Posted by Mike Dennis on May 12, 2012 at 05:18:08 user MTD.
My re-reading of the books (more or less in order) has continued with Swallowdale (after a diversion with Coot Club), and having already read Peter Duck after Swallows & Amazons as I explained in a previous post. Though I have read Swallowdale a number of times over the years, this reading was something of a revelation to me.
In Swallowdale it seems that Arthur Ransome used much more of his own life experience, and his view of the world, in his rounding out of the character of Titty. It is argued that his favourite character of all his creations is Nancy, given that he named one of his boats after her; but I now begin to wonder whether though Nancy was a favourite there is more of himself in Titty. In the book all the children are fleshed out from the ones we are introduced to in Swallows & Amazons, and at points in the story they behave or react to things in ways that make them all even more believable.
Though the book is written in the third person, much of it is related to us from the thoughts and observations of Titty. The older children, John, Susan and Nancy, have their concerns and worries but they way these are dealt with makes them almost trivial in comparison to those of Titty.
As we all know, at the centre of the book causing an upheaval for them all is the Great Aunt Maria. A woman seemingly devoid of understanding, compassion or sympathy, a woman who will brush aside anyone who gets in the way of her imagined self-importance. It is unusual for a novel, let alone one aimed at children, to have a character that is disliked by every other one.
For Titty, Great Aunt Maria commits an unforgivable sin – she so upsets Nancy and Peggy’s mother that she is reduced to tears. Titty ponders how outraged she would be if someone did this to her own mother, whom she and her siblings clearly love, trust and respect.
The actions of the Great Aunt also turns Nancy from the gung-ho, do or die, upfront Amazon pirate to an almost speechless and belittled individual; again through the treatment of her mother and the disrespect to the memory of her father.
Through the whole series of novels the life of Bob Blackett is only ever eluded to, in Swallowdale set in 1931 we are told he and his wife to be and her brother climbed Kanchenjunga thirty years previously. Nancy and Peggy are in their teens, so as has been discussed Bob Blackett died either to the end of or after the First World War; how and when we are never told of, but it is clear that even for the sometimes seemingly hard-hearted Nancy this is a matter of much grief and fond memories, despoiled by the actions of her hated Great Aunt.
Great Aunt Maria disrupts the Amazons summer plans, worse than that turns Captain Flint native and forces Nancy and Peggy in to frilly frocks and gloves! The Swallows, apart from Titty, seem to think that with simple explanations the Great Aunt can be pacified. It is clear from Mrs Walker’s comments that she is a woman who cannot be dealt with in such a manner. To begin with, it seems that Captain Flint is frightened of his Aunt Maria – but we learn that she brought up himself and his sister who he is protecting in his fear (and we are offered no explanation as to what happened to their mother so that they were left to the mercies of Aunt Maria.)
During the book we are often let inside Titty’s mind, some argue that she is the most ‘imaginative’ of the children of the books citing her ‘invention’ of the character of Peter Duck. It would seem to me that she is a serious and thoughtful child; the upset caused by the Great Aunt in her unpleasant behaviour is not something she can laugh off or ignore.
To some readers, Titty’s creation of a voodoo doll to represent the Great Aunt with the intention to cause her harm and thereby leave the Blacketts alone may seem somewhat extreme. Here I’ll declare an interest from my own experience. When I was seven years old my ten-year-old brother (my only sibling) was killed in a road accident, my own grief was mostly internalised but even at that age I could sense the effect of this tragic event upon my parents. In my mind I wanted to do something, I wanted my parents to be normal once more and so I planned on many occasions in my imagination that I would build a replica of my brother, an automaton, one that my parents would not be able to tell the difference and so our family life would be properly restored. So Titty too, being a thoughtful child, wishes normality to be returned and so must do something to deal with this woman who Captain Flint is frightened of and has made Mrs Blackett cry.
What is also revealing in this aspect of the plot is Titty’s relationship with her mother. We know they are close from Swallows & Amazons, but it is when Mrs Walker visits Swallowdale after the wax doll incident she takes one look at Titty and knows something is amiss. In response the two of them immediately go off alone and Titty tells her the whole terrible story. The readers have to remind themselves that this is a novel written in the 1930s, not in the current era of laidback and concerned parenting where everything is talked about.
During the book Titty often expresses her emotions, not just in what is revealed to us of her inner thoughts but also in what she says to the others. This is in contrast to the others who seem to find such things very difficult, Nancy and her Uncle Jim in particular who both hold back from expressing their thoughts about Aunt Maria.
The book is full of strong female characters, even the minor ones, and with the exception of the Great Aunt they are all positive. Is this a reflection of Ransome’s relationship with his own mother?
Swallowdale is the longest of the books, and in the view of Hugh Brogan in the biography there is not much going on other than the holing of the Swallow and Roger twisting his ankle. But is this the case? To me there is a central plot in the battle between the Great Aunt and the Swallows & Amazons, or perhaps even just between the Great Aunt and Titty. But of course the Great Aunt is unaware that they are at loggerheads.
This theme of adults in conflict with children is a reoccurring theme in the books – Swallows and Amazons, Swallowdale, Coot Club, Big Six, Pigeon Post and Picts and the Martyrs. Both We Didn’t Mean to go To Sea and Winter Holiday avoid this completely; perhaps this is why they are often cited as many reader’s favourites?