Into the Wardrobe

A question was raised at our CSL Society meeting last night about Grace Ironwood in THS. What do we really know about her? She is the most anonymous character at St. Anne's. There seems to be some shameful circumstance connected with the way she came to be at St Anne's and she is not with the other women when they are trying on their robes.

It seemed to us that the best way to understand Grace was in her parallel relationship with Fairy Hardcastle. They both have those hard last names--Hard Castle/Iron Wood. They both seem to be masculine women. Stanley has mentioned elsewhere on the forum the contrast in the way that Lewis describes their seated positions. They seem to be in similar positions in relationship to their respective directors. Grace is a healer while Fairy enjoys inflicting pain.

WRT their first names, Grace's is, of course, obvious, I think Fairy bears some looking into. Lewis's idea of a fairy would not be a Tinkerbell type of creature, but being whose interests and agendas are just not the same as those of humans. They are tricky and frequently not to be trusted.

We were wondering if perhaps they were subject to the same temptations and if Grace's strength came from bringing those temptations to the cross (iron and wood being medieval references to the cross) and subduing them.

AMDG,
Janet

Fairy Hardcastle? Tall and thin? No, that'd be Grace Ironwood. "Miss Hardcastle", on the other hand: A body like Rosie O'Donnell, a face like Janet Reno, hair like Hillary Clinton's (but the color of John Kerry's), dressed in one of those "French Maid" outfits and some leather (including her black "Police Cap"), with a shrivelled long cheroot and garish make-up and one fat too-bare leg over the arm of the chair she is slumped in and looking down her nose at poor Mr. Studdock.

Like Jack said, at the same time "rankly sexed, but wholly unattractive". A big fat butch, in other words.

Eeeeeuuuuwwwww! I don't know if I should thank you for clarifying that!