Nan Dear Character Analysis in Rainbow’s End

Nan Dear is the matriarch of the family at the center of the play. She is Gladys’s mother and Dolly’s grandmother, and she takes her duty of care to them seriously. Nan Dear is a bastion of tradition, teaching Dolly about her family history and aspects of their culture that she doesn’t learn at school. She has suffered under institutions of racism and ideologies of White supremacy, especially at the Aboriginal reserve in Cummeragunja, where Nan Dear was abused and her daughter Gladys was taken away from her. As such, Nan Dear has little faith that the world can improve, and she doesn’t understand Gladys and Dolly’s attempts to improve it. She especially fears for Dolly when Dolly begins a romantic relationship with Errol, a White boy with the same last name as a White man who raped Nan Dear years ago. Nan Dear works to separate Dolly and Errol, but at the end of the play she realizes that Errol is a considerate and respectful young man. When she finds out for certain that Errol is not related to her attacker, she gives him her blessing and encourages Dolly to marry him, demonstrating that even someone as traditional as Nan Dear can grow and change.

Nan Dear Quotes in Rainbow’s End

The Rainbow’s End quotes below are all either spoken by Nan Dear or refer to Nan Dear. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

GLADYS listens in rapt silence to the voice of Queen Elizabeth II on the radio. […] The radio fades out as NAN DEAR enters.

GLADYS: That valve…Where’s my white gloves?

NAN DEAR: Gloves? Don’t need white gloves to pick beans.

GLADYS doesn’t react.

You’re going into town then, for all that hullabaloo. Think of inviting me?

GLADYS: You? I know how you feel about royalty. Even if she is the ‘first reigning monarch to visit our shores.’

Related Characters: Gladys Banks (speaker), Nan Dear (speaker)

Related Symbols: The Color White

Page Number and Citation: 2

Explanation and Analysis:

NAN DEAR: What hessian?

GLADYS: The hessian they lined the road with. The hessian that I couldn’t get through and couldn’t even peek over.

DOLLY: What they do that for?

GLADYS: Stop the likes of her seeing our humpies.

NAN DEAR: Dolly, bring the wood in.

DOLLY sighs and exits.

GLADYS: If they’d given us better houses…But hessian! Like a band-aid over a sore–– […] Oh Mum, doesn’t it bother you?

NAN DEAR: What good is it if I get het up? My job is to get food on the table––

GLADYS: But decent housing, Mum––

NAN DEAR: Gladys, get off your high horse. Least here we do things our way––no one’s breathin’ down our necks. Not like those last days at Cummeragunja.

Related Characters: Nan Dear (speaker), Gladys Banks (speaker), Dolly Banks (speaker)

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 5-6

Explanation and Analysis:

NAN DEAR: […] You put ideas into that girl’s head.

GLADYS: She needs to know the world is bigger than just this.

NAN DEAR: She doesn’t need to know any more than she does.

Beat. She is holding up a rabbit.

I’m taking this over to Ester’s. Seems they’re in a bit of a spot. She’s with child again…

GLADYS: Oh, I didn’t know––

NAN DEAR: …and she woke up with an [mimicking BOB DYER] ocular contusion…from that whitefella husband of hers.

GLADYS: I hadn’t heard.

NAN DEAR: If you spent less time on them quiz shows, you’d know more.

GLADYS: Yes, Mum.

Related Characters: Nan Dear (speaker), Gladys Banks (speaker), Dolly Banks, Ester

Page Number and Citation: 10

Explanation and Analysis:

DOLLY is rummaging at the town tip. […] The lights change to a dream sequence. A well-groomed SALESMAN appears.

SALESMAN: [poshly] May I be of assistance, miss?

DOLLY: [poshly] Why yars, I’m after new linoleum.

SALEMAN: We have a wide selection.

DOLLY: This pattern.

SALEMAN: Exquisite! Thank you for shopping at Daish’s once more.

The lights change back to reality.

DOLLY hoists the lino roll over her shoulder as the SALESMAN fades away.

Related Characters: Dolly Banks (speaker), Gladys Banks, Nan Dear

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 18

Explanation and Analysis:

DOLLY walks past the cork trees. She sees someone in the shadows.

COUSIN: [offstage, slurring] Hey, Delores. You look real pretty today. […] Why don’t yah join us? […]

DOLLY: Nah, I’m busy.

[…]

As DOLLY staggers along NAN appears, going in the opposite direction.

NAN DEAR: […] [Suspiciously] Which way did you come? […] If I catch you going past those cork trees––

[…]

DOLLY: Nan, […] them goomees are harmless.

