Close Reading Kathleen

In the movie, Kathleen, a girl named Kathleen lives in a large house. Her father is always out at work, and her mother is dead, so he hired a governess to take care of her. (Mrs. Feril) Kathleen dreads Mrs. Feril, and when she tells her father, he fires Mrs. Feril and hires a new governess. Mrs. Feril tells this to Kathleen, and Kathleen gets upset because she thinks the new woman will be just like Mrs. Feril. I chose to close read the relationship between Kathleen and the new governess, Matha.

Mrs. Feril has been Kathleen's governess for a long time. During all her time as the governess, Kathleen  finds that she is snoopy and untrustworthy. Mrs. Feril looks through Kathleen's room when Kathleen is out. Kathleen frequently finds Mrs. Feril looking through her things lying about it. Kathleen comes up with an idea to prove that Mrs. Feril doesn't mind her own business and looks through her things without permission. She finds a box and fills it with firecrackers. On the box she writes keep out, do not touch, private. Just like Kathleen hoped, Mrs. Feril opened the box. Later, she complained about Kathleen to Kathleen's father.

 When Kathleen hears someone new is coming to take care of her, she gets angry and kicks her dresser. When Martha comes in to meet her, she sees that Kathleen has a bruise on her foot. She helps put a band-aid around her toe. She doesn't ask any questions and doesn't say anything. Then, she introduces herself, and leaves the room. This causes Kathleen's first impression of Martha to be that she is caring, and minds her own business, unlike Mrs. Feril. Kathleen realizes that Martha is very different from Mrs. Feril, and decides to give her a chance to prove that she really is different from Mrs. Feril.

During Martha's time at the house, Kathleen asks if she can help unpack Martha's things. When she is helping unpack books, she finds Martha's initials on the inside of the front cover. The initials show that Martha is her middle name, and she has a first name starting with the letter A. She asks Martha what the A stands for. Martha decides to tell Kathleen her name, and says Angela. By telling Kathleen her first name, she proves that she is different from Mrs. Feril. Kathleen had to call Mrs. Feril Mrs. Feril. Martha lets her call her by her first name, and reveals a secret to Kathleen. By letting Kathleen call her Angela, she is showing she trusts Kathleen not to make fun of her or tease her.

By helping Kathleen with a bruise on her foot, and putting her trust in her and telling her her first name, she proves she is very different from Mrs. Feril. All Kathleen wanted was somebody she could talk to about her problems, and a good friend. Mrs. Feril was the opposite of what Kathleen needed and wanted. Mrs. Feril broke into Kathleen's room to steal things. She didn't treat Kathleen like she should have, instead she treated her like she was just a big waste of energy. Martha treats her like an equal. She tells her secrets, and gives her all of her attention. By doing that, she causes Kathleen to have an almost instant liking for her.