his wife, the former science mistress, Miss Lockhart.
Ellen Kerr
Ellen Kerr and
Alison Kerr
Alison Kerr, sewing teachers at the Marcia Blaine School. With their fluffed hair, birdlike eyes, and nearly bluish skin, the Kerr sisters perfectly fit the stereotype of “spinsters.” Rather than teaching, they frequently do most of the girls’ sewing for them. The Kerrs become, for a time, Lowther’s unofficial housekeepers.
List of Characters
Miss Jean Brodie
Miss Jean Brodie is a quirky, self-centered, and idealistic junior teacher at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the years leading up to World War II, Miss Brodie employs a dramatic teaching style that leaves a lasting impression on her young students. She conspires with them to undermine the school’s academic curriculum. After losing her fiancé, Hugh Carruthers, in World War I, Miss Brodie becomes enamored with the married art teacher, Mr. Lloyd. Due to his marital status, she shifts her romantic attention to the single music teacher, Mr. Lowther. Ultimately, Miss Brodie is dismissed from the school when one of her favored students reveals her fascist political views to the headmistress, Miss Mackay.
Hugh Carruthers
Hugh Carruthers, aged twenty-two, was killed one week before the Armistice in 1918. He was engaged to Miss Brodie. Sandy Stranger and Jenny Gray co-write a romantic story about Hugh and Miss Brodie. After Miss Brodie forms attachments to Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Lowther, her recollections of Hugh become infused with characteristics clearly borrowed from these two men.
Monica Douglas
Monica Douglas, known for her mathematical skills, temper, red nose, and stocky legs, is a member of the Brodie set. Monica witnesses Miss Brodie kissing Mr. Lloyd in the art room and informs the other girls in the group.
Eunice Gardiner
Petite and tidy Eunice Gardiner is part of the Brodie set. Renowned for her swimming and gymnastics abilities, Eunice is often asked by Miss Brodie to perform a somersault in class for “comic relief” on tiring days. Later in life, Eunice tells her husband that Miss Brodie was “full of culture” and decides to visit her grave to lay flowers.
Miss Gaunt
Miss Gaunt, the sister of a minister and a critic of Miss Brodie, takes over teaching the Brodie set while Miss Brodie is ostensibly ill for two weeks. With Mr. Lowther also absent during this period, Miss Gaunt speculates that “Miss Brodie has the same complaint as Mr. Lowther.”
Jenny Gray
Jenny Gray, another member of the Brodie set, is known for her excellent elocution and aspirations to become an actress. In the lower grades, Jenny is best friends with Sandy Stranger. During the 1931–1932 school year, Jenny is horrified when a man exposes himself to her. Later, she and Sandy entertain themselves by creating stories about the female detective who interviews Jenny and by writing fictitious correspondence between Miss Brodie and Mr. Lowther.
Joyce Emily Hammond
Joyce Emily Hammond is a wealthy newcomer and outsider at the school. She hopes to join Miss Brodie’s set, perhaps due to her two first names. Later, Joyce Emily follows Miss Brodie’s advice to go to Spain to support Franco and tragically dies in a train accident on her way there.
Alison Kerr
Allison Kerr and her sister Ellen teach sewing at the Blaine School. After school on weekdays and on Saturday mornings, the Kerr sisters volunteer to manage household chores for Mr. Lowther. They are enthusiastic about their new role in assisting Mr. Lowther, but Miss Brodie asserts her dominance in his life by supervising their cooking on Saturday mornings and spending the remainder of the weekend with him, ensuring he is well-fed.
Ellen Kerr
Miss Ellen Kerr is Allison Kerr's older sister. While changing Mr. Lowther’s bed linens, Ellen finds a nightdress neatly folded under one of the pillows. She shares this discovery with Miss Gaunt, and they report it to the schoolmistress, Miss Mackay.
Mr. Theodore Lloyd
Teddy Lloyd, who has lost one arm, is the senior girls’ art teacher at the Blaine School. He and his wife have another child when Miss Brodie’s set is ten years old, making the girls aware that he “has committed sex.” When the girls are eleven, Monica Douglas claims to have seen Mr. Lloyd kissing Miss Brodie. Later, Mr. Lloyd paints multiple portraits of Rose Stanley, which Sandy Stranger notes all resemble Miss Brodie. He also has a sexual relationship with Sandy.
Miss Lockhart
Miss Lockhart is the science teacher at the Blaine School. She has short gray hair and a golfer’s tan. She often helps the girls by cleaning ink stains from their blouses. When the ten-year-old girls visit the science room, they get a glimpse of the senior girls and the attractive Miss Lockhart. After Miss Brodie loses interest in Mr. Lowther, he marries Miss Lockhart.
Mr. Gordon Lowther
Mr. Lowther is the music teacher for all grades at the Blaine School. Along with Mr. Lloyd, he is sexually attracted to Miss Brodie and is considered one of her allies. Living alone in his parents’ home, Mr. Lowther receives housekeeping assistance from the Kerr sisters and has a sexual relationship with Miss Brodie. When she loses interest in him, he marries Miss Lockhart.
Mary Macgregor
Mary Macgregor is “the last member of the [Brodie] set” for a reason. She is often described as “a silent lump, a nobody whom everybody could blame.” In the first chapter, a flash-forward reveals that Mary dies in a hotel fire at the age of twenty-three. After her death, others reflect on their past cruelty towards her in school and regret not having been kinder.
Miss Mackay
Miss Mackay is the headmistress of Marcia Blaine School for Girls. She “believes in the slogan ‘Safety First,’” which is evident, from Miss Brodie’s perspective, by the picture of Stanley Baldwin, a former prime minister, on Miss Mackay’s office wall. A conservative educator, Miss Mackay suspects that Miss Brodie’s teaching methods deviate from school policy and wishes Jean Brodie would resign.
Rose Stanley
Rose Stanley, a member of the Brodie set, is “famous for sex.” She poses for Mr. Lloyd, even in the nude. As Rose matures, her transformation catches the attention of schoolboys, but she does not engage in a sexual relationship with Mr. Lloyd. The anticipation of such a relationship, however, provides Miss Brodie with vicarious pleasure.
Sandy Stranger
Sandy Stranger, another member of the Brodie set, is “notorious for her small, almost nonexistent, eyes” and “famous for her vowel sounds” that “in the Junior school, had enraptured Miss Brodie.” Sandy would recite passages from Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” prompting Miss Brodie to declare: “Where there is no vision . . . the people perish.” Sandy possesses the vision that Miss Brodie lacks and, with her insight into Miss Brodie’s influence on the girls, decides to put an end to it. Sandy reports to the headmistress that Miss Brodie is “a born Fascist.” As an adult, Sandy becomes a nun—Sister Helena of the Transfiguration—and writes a well-received book on psychology.