NAN DEAR: What did you call them? Shame! They might be drinkers, but they’re still our people. […] Show some respect, girl. They’ve had it hard, those lads.

DOLLY: How, Nan?

NAN DEAR: Never mind. They just have.

Related Characters: Dolly Banks (speaker), Leon (Cousin) (speaker), Nan Dear (speaker)

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 18-19

Explanation and Analysis:

ERROL: Why do you live out here?

DOLLY: Where else would we live?

ERROL: In town?

DOLLY: Nan likes to be near all the other families. And Mum does too but––

ERROL: The other families…?

DOLLY: You ask a lot of questions. Can’t you find the answers in there?

She points to the encyclopedia.

Related Characters: Errol Fisher (speaker), Dolly Banks (speaker), Nan Dear, Gladys Banks

Page Number and Citation: 27

Explanation and Analysis:

RENT COLLECTOR: Your arrangements will need to be re-evaluated, with the impending new arrival. […]

NAN DEAR: That’s not of your concern.

She gets the eggs out of the basket.

RENT COLLECTOR: It is very much of my concern. Everything to do with the habitation of the establishment is my concern.

NAN DEAR: This is Aboriginal Housing… [under her breath] not your own private kingdom.

[…]

RENT COLLECTOR: Given your obvious flouting of the rules, I think––

NAN DEAR: I don’t care what you think! You and your visiting hours. Your rules. No singalongs after dark. Your spying. You, mister, can go to blazes! I’ll give you ‘one’…

She raises an egg as he turns.

Two…Oh hell, three.

He runs. NAN DEAR chucks the eggs, one after the other, at his departing form.

Related Characters: Nan Dear (speaker), Mr. Coody (speaker), Dolly Banks, Gladys Banks

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 67

Explanation and Analysis:

INSPECTOR: Well, I don’t know how you do it. Your whites are so white! With river water, no less!

GLADYS: Just boiled up in a kero tin, with Velvet soap and a blue bag, same as everyone.

INSPECTOR: Yes…As a result of my report, things will change, Mrs. Banks. Things must change. The sanitation arrangements for one. […] And you need interim housing to ease you into townships. Are you aware of the concept of assimilation, Mrs. Banks?

GLADYS isn’t sure how to respond, or even if a response is required.

GLADYS: Yes, but we––

But NAN DEAR elbows her.

INSPECTOR: The Aborigine needs to be absorbed into the community. But how can he be absorbed until he learns to live like us? I will recommend assimilation, in my report. It is a vexed issue, to be sure, but someone must take leadership. First, the housing problem must be fixed... […]

Related Characters: The Inspector (speaker), Gladys Banks (speaker), Nan Dear (speaker)

Related Symbols: Houses, The Color White

Page Number and Citation: 31-32

Explanation and Analysis:

GLADYS: They won’t take her. […] I think he was impressed at her schooling.

NAN DEAR: Maybe. And how clean it was?

GLADYS: Definitely. Oh, Mum…But I’d like to see that report of his––I’d like to know what he says about us.

NAN DEAR: [an outburst] And what bloody good would that do?! Daydreams!

Crankily, she thumps the radio to life.

GLADYS: [to herself] They’re not really daydreams…

Because she intends to make them come true.

Related Characters: Gladys Banks (speaker), Nan Dear (speaker), The Inspector , Dolly Banks

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 34

Explanation and Analysis:

GLADYS: They’ve got in mind Aboriginal housing. […] Sounds beaut, doesn’t it, this ‘new deal’? They say the houses’ll have running water…

The lights change for GLADYS’s dream sequence.

A tap appears from nowhere and from it flows blue jewels in an approximation of water. NAN DEAR’s words break in and bring the fantasy to an end as the lights change back to reality.

NAN DEAR: But Daish’s is the town tip. They already decided that in ’47.

GLADYS: He’s––we’re––going to have another go at it. I might even go on the committee.

NAN DEAR: You? Don’t ever get too clever, my girl.

GLADYS: Just a thought. […] I’ll get you comfy with the radio.

She fiddles with the radio.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: [voiceover] Ajax foaming cleaner. Because Ajax contains bleach, you’ll stop paying the elbow tax––

NAN DEAR: Honestly, they’re mad about whiteness.

Related Characters: Nan Dear (speaker), Gladys Banks (speaker), Dolly Banks

Related Symbols: Houses, The Color White

Page Number and Citation: 34-25

Explanation and Analysis:

DOLLY: What do you want from me, Mum? Do you want me to walk like them, talk like them, wear a twin-set like them? Pretend to be one of them?

