Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Picnic at Hanging Rock, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, Repression, and Colonialism
Mystery and the Unknown
Wealth and Class
Gossip and Scandal
Summary
Analysis
The group arrives at the picnic grounds at Hanging Rock. The grounds feature several manmade firepits and an outhouse in the shape of a Japanese pagoda. Together the girls lay out their picnic: a sprawling spread which features a cake in the shape of a heart. The group from the college is alone at the grounds but for a group of three or four people on the other side of the creek—Edith can see that they have a white Arab pony with them. She complains about the loneliness and solitude of the countryside and admits to being creeped out by the feeling that their group, out here, could be “the only living creatures in the whole world.” Edith pays no attention to the fact that the area around her is “teeming” with life.
After eating their meal, the girls wash their dishes in the creek and enjoy some leisure time lying about. Irma and Miranda watch Mademoiselle dozing and admire her beauty. Mr. Hussey comes over to remind Mademoiselle that they must leave by five in order to make it back to the college on time. Mademoiselle asks what time it is now, but Mr. Hussey answers that he'd come over to ask that very question of Mademoiselle—his own watch has “stopped dead at twelve o’clock.”
Mr. Hussey is puzzled by the fact that his watch has suddenly stopped. This strange development, combined with the dreamy, soporific nature of the picnic create and atmosphere of mystery and suggest a remove from the “real” world.
Themes
Mr. Hussey suggests they head out in an hour. The brain, studious Marion tells Mademoiselle that she wants to explore the base of the rock for a while to take some measurements, and Miranda and Irma say they want to go with her. Mademoiselle tells them to be careful and stay close. Edith asks to come along, and the other girls allow her to follow them. Mademoiselle does a quick head count of the girls around her—fifteen without the four who have gone on a walk—and, satisfied that they are all present, allows herself to doze off again.
Mademoiselle doesn’t see the harm in letting the girls wander off for a little while—after all, they’re seniors, and the area around the picnic grounds seems safe. Though Lindsay never explicitly says so, it’s possible (given what happens to the girls up on the rock) that the hazy, good feelings saturating the picnic grounds is the work of the rock itself luring the girls in.
Themes
The girls, meanwhile, follow the creek to the base of the rock, passing by the other group of picnickers—an older man in a toupee, a woman in a beautiful silk dress, a young man in riding breeches, and another youth in a coachman’s cap who is washing the group’s picnic dishes in the stream. The girls decide to cross the stream and bully Edith into leaping across in spite of her hesitation. As they hop across, the young man in the coachman’s hat whistles at them. They hurry past him toward the rock.
Joan Lindsay includes many stray observations and red herrings as she builds the mystery at the heart of the book. Introducing characters who watch the girls go up the rock—and even interact with them as they do—invests her readers in keeping tabs on all the details leading up to the mystery.
Themes
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The young man in breeches approaches the coachman and, addressing him as Albert, says he wishes he hadn’t whistled at the girls just now—young girls don’t like being whistled at. Albert says that “sheilas is all alike,” and asks if the girls might be from Appleyard College. Michael says that as he’s only been in Australia a few weeks, he couldn’t possibly know. Albert says he wishes he could’ve grown up somewhere nice like Appleyard College rather than the dank orphanage where he was raised. Albert’s speech is coarse as he reminisces, and Michael urges him not to curse loudly, lest his own aunt and uncle fire Albert for being uncouth. Albert apologizes to “the Honourable Michael Fitzhubert,” and Michael, embarrassed, urges Albert to call him “Mike.”
This passage introduces a new group of characters—the Fitzhuberts and their coachman Albert, who will come to be major players in the mystery as it unfolds over the course of the novel. Just as stratifications of wealth and class divide the world of Appleyard College, so too does this group of characters wrestle with their own social and cultural divisions.
Themes
Albert stands up to harness the horses for the journey back. Mike says he wants to take a walk to stretch his legs. Albert teases him about trying to catch another glimpse of the Appleyard girls—but as Mike nears the rock, he finds that the girls are out of sight already. He worries about them having decided to climb the rock—he knows it is treacherous for inexperienced climbers, especially young girls in fine dresses. Mike finds himself shocked that the girls are allowed to wander off alone in the first place, but then reminds himself that he is in Australia now—a place where “anything might happen.”
Mike, having recently arrived from England, finds Australia to be a place of infinite possibility—yet as the early chapters of the novel have shown, even in this uncharted place, the forces of colonialism and repression define daily life for the very girls Mike believes to be so independent and carefree.
Themes
