History Literature / StClares

* BrokenPedestal: Alison for Ms Quentin after she overhears her teacher talking about her and hears Ms Quentin describe her as akin to a little pet dog, and then learns that Ms Quentin doesn't think she has much acting talent at all and that the role she wanted is going to someone else.

** Elsie, Gladys and Mirabel from ''The Second Form At St Clare's''. Elsie was spiteful and thought she could boss everyone around- OK, fine. But Gladys was ignored because she was always miserable and very quiet, and nobody bothered to ask why, or they would have learned that she had an ''extremely'' good reason to be sad. A few times, someone asked her, but mostly they just ignored her, referring to her as "Misery-girl". Way to go there. Mirabel was initially written off by the others as 'spoiled' and 'peevish' because she outright stated that she didn't want to be there and wouldn't fit in. To be fair, Mirabel did her best to make life difficult for everyone in protest, but at no point did anyone try to see her side of things, or consider that being sent to boarding school for months without a say in the matter is by no means a minor issue- even the twins, who also got sent to St. Clare's without a say in the matter and ''should'' have been sympathetic.

%%* BritishAccents

%%* UsefulNotes/BritishWeather

* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Angela. Even the characters without outright LesYay for her and who recognise her shallow and often nasty nature think Angela's so beautiful she looks like a literal angel, especially her friend Alison (although she tones the open devotion down after a book or so).

* OneGenderSchool

* PushyParents: Felicity's parents pushes their daughter to take a very difficult Music Exam which she's too young to participate in. [[spoiler: This eventually leads to her breaking down and having to give up music for a year]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: Several cases. In ''The O'Sullivan Twins'', Pat's knitting is ruined and she believes that Margery is responsible. The entire form decides to refuse to cheer for Margery in the upcoming lacrosse game, even though she didn't do it and won the game for them.

* PoolScene: A midnight swim and picnic. And yes, if you've read ''Malory Towers'' many of the plots are shameless copies of the ones in there (or vice versa).*
* PushyParents: Felicity's with her music exams, [[spoiler: which eventually leads to her breaking down and having to give up music for a year]].
* RaisedByGrandparents

* RichBitch: Angela, Pauline.
* UsefulNotes/{{Romani}}: Carlotta.

* SchoolgirlLesbians: YMMV. AlternateCharacterInterpretation, especially where Alison's concerned.
* SchoolgirlSeries

* AlphaBitch: Angela.

* BigBrotherWorship: Eileen.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Prudence. [[PrecisionFStrike So effing much.]]

* {{Bookworm}}

* BrainlessBeauty: Angela and Alison.

* BritishAccents
* UsefulNotes/BritishWeather

* CircusBrat: Carlotta
* ClassClown: Doris
* ContrivedCoincidence: The entire series runs on these. If someone has a secret, it ''will'' get revealed. If someone needs comeuppance, they will get it. Nobody gets away with anything.

** Maribel denies Jane Teal a spot in the lacrosse team, treats her rudely and doesn't even care when the poor child becomes very ill. All of this because Maribel had vague (and unproven) suspicions that Jane had ruined her meeting for a prank.
* DrunkWithPower: Angela exploits her fifth-form privileges to have first-formers do chores for her, something which is discussed and disapproved of a lot by the other characters...

--> ...

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* EstablishingCharacterMoment

* FunnyForeigner: Several characters. Mam'zelle, the French mistress; Claudine, her niece, who comes to the school in ''Claudine at St Clare's''; Sadie, the American girl, and to some degree, Carlotta, who has ambiguously [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} "gypsy"]] or Spanish background and knew another language, all in ways so stereotypical as to be borderline racist.
** Averted slightly with Claudine, though -- she gradually drops the accent and has her English improve during her time at the school (unlike Mam'zelle), and on first meeting her the girls are surprised to hear her using Americanisms ("that is very okay").
* GoodIsNotDumb: Pat, Isabel and Hilary, for a start.
* GreenEyedMonster: Jane Teal and Violet Hill have serious romantic rivalry over Angela. Angela in turn gets jealous of their affections for Mirabel.
** Alison and Anne Mary spend the complete year fighting for Miss Wilcox's attention.

* HeroWorshipper: Many younger girls (first and second form) towards older girls (fifth and sixth forms) and some students towards some teachers.
* HotForTeacher: Alison for Miss Quentin, and later Alison and Anne-Marie for Miss Willcox.
* HugeSchoolgirl: Mirabel and Margery.

* InnocentCrush: Forties interpretation of the oodles of subtext.
* IrritationIsTheSincerestFormOfFlattery: Alision with first Miss Quentin and then Miss Willcox, and Anne-Marie for Miss Willcox as well. They get mocked by the other girls and called "Deirdre-fans" (after Miss Willcox's first name [[spoiler: although it's actually the far less exotic Doris]] due to the fact they start dressing like her and imitating her (rather unusual) voice and mannerisms.
* MakeWayForThePrincess: Angela

* NewTransferStudent: At least one every book.
* NonIndicativeName: ''Claudine at St. Clare's'' is oddly named after one of the new students although she doesn't have a larger role than any of the others. ''The O'Sullivan Twins'' to a lesser extent too, since Pat and Isabel's roles are much smaller than in the first book (where this trope was averted).
* NonuniformUniform: A school-allowed variant; the summer tunic can be made in any colour a girl chooses. Subtle differences in the quality of the cloth or how "well-made" a girl's clothes are also often pointed out as indicators of social status.