GLADYS: Are you finished?

DOLLY: No. And yet we live like this…out here.

NAN DEAR: At least here we sink or swim on our own. Not like the Cummeragunja days, always at the mercy of the manager––

[…]

GLADYS: You ask me what I want. Well, I want what any mother, black, white or brindle, wants for her daughter. That’s all.

GLADYS stares at them defiantly, before she goes into the humpy.

DOLLY: Nan…why don’t we have a normal life?

NAN DEAR: This is normal––

DOLLY: Getting flooded all the time––

NAN DEAR: It’s just the way it is. That’s nature.

Related Characters: Dolly Banks (speaker), Gladys Banks (speaker), Nan Dear (speaker)

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 39

Explanation and Analysis:

DOLLY: It’s me that gets stones thrown at her when I walk down the street. It’s me that gets snide remarks.

GLADYS: You think I haven’t had my fair share? Or Nan? Even Papa Dear––not even he escapes it. Don’t think he doesn’t get put in his place.

Beat.

You have to learn not to let them shame you.

DOLLY: Have you, Mum? Have you learnt not to be shamed by them?

Beat.

I thought not. You’re always telling me to stick up for myself, but when do you, eh?

Related Characters: Gladys Banks (speaker), Dolly Banks (speaker), Papa Dear, Nan Dear

Page Number and Citation: 42

Explanation and Analysis:

ERROL: I want you to come away with me. […] To the city. We can get married. […] That’d have to be better than the river…

DOLLY: I’d have to leave the river… […] I’d have to leave my family.

ERROL: Well, we could catch the train up once or twice a year. […]

DOLLY: You want me to leave here, for ever?

ERROL: I’m offering you a better life.

DOLLY: A better life?

[…]

ERROL: The point is, you could live in a real home, for the first time. […] We could even save for wall-to-wall carpet…I want to spoil you. You deserve it. You deserve better.

[…]

DOLLY: A real home is where there are people looking out for each other. […] This is my place. I’m staying right here with my mum and my nan.

Related Characters: Errol Fisher (speaker), Dolly Banks (speaker), Gladys Banks, Nan Dear, The Inspector

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 52

Explanation and Analysis:

DOLLY: She wants me to go for that bank job.

NAN DEAR: You told her that’s silly?

DOLLY: Of course. How will I ever get a job now?

NAN DEAR just looks at her thoughtfully. […] She joins DOLLY and begins shelling peas into some newspaper […]. They work in companionable silence […].

Related Characters: Nan Dear (speaker), Dolly Banks (speaker), Gladys Banks, Leon (Cousin)

Page Number and Citation: 62

Explanation and Analysis:

DOLLY: You should be up there making the speech, Mum.

NAN DEAR: Gawd no, that’s men’s business.

DOLLY: Not always, Nan. What’s women’s business, anyway?

NAN DEAR: Family business, that’s what.

Related Characters: Dolly Banks (speaker), Nan Dear (speaker), Gladys Banks

Page Number and Citation: 74

Explanation and Analysis:

GLADYS: Your Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second. We demand suitable housing for the Aboriginal people. [To herself] Yes, we got Rumbalara. And I’ll be the first to admit, the idea sounded good. But––have you seen it? Concrete. No doors inside––so, we don’t need privacy, not like regular folk, is that it? We want decent houses. Mrs Windsor, would you live at Rumbalara? Then why is it good enough for us? Why do we have to prove we can live like whitefellas, before we get the same opportunities? And, to boot, we’re watched over like a bunch of cheeky kids…We’re second-class citizens in our own country. No, we’re not even citizens. Heavens, and this is the fifties! We demand the right to control our own destiny. […] ‘We, the undersigned, demand to be the equal of anyone. And we will fight for that right. And keep fighting.’

Related Characters: Gladys Banks (speaker), Papa Dear, Dolly Banks, Nan Dear

Related Symbols: Houses

Page Number and Citation: 74

Explanation and Analysis:

Nan Dear Character Timeline in Rainbow’s End

The timeline below shows where the character Nan Dear appears in Rainbow’s End. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

In 1950s Australia, Nan Dear and Gladys rebuild their humpy (another word for a bush hut) after a flood. Gladys... (full context)

...to travel to town to see Queen Elizabeth, the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. Nan Dear dislikes the monarchy and pokes fun at Gladys for being a “loyal subject.” (full context)

Fantasy, Imagination, and Dreams Theme Icon

Dolly asks for help on a family tree she is making for school. Nan Dear is bewildered that Dolly is only supposed to list direct relatives and exclude her cousins.... (full context)

