The Secret of Hanging Rock
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The Secret of Hanging Rock is a previously unpublished chapter of Joan Lindsay's 1967 book Picnic at Hanging Rock and contains the "solution" to the mystery in that book. It was originally written as the final chapter, though it was removed before publication and not released until 1987, two years after Lindsay's death.
The missing material amounts to about twelve pages; the rest of The Secret at Hanging Rock is discussion by other authors, including John Taylor and Yvonne Rousseau [1]. It has been argued by many critics[who?] that much of the power of the original book stems from the suggestion that it was a true story, and the fact that the mystery in the book was never resolved, and therefore it was a good decision by the author to remove this material.
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[edit] Plot summary
While exploring Hanging Rock on a picnic trip, the girls experience several incomprehensible phenomena. They feel compelled to climb up the rocks by some supernatural force of the monolith. All four girls swoon at the base of the monolith. Upon awakening, Edith flees to the picnic grounds in hysterics when the others proceed higher despite her cries to stop. Miss McCraw, who has left the picnic unnoticed, suddenly appears climbing the rocks in her underwear shouting, "Through," then faints. The girls remove her corset to aid her recovery and decide to remove their own. They throw their corsets over the cliff, however, revived Miss McCraw points out that the corsets hang in space and that time has stopped as there are no shadows. The girls and Miss McCraw seem not to know each other, though Miss McCraw claims she can now see into the girls to judge their character and intelligence. The girls and Miss McCraw notice a mystical "hole in space" that comes and goes. Miss McCraw suggests that they crawl into a crack one by one. Marion and Miranda follow, but while Irma awaits her turn, a balancing rock slowly falls over the crack blocking further entry. Irma claws at the fallen rock.
[edit] Symbolism and meaning
Many readers interpret this to mean that the girls have fallen into a time warp. This is compatible with Lindsay's fascination with clocks and time throughout Picnic at Hanging Rock. It also ties in with the tension between Aboriginal and British Australia that is clear throughout the book. The girls somehow succumbed to a magical, yet natural Australia, and were forever lost to their schoolmates.
[edit] Sources
- Joan Lindsay (1987). The Secret of Hanging Rock. HarperCollins Publishers (Australia). ISBN 020715550X.
