A Great and Terrible Beauty

1. A Great and Terrible Beauty • A Hero’s Journey • Novel by Libba Bray • Presentation by Sophie Zarb

2. Call to Action • The main character is Gemma Doyle (“Gem”), a 15-year-old girl living in Bombay, India (in 1895), with her mother, father, brother, and housekeeper. • Gem has wanted to go to England for schooling since she was a little girl but her mother, Virginia Doyle, won’t let her go. • After yet another argument about this, in the marketplace this time, Gem becomes angry with her mother. During their argument, two men approach them and tell Gem’s mother that “Circe is back” and that “she should be prepared”. Gem’s mother, shocked by this turn of events, gives Gem her crescent eye necklace for protection. Although Gem is baffled by this incident, she still decides to run home in anger, clutching the amulet. • After Gem has been running for a while, the younger of the two men catches up with her and attempts to talk to her. • She refuses to speak to him and runs away again, only to fall into some sort of a vision. In this vision, she can see her mother and the older of the two strange men going into a shop together in which shadows seem to grab onto them and never let go. The shadows then stab them and kill them. • Once she is out of her daze, she notices a crowd in the marketplace and goes to see what all the commotion is about. She is utterly shocked to see the very same older man and her own mother lying dead in the market place. • As a result of her mother’s death, Gem’s family decides to send her to boarding school in England.

3. Separation • Although Gem had initially wanted to go to school in England (primarily to get away from her mother), she now struggles with the idea of it because now she misses her dead mother and would have preferred to stay in India with her after all. She also now feels guilty about what had come between her mother and her. So, because her mother is now dead (which her family claims was the result of cholera), Gem does not have a choice. She must go to England. • Two months after her mother’s death, Gem’s brother, Tom, escorts Gem to Spence Academy, a British finishing school near London. • On the way, they pass by a poor village where a woman jumps in front of their carriage. She yells at them and then Gem has another vision. In this vision, Gem sees a little girl who brings her down a dark alleyway and says “Mary wants you to have this “, handing Gem a diary of a person named Mary Dowd. She then says that “Mary knows you”, pointing at Gem. Gem doesn’t know who Mary is and is about to ask what is going on when she wakes up from her vision. At this point, they are almost at their destination. • Upon her arrival at the boarding school, Gem is still confused as to why she is having these strange visions, who Mary is and what Mary wants with her.

4. Crossing the threshold • Upon her arrival at Spence, Gem is introduced to the world that she will live in while in England. After the headmistress, Mrs. Nightwing, gives Gem a tour of the school, the school housekeeper, Brigid, introduces Gem to her roommate, Ann Bradshaw. • Ann is an orphan who is attending Spence on a scholarship. Although Gem and Ann become good friends, Ann is often treated poorly by some of the other girls. On one occasion, she is tripped by another student (Martha) merely to gain popularity among the “in-crowd”. On another occasion, Ann is falsely accused of stealing one of the girl’s rings (Fee’s ring). • Two of these mean girls are Felicity (“Fee”) and Pippa (“Pip”). These two girls are the mean, wealthy and popular girls at the school. Gem immediately realizes that they are going to make her life difficult at Spence. • However, little does Gem know that Spence will not be the only new place that she will visit on this adventure... Ann Felicity (“Fee”) Pippa (“Pip”)

