The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

by Avi, Edward Irving Wortis

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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is an adventure story set on the high seas that begins with “an important warning” in which Charlotte explains to the reader: “If strong ideas and action offend you, read no more.” She goes on to explain that as a result of her voyage on the Seahawk, she is a much different young woman from the one who stepped aboard the ship in England.

Because her father and the rest of Charlotte’s family have had to return home to Providence, Rhode Island, before Charlotte was finished with her schooling at the Barrington School of Better Girls in England, he has made arrangements for Charlotte to travel on one of his company’s ships, along with two other American families. The two families are delayed, however, and the Seahawk sets sail promptly as appointed. Charlotte finds herself the only girl in the company of a crew of ruffians.

She is somewhat offended by the familiarity of the old black cook, Zachariah, who early on befriends her. When he offers her a small dagger—“in case you need it”—Charlotte is convinced that he is not someone with whom she should spend time. Nevertheless, she accepts the knife and hides it under her mattress. Charlotte knows that she is in a worrisome situation and that there is something amiss on the ship. When she is introduced to Captain Jaggery over a cup of tea in his quarters, however, Charlotte is pleased to find him a refined and charming gentleman, someone worthy of her trust. Jaggery explains to her that a sea captain must be stern and that his actions may even sometimes appear to be harsh. He also requests that she be on the lookout for anything in the crew’s behavior or conversation that would suggest trouble.

Soon enough, Charlotte makes unsettling discoveries. In the hold of the ship looking through her trunk, she thinks that she feels the presence of another person in the dark; later, on deck she witnesses Captain Jaggery’s severe treatment of the crew. She also catches a glimpse of a “round robin,” a piece of paper bearing the names of crew members intent on mutiny, and she discovers that one of the sailors has a gun in his possession. Charlotte believes that she is obligated to inform Captain Jaggery.

Within minutes after she has told the captain, the crew rushes onto the deck, and in their midst she sees a stowaway. Jaggery meets the desperate crew with guns drawn, and, in the ensuing confrontation, he shoots the stowaway Cranick and whips Zachariah unmercifully, leaving him for dead. The captain also explains to the crew that it was Charlotte’s observation of their actions that prompted his awareness of their planned mutiny. From that point on, Charlotte recognizes that the captain is a treacherous and sadistic villain; she also sees that her foolish actions have put her at odds with the crew.

Charlotte decides to prove to the crew that she can be trusted, and, in open defiance of the captain, she “joins” the crew. She works heroically in the riggings during a hurricane, but, when the first mate is found murdered after the storm, Jaggery blames the crime on her. Cast into the brig, she is comforted by Zachariah (whose burial at sea has been staged by the crew), and the two plot to overthrow Jaggery before she is tried for murder and executed.

Through several reversals of action, Charlotte survives the voyage and is reunited with her family, who offer a cool reception to her tale of adventure. She determines that she cannot...

(This entire section contains 628 words.)

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accept a life of stifled propriety and sneaks out one night to join the crew of theSeahawk as it sets sail.

Setting

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The ports of Liverpool and Providence are briefly mentioned at both the beginning and conclusion of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. While neither city is described in great detail, the bustling scene of numerous ships clustered together in Liverpool is vividly depicted. The majority of the novel's events unfold aboard the brig Seahawk. Avi includes a diagram of the vessel in an appendix, which aids readers in understanding the locations of the various actions. Despite Avi's efforts to define nautical terms throughout the story, the ship's illustration helps clarify the layout of its different sections.

The Seahawk is a two-masted vessel, featuring a main mast and a foremast. Each mast is composed of three stages of tree trunks stacked atop one another to reach their full height. Throughout the story, Charlotte learns to climb these towering masts, which stand hundreds of feet above the deck, and becomes familiar with all their rigging. The ship is segmented into cargo storage areas, workspaces, and living quarters. Charlotte is assigned a room so cramped that she cannot stand upright in it, despite her small stature, and there is no space to store her clothing. Her cabin is situated near the captain's quarters, a spacious room equipped with many comforts. The crew resides in the forecastle, located near the ship's bow, where they are tightly packed with minimal room for movement or privacy.

Literary Qualities

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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is narrated in the first person by Charlotte Doyle herself. This narrative choice offers several benefits, such as presenting a youthful perspective that resonates with the novel's young readers and allowing a sense of discovery as the plot unfolds. Charlotte, much like the readers, is inexperienced with sailing ships, which provides a natural context for her to describe various parts of the ship as she encounters them. Consequently, readers learn about ship life and its components in an organic and seamless manner.

However, using Charlotte as the narrator does lessen some of the story's suspense. From the outset, it is evident that Charlotte is recounting past events. This foreknowledge means that, for instance, when she climbs to the main-royal yard and slips, hanging upside down, her survival is never in doubt. Similarly, when she faces the threat of hanging, the tension lies in discovering how she will survive, rather than if she will survive.

