Picnic At Hanging Rock: Character Analysis

Acting is a vital tool utilised to establish character used in ’Picnic at Hanging Rock’ to bring alive the divine, the norm and the traditional. In Sara’s case the combination of her timid and quiet tone, slow pace and her lack of hand gestures/ general movement, small presence and stiff posture aid to create a character that is quite average - a reserved yet eerie character. In comparison Miranda is described as a very different sort of person - she has a calming quiet voice that still demands attention, speaks with an advanced vocabulary and in a high pitched tone, with her movements, as graceful as her words and her concentrative facial expression, the combination helps to construct her as an intelligent, powerful and majestic character. …show more content…
Mise-en-scene is another effective way filmmakers have presented Miranda - freedom, Sara - the outcast, and Mrs Appleyard - the controller. We see in the female student’s costume the colour white and very constricting clothing such as corsets, reflecting the idealisation of purity and conservative views society places on their gender, although the two students Miranda and Sara wear the uniform very differently. Miranda choses to release herself from them psychically, showing the freeness of her character - her transformation from typical angelic beauty to something that is more naturally divine - while Sara’s uniform is adorned with dark articles of clothing, such as her apron like piece, highlighting the outcast, orphan and …show more content…
The relationship between Sara and Miranda is obsessive but loving, with Sara having a unhealthy co-dependance on Miranda. Sara’s loving looks thrown to Miranda, how she adoringly listens to Miranda’s words like gospel, and how dedicates the majority of her time to Miranda. The same sentiment is shown as Sara builds a shrine to Miranda with her pictures and belongings, and writes a poem for her on valentines day. Sara and Mrs Appleyard have quiet the opposite relationship though filled with a more undoubtably obvious conflict of character - between a stern authority figure and her kindling rebellious student. In a scene, Sara is made to remember and recite poetry by Mrs Appleyard but fails to do so correctly refusing to do as her principal has said - facing Mrs Appleyard with calculated words with forced effort, her back straight, and not making any eye contact with the offending poetry book. Mrs Appleyard responds in her stern voice commanding Sara trying to reestablish control, yet gaining it wholly. Making Sara a psychical representation and scapegoat of Mrs Appleyard’s withering control over events and her students, for example them students/teachers leaving. Mrs Appleyard and Miranda’s relationship though may be the strangest of them all as they never have any direct interactions - but their clash of beliefs and