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Miss Lucy

• Honest

Miss Lucy is a guardian at Hailsham school. Unlike the other guardians, she feels the students should not be protected from their future lives but should be told in a straightforward manner what the future has in store for them. She feels this is the best way they can prepare themselves for their roles as carers and then donors.

Honest

How is Miss Lucy like this?

When Miss Lucy overhears two Hailsham students talking about their job prospects, she feels she must step in and remind them in a straightforward and honest way what their future lives will be like.

Evidence

… You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided. So you’re not to talk that way anymore. You’ll be leaving Hailsham before long, and it’s not so far off, the day you’ll be preparing for your first donations. You need to remember that. If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you. (Miss Lucy to a group of Hailsham students)

Analysis

Here Miss Lucy is talking to the students in a brutally honest way about their futures. Unlike the other guardians at Hailsham, she feels it is better that the students are fully aware of what their futures will be like and she sees no point in trying to hide the truth behind less obvious words. Her straight talking gets her into trouble and she later abruptly leaves Hailsham.

Miss Emily

• Protective.

Miss Emily is the head guardian at Hailsham. Although Kathy and the other students do not realise it at the time, the way they are educated at Hailsham is designed to prove to the rest of society that clones can display the same characteristics as humans and can therefore appreciate art, be creative and have souls.

Protective

How is Miss Emily like this?

Miss Emily wants the students to enjoy their schooling at Hailsham and so she is careful about the information they are given about their future lives as carers and donors.

Evidence

… You see, we were able to give you something, something which even now no one will ever take from you, and we were able to do that principally by sheltering you. Hailsham would not have been Hailsham if we hadn’t. Very well, sometimes that meant we kept things from you, lied to you. Yes, in many ways we fooled you. I suppose you could even call it that. But we sheltered you during those years, and we gave you your childhoods. (Miss Emily to Kathy and Tommy)

Analysis

Miss Emily insists that the best way for the students to experience their childhood is to deny them the truth about their future. She feels that in this way, Hailsham was able to give the clones a school experience similar to the one given to ordinary humans. However, it could also be argued that the students would have been better prepared had they known the truth from the start.

Madame

• Reserved and lacking in warmth.

Madame visits Hailsham School several times a year to remove the best pieces of art work produced by the students. It is not until later that the reader discovers her gallery was part of an experiment that was meant to convince society the clones were capable of behaving like their human counterparts. The students at Hailsham are in awe of Madame and also feel that she does not like them.

Reserved and lacking in warmth

How is Madame like this?

The students sense that Madame does not like them. They feel that she is stern and strict and that she dislikes the time she spends at Hailsham school. However when Kathy mentions this to Miss Emily at the end of the novel, Miss Emily denies this.

Evidence

Marie-Claude has given everything for you. She has worked and worked and worked. Make no mistake about it, my child, Marie-Claude is on your side. Is she afraid of you? We’re all afraid of you. (Miss Emily to Kathy and Tommy)

Analysis

This suggests that Kathy and the other students were right when they felt that Madame felt no warmth towards them. But what they hadn’t fully appreciated was that Madame was working towards securing a better life for the clones in spite of her feelings of discomfort. Miss Emily is also forced to admit that there were times when all of the guardians were afraid of the clones. Perhaps this was because the clones were a scientific experiment who had been created to save human beings. They did so with acceptance and without rebelling but there was always uncertainty as to what would happen if they did indeed choose to rebel.