Social Sensitivity

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Avi's emphasis on a contemporary feminist perspective regarding the events on the Seahawk feels strikingly out of place. However, this approach likely contributes significantly to the praise for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and its allure to young readers, who are likely familiar with feminist ideas. Charlotte Doyle is a repressed young girl, though she remains unaware of it. Her education has primarily focused on molding her into a proper gentlewoman, equipped with all the graces expected of upper-class women. Much of her character development in The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle revolves around her attempts to apply these learned social norms to a tense and increasingly dire situation aboard the Seahawk.

When Charlotte believes she is responsible for the crew being short two men, despite later revelations that Captain Jaggery knew of a brewing mutiny through Keetch, and her supposed exposure of the conspiracy was a ruse to protect Keetch from his crewmates, she decides to fill the role of a missing crew member and work as a sailor. In her mind, this is the responsible course of action. It is during her training that the feminist themes become evident, even overt. "I came to feel a sense of exhilaration in it [her new life] such as I had never felt before," she states. Through the demanding labor of a sailor, she discovers an inner strength, eventually feeling liberated from the societal norms dictating a woman's behavior.

In the latter part of the novel, Captain Jaggery and Charlotte's father emerge as representatives of a patriarchal upper class intent on preventing women from leading fulfilling lives. Captain Jaggery's comments indicate that keeping women in submissive roles is part of the upper class's strategy to maintain social order and keep the lower classes in their place:

But you, Miss Doyle, you interfered with that order. You presumed to meddle where you had no right. Look at the way you acted! The way you've dressed! It doesn’t matter that you are different, Miss Doyle. Don’t flatter yourself. The difficulty is that your difference encourages them to question their places. And mine. The order of things.

Thus, Charlotte's journey is intended to uncover a vast social conspiracy where privileged men sustain their advantages by subjugating women and, by extension, their natural allies, working-class men, into a social order designed to uphold upper-class male dominance.

For reasons not entirely clear, Charlotte anticipates that her father, a man as committed to order as Jaggery, will approve of her actions on the Seahawk. His reaction is predictably authoritarian, and the narrative never provides an opportunity for him to be humanized. He appears more like an animal guarding its territory than a human being. However, his response to Charlotte's journal resonates with the writings of others, lending it an air of authenticity. He cannot accept that someone of Jaggery's class would act in the way Charlotte describes, and he burns her diary, dismissing it as bad fiction. Even Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, a man of privilege, observes that in the class-stratified society of twentieth-century England, upper-class criminals often go undetected because their elevated status places them above suspicion.

Charlotte's escape to the Seahawk the night before it is set to leave Providence is unconvincing when scrutinized through the lens of the novel's social themes. It fits the typical conclusion of a young adult book, fulfilling a youngster's thirst for adventure and concluding a plot where Charlotte discovers joy in sailing. As a means of providing readers with vicarious adventure, the ending succeeds. On a social level, however, it fails to make sense. The ship's crew had reluctantly accepted Charlotte as one of their own—a feminist triumph. Yet, when it came down to it, they were ready to see her convicted of a crime they believed someone else had committed and would have cooperated in her execution, despite knowing it was unjust. Their excuse that Zachariah, whom they believed to be the murderer, had been with them longer and thus deserved their loyalty more than Charlotte is an affront to feminism, even though Charlotte accepts this reasoning. In any predominantly male profession that a woman enters, she will always be the newcomer. The claim of older loyalties is merely a pretext for continued discrimination against new members—especially women. When Charlotte flees to the Seahawk, she seeks adventure and a life free from the social constraints of her upbringing. However, she also flees to men who would sacrifice her first; in such a scenario, it seems likely they would rationalize handing her over to her father's representative in England once the ship arrives.

For Further Reference

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Benson, Sonia. "Avi." In Something about the Author. Volume 71. Edited by Diane Telgen. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993, pp. 7-15. Benson catalogs Avi's books and outlines his life, including an insightful interview with Avi.

Bradburn, Frances. Wilson Library Bulletin 65, no. 8 (April 1991): 100-101. Commends The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Burns, Mary M. Horn Book 67, no. 1 (January-February 1991): 65-66. Endorses The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Jones, Trev. School Library Journal 36, no. 9 (September 1990): 221-222. Lavishes praise on The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Nathan, Paul. "Perilous Crossing." Publishers Weekly 245, no. 7 (February 16, 1998): 115. Notes that Universal Studios and Jersey Films have acquired the rights to adapt The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle into a film.

Roback, Diane, and Richard Donahue. Publishers Weekly 237, no. 37 (September 14, 1990): 128. Declares The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle a must-read.

School Library Journal 43, no. 9 (September 1997): 130. Briefly states that The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is an outstanding book.

"Spotlight." Time for Kids 3, no. 9 (November 14, 1997): 1. Highlights audience reactions to The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and includes Avi discussing the differences between writing short and long fiction.

"Wortis, Avi." In Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Volume 42. Edited by Susan M. Trosky. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994, pp. 485-487. Essentially a summary of Benson's article in Something about the Author.

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