* SpicyLatina: Carlotta
* SpoiledBrat: ''Angela.''
* SternTeacher
* [[TeachersPet Teacher's Pet]]: Most teachers disapprove of this sort of behaviour, but Miss Willcox and Miss Quentin actively encourage it for Alison and Anne-Marie, and Mam'zelle certainly has a soft spot for her niece Claudine.

* TheDitz: Sadie.
* TheFashionista: Sadie during her short stay at the school. Angela during her entire time at it. Alison attempts this but has less success as she's not as rich as either of them.
* TheQuietOne: Daphne.
* ThunderEqualsDownpour

* WeatherReportNarration: On occasion.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Margery.
* WhenItRainsItPours
* WritingLines

* BrainlessBeauty: Angela.

* BigBrotherWorship: Ellen.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: There's usually at least one in each book. They come with a big helping of UnfortunateImplications, because quite often it's someone who's quiet, reserved, or who doesn't want to hang out with everyone else. It's not always a new kid, often it's someone who gets held back from moving onto the next form. Some examples:

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Many of the characters. Lucy and Margery, Alison and Sadie (until SpoiledSweet Sadie returns to {{Eagleland}}), Alison and Angela, Mirabel and Gladys, Bobby and Janet, Hilary and Carlotta, Doris and Pam... the list goes on.

* SpoiledSweet: Sadie has a bit of this, although she's more TheDitz.

* ConvictionByContradiction: Anne-Marie gets mad at Ms Wilcox because she thinks she's a genius poet and Ms Wilcox refuses to recognise that (in reality, she's just a shitty poet). She comes up with a test to see if Ms Wilcox is capable of recognising good poetry, which consists of her submitting a poem by a famous poet (Matthew Arnold) for an assignment and seeing what Ms Wilcox says about it. Ms Wilcox calls the poem rubbish and insults it, so Anne-Marie declares that ''obviously'', Ms Wilcox has no idea what good poetry is. Because there's no way that Ms Wilcox hadn't read and memorised every poem by Arnold. And it's not possible that maybe she read a few of Arnold's poems, decided she didn't like them and didn't bother with the rest. And of course she couldn't have genuinely thought the poem was bad, because of course teachers have to agree that every poem is good and every poet is a genius. But ''nobody'' points any of this out.
* DemotedToExtra: Pat and Isobel's roles gets increasingly smaller as the series progress, the focus often emphasized more on the newer students that were introduced in the book.

** Maribel denies Jane Tale a spot in the lacross team, treats her rudely and doesn't even care when the poor child ends very ill. All of this because Maribel had vague (and unproven) suspicions that Jane had ruined her meeting for a prank.

** Elsie, Gladys and Mirabel from ''The Second Form At St Clare's''. Elsie was spiteful and thought she could boss everyone around- OK, fine. But Gladys was ignored because she was always miserable and very quiet, and nobody bothered to ask why, or they would have learned that she had an ''extremely'' good reason to be sad. Way to go there. Mirabel was initially written off by the others as 'spoiled' and 'peevish' because she outright stated that she didn't want to be there and wouldn't fit in. To be fair, Mirabel did her best to make life difficult for everyone in protest, but at no point did anyone try to see her side of things, or consider that being sent to boarding school for months without a say in the matter is by no means a minor issue- even the twins, who also got sent to St. Clare's without a say in the matter and ''should'' have been sympathetic.

* HugeSchoolgirl: Mirabel.

* BritishWeather

* ConvictionByContradiction: Anne-Marie gets mad at Ms Wilcox because she thinks she's a genius poet and Ms Wilcox refuses to recognise that (in reality, she's just a shitty poet). She comes up with a test to see if Ms Wilcox is capable of recognising good poetry, which consists of her submitting a poem by a famous poet (Matthew Arnold) for an assignment and seeing what Ms Wilcox says about it. Ms Wilcox calls the poem rubbish and insults it, so Anne-Marie decides that ''obviously'', Ms Wilcox has no idea what good poetry is. Because there's no way that Ms Wilcox couldn't have read and memorised every poem by Arnold. And it's not possible that maybe she read a few of Arnold's poems, decided she didn't like them and didn't bother with the rest. And of course she couldn't have genuinely thought the poem was bad, because of course teachers have to agree that every poet is a genius. But ''nobody'' points any of this out.

** Elsie, Gladys and Mirabel from ''The Second Form At St Clare's''. Elsie was spiteful and thought she could boss everyone around- OK, fine. But Gladys was ignored because she was always miserable and very quiet, and nobody bothered to ask why, or they would have learned that she had an ''extremely'' good reason to be sad. Way to go there. Mirabel was initially written off by the others as 'spoiled' and 'peevish' because she outright stated that she didn't want to be there and wouldn't fit in. To be fair, Mirabel did her best to make life difficult for everyone in protest, but at no point did anyone try to see her side of things, or consider that being sent to boarding school for months without a say in the matter is by no means a minor issue.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Many of the characters. Lucy and Margery, Alison and Sadie (until SpoiledSweet Sadie returns to {{Eagleland}}), Alison and Angela, Mirabel and Gladys, Bobby and Janet, Hilary and Carlotta, Doