68 pages • 2 hours read
Sally HepworthDarling Girls
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Jessica
Along with Norah and Alicia, Jessica is the oldest of the three foster sisters. She is with Miss Fairchild from the ages of 4 to 14. Initially introduced in the novel as “Australia’s leading expert on home organization” (5), the adult Jessica presents a façade of control and competence in her professional life. However, this exterior masks deep-seated anxiety and trauma stemming from her childhood with Miss Fairchild at Wild Meadows. Jessica’s behavior is marked by recurring panic and nagging anxiety that causes her reliance on Valium. She often steals pills from her clients, and this behavior contrasts sharply with her respectable public image.
Jessica’s relationship with Miss Fairchild is complex. As the first child to arrive at Wild Meadows, Jessica initially sees Miss Fairchild as a mother figure and is desperate for love and security after losing her own mother. Jessica’s desire for maternal affection makes her more susceptible to Miss Fairchild’s manipulation and abuse, and she harbors conflicted loyalties that persist into adulthood.
Throughout the novel, Jessica’s character develops toward confronting her past and overcoming her addiction. Her overdose serves as a turning point, forcing her to face her demons. By the end of the novel, Jessica gains the ability to confront Miss Fairchild without succumbing to manipulation, thereby demonstrating increased self-awareness and strength. Her pregnancy represents a new beginning and the potential to break the cycle of abuse.
Norah
The second foster sister to arrive at Wild Meadows, Norah is characterized by her resilience, her protective instincts, and her combative, violent streak. Her history of multiple foster placements has made her a survivor who is quick to adapt and fiercely protective of herself and her foster sisters. This pattern is evident in her confrontational attitude and her willingness to physically defend Jessica against bullies at school, and as an adult, she easily defends herself from aggressive men. Norah has a tendency to show aggression and violence, and she uses these urges as a means of control and self-protection.
Norah often uses sex transactionally, going on dates with men in exchange for food and favors, even though she has no intention to genuinely pursue these relationships. This behavior is linked to her childhood trauma from her experiences at Wild Meadows.
Throughout the novel, Norah’s character arc involves confronting her past and learning to form genuine connections. Her relationship with Ishir, the bartender, represents a departure from her usual pattern of using men, indicating the potential for growth and healthy relationships. Norah’s protective instincts toward her sisters remain constant, but she improves her ability to process her emotions and confront her past trauma. By the end of the novel, Norah demonstrates a capacity for a better, more stable future, as evidenced by her plans to move to Port Agatha to be with Ishir.
Alicia
The final sister to arrive at Wild Meadows, Alicia is characterized by her empathy and her ability to find joy even in difficult circumstances. Her career as a social worker reflects her desire to help others, particularly children, and she is heavily influenced by her own disastrous experiences in the foster care system. Alicia demonstrates signs of emotional suppression, for she rarely cries or shows strong emotion.
Alicia experiences evolving feelings about the important relationships in her life. Her interactions with foster children, particularly Aaron and Theo, demonstrate her nurturing personality and her desire to provide the care and stability that she lacked in her own childhood. However, her initial reluctance to pursue a romantic relationship with Meera stems from her belief that she is incapable of maintaining adult relationships.
Throughout the novel, Alicia must confront her past traumas and learn to open herself up to love and family. Her decision to adopt Aaron and Theo and to embrace a healthy relationship with Meera show her willingness to overcome her fears of intimacy and commitment. Alicia’s journey toward becoming a mother demonstrates her triumph over her own past history in the foster care system. By the end of the novel, Alicia demonstrates considerable resilience and growth.
Miss Fairchild
Miss Fairchild is the antagonist of Darling Girls. While initially presented as a seemingly caring foster mother to the young Jessica, Miss Fairchild’s true cruelty is gradually unveiled as more foster children enter her life and trigger her intense jealousy. In the retrospective chapters, she unpredictably swings between excessive sweetness and sudden, violent anger against the three sisters. This volatility is a key technique of her abuse, for she keeps the children in a constant state of anxiety. Her obsession with cleanliness and frugality, coupled with her strict rules and harsh punishments, shows her to be a controlling and manipulative individual.
Miss Fairchild’s relationship with the children, particularly Jessica, also reveals her narcissistic tendencies, as the novel explicitly states. She demands complete devotion and becomes jealous when the children bond with each other. Her capricious nature and inability to form genuine attachments also causes her to neglect and mistreat the parade of foster infants, whose care she foists onto the three teenage sisters. The arrival of Amy, the kidnapped toddler that she plans to adopt, further exposes her possessiveness and her desire to create a perfect family image, regardless of the emotional cost to the children in her care.
Throughout the novel, Miss Fairchild’s character becomes increasingly sinister as more of her past is revealed. In addition to mistreating children, she also demonstrates a profound ability to manipulate adults in positions of authority, such as the social workers who evaluate her behavior and the police who investigate her activities. The final revelation of her true identity and the extent of her crimes, which includes the murder of her half-sister Amy, completes the picture of a deeply disturbed person—a “monster,” as the sisters frequently call her. Miss Fairchild’s fabrication of a false narrative to gain a mental impairment defense in her trial demonstrates her ongoing manipulative behavior and lack of genuine remorse. This manipulation also affects the structure of the novel itself, as the first-person sections are initially portrayed as absolute truth and are only revealed to be unreliable at the end of the novel.
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