5. Initiation (tests, enemies & Allies) • One night, Fee, Pip, Cecily and Elizabeth (their two other friends) all tell Gem to go steal the communion wine from the church to initiate her into their group. Gem agrees to do it but still has doubts about how genuine Fee and the others are. • Once Gem is in the church, she becomes locked inside. Although Gem suspects that it was the girls who locked her in, she steals the communion wine anyway. When Gem discovers that it was the girls who played this trick on her, she comes up with a plan of her own for revenge. She plants the wine on Fee’s chair in the dining hall, making her look like the thief. • Although Fee is angry with Gem, she decides to forgive her, as the girls both realize that they now on equal terms. • The three girls then decide to establish their own magical order. They are inspired to do this by their art teacher who told them stories about a magical place called the “Realms”, the people who protected them (the original order) and about the magic hidden within the “Realms”. They agree to hold secret meetings in the hidden caves of the nearby forest. Gem agrees to join but only if Ann is allowed to join too. • Gem brings Mary Dowd’s diary with her to the first meeting and they all read from it. Through reading the diary, the girls learn that there is a connection between realistic “visions” and travelling to the “Realms”. Once Gem feels comfortable enough to share her secret with her friends about having visions, they immediately ask for her to take them to the “Realms”. Gem, however, does not know if she has the power to do this but tries anyway. The diary tells them to picture a door of light that would lead to the “Realms”. When Gem does this, the girls are able to travel to the “Realms”. • The “Realm” that they enter is amazing and gives each of the girls their greatest desire: Fee learns that she is powerful enough to be a huntress, Pip finds a handsome knight who loves her, Ann becomes a beautiful singer and Gem finds her mother. Gem’s mother tells them all about magic and the ancient runes and how dangerous they are. It is only later on that Gem finds out that her mother is the very same “Mary Dowd” and that her mother was involved in the death of a young girl. • These voyages into the “Realms” mark a huge turning point in the novel (close to the climax). All the girls are able to realize their desires and, most importantly, Gem now has the chance to be with her mother again and finally make things right between them. • Later, a problem arises when the girls take the magic out of the runes in the “Realms” and bring it into the real world...

6. Supreme Ordeal • After using the magical powers of the “Realms” (irresponsibly) for a while in the real world, Fee becomes more power hungry and demands that Gem take them back to the “Realms” so that they can get more magic to travel to different “Realms”. • When Gem refuses, the others are forced to find a sacrifice in order to get to the “Realms” on their own. It was Fee who told them that they needed a sacrifice as she learned this information from her hunting practice in the “Realms”. When Gem sees them desperately trying to catch a deer to sacrifice, she decides to help them after all. However, before she can tell them of her change of heart, Fee changes her own mind and decides to get a blood sacrifice from a random stranger instead (Kartik - a gypsy). • Once in the “Realms”, Gem immediately wants to go back home to the real world. Fee convinces the other girls that Gem only wants to leave because she wants to keep the power all to herself. Fee then says that the girls won’t leave until they have the power to do so on their own. • Fee then presents the blood sacrifice to the huntress (Fee’s hunting instructor in the “Realms”). The huntress approves but then transports them to a strange “Realm”. Gem’s mother is there and is trying to talk to Gem but then suddenly she turns into Circe’s monster. The monster flicks Pip away, down a hill into the river. Everyone except for Gem scatters immediately. • Gem alone must face this creature, as she is the only one brave enough to do so. At first, Gem tries to reason with it but then, after the monster also brutally pushes her down a hill, she discovers that the only way to destroy it is to literally kill it with kindness. Since the monster was hidden inside Gem’s mother’s body, Gem tries to be forgiving of her “mother”. She says that she loves her and that she is sorry that she ever upset her and that she forgives her for the incident with the young girl. The monster then dies as a result of Gem’s act of kindness. • The death of the monster (which seems to represent Gem’s own tormented relationship with her mother) allows Gem to finally feel guilt free and at peace with herself about that relationship and about her mother’s death. • Finally, Gem finds Pip dying by the river. Gem tries to help her but Pip asks not to return to the real world as she would prefer to only live in the “Realms” (with her knight in shining armour). Gem, Fee and Ann return alone...

7. Crossing the threshold • Gem returns to Spence with Fee and Ann, all of them vowing never to use this dark magic again. All the girls feel that they have learned something from their time in the “Realms”. Gem, in particular, is now more at peace with herself.

8. The Return home • In this novel, there is no traditional return home, as this is the first book in a trilogy and all of the girls’ adventures were secret to the rest of the world. • However, the story does end with the funeral of Gem’s friend Pip. Because Pip has chosen to live on in the “Realms”, she is declared dead in the real world. • And so, Gemma’s journey and adventures continue …