Gladys returns home after the Queen’s visit, exhausted. She explains to Nan Dear and Dolly that her taxi never arrived, leaving her to walk along the road hoping... (full context)

Gladys complains about the state of their housing, but Nan Dear insists that life is better than it was in the last days at Cummeragunja by... (full context)

Nan Dear asks Dolly about a boy she was talking to. Dolly frustratedly explains that she won’t... (full context)

Nan Dear leaves to tend to a neighbor, Ester, who is pregnant and injured after an altercation... (full context)

Nan Dear enters and is skeptical of Errol and his encyclopedias. She asks what the books say... (full context)

...helps him retrieve his bicycle from some local little boys, then returns to her family. Nan Dear advises Dolly to be careful what kind of men she spends time with. Gladys considers... (full context)

...invites her to a party. She turns him down and continues to the humpy, where Nan Dear scolds her for taking an unsafe route home. She scolds her further when Dolly refers... (full context)

Dolly sets the table as Gladys serves dinner. Nan Dear complains that they haven’t set a place for Papa Dear. Dolly and Gladys point out... (full context)

Dolly tells Gladys and Nan Dear about a job as a cashier that she hopes to get, but Nan Dear dismisses... (full context)

...humpy, and he asks why the family lives in The Flats. As Dolly replies that Nan Dear and Gladys like to live among their community, Gladys steps outside and gestures encouragingly to... (full context)

...surveys the living conditions in the humpy, making strained conversation with an anxious Gladys and Nan Dear . He is a representative of the government of Victoria, making a report on how... (full context)

...means “end of the rainbow.” Meanwhile, Dolly gets dressed for her date with Errol, and Nan Dear and Gladys are astonished at how beautiful she looks. When Nan Dear learns that Dolly... (full context)

Dolly returns from school to find Nan Dear doing the laundry. Dolly reports that Ester’s sons were not at school, and that everyone... (full context)

Dolly asks Nan Dear why they can’t have “a normal life,” to which Nan Dear responds that their life... (full context)

...“not to let them shame you.” Dolly counters that Gladys should take her own advice. Nan Dear enters, and Gladys asserts to her that Gladys is Dolly’s mother, and she wants Errol... (full context)

At the humpy, Gladys thinks happily of how much fun Dolly must be having. However, Nan Dear senses that something is wrong. (full context)

Nan Dear and Gladys pack up the humpy, preparing to evacuate for a flood. They worry about... (full context)

...wear the dress she wore to the ball, which is now badly torn and muddied. Nan Dear and Gladys clean up the wreckage, and Gladys finds that all her encyclopedias are ruined.... (full context)

Errol arrives to apologize to Dolly, but Nan Dear and Gladys violently drive him away, assuming that he is the one who assaulted Dolly.... (full context)

...family’s humpy, and they move into a sterile, small, and unwelcoming concrete house at Rumbalara. Nan Dear develops a cough, but she promises to make curtains for the new house. (full context)

Nan Dear pays the rent to the rent collector Mr. Coody and helps Dolly prepare a meal.... (full context)

Gladys asks Errol to teach her to read and write. She explains that Nan Dear attended school when the family lived at Cummeragunja, but the mission managers were cruel, and... (full context)

The rent collector Mr. Coody comes by for the rent and finds Nan Dear cooking eggs for a heavily pregnant Dolly. He notes that he will re-evaluate their lease... (full context)

Dolly and Nan Dear look at Dolly’s old family tree assignment, and Dolly shares that she plans to name... (full context)

Nan Dear , Gladys, and Dolly sit in the audience at the public meeting. With them is... (full context)

Errol arrives and sits with the women. Gladys pulls Nan Dear away to go find Papa Dear. Errol is startled to see Regina, and he finally... (full context)

Nan Dear returns, feeling ill, and Dolly hurries off to get her medicine. Errol offers to drive... (full context)

In a fantasy sequence, Nan Dear imagines Dolly and Errol, with Regina between them, getting married. She returns to reality and... (full context)

Rainbow’s End

Nan Dear Character Analysis

Nan Dear Quotes in Rainbow’s End

Act 1, Scene 1 (A) Quotes

Act 1, Scene 1 (B) Quotes

Act 1, Scene 2 (A) Quotes

Act 1, Scene 3 Quotes

Act 1, Scene 5 Quotes

Act 1, Scene 6 Quotes

Act 1, Scene 7 Quotes

Act 1, Scene 8 Quotes

Act 1, Scene 9 Quotes

Act 1, Scene 13 Quotes

Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

Act 2, Scene 7 Quotes

Nan Dear Character Timeline in Rainbow’s End