English Year 8 - Laurinda: Mrs Leslie

Mrs Leslie

Mrs Leslie becomes Lucy’s tangible link to the other side, to a future life outside of Stanley. The conversations Lucy has with Mrs Leslie expose her to a world of literature she has never known and enable her to develop her English skills. Mrs Leslie takes a shine to Lucy and genuinely wants her to do well, but there is an element of condescension toward Lucy, and of her becoming Mrs Leslie’s project. The invitation to Mrs Lam to come and cook for her friends as a way of teaching them a new skill is so absurd to Lucy she doesn’t even bother to share it with her mother. The invitation to Amber’s (Mrs Leslie's daughter) party seems like evidence this new school is creating the new life for Lucy her father had hoped for, but she is under no illusion that she is “a charity invite”.  As it dawns on Lucy that these girls are mirroring the life their mothers have lived, bitchiness and all, it becomes clear what it really means to be a Laurindan. Lucy realises that she is just like her father and had, until now, “believed that educated people were gentler and kinder than the uncouth and unlearned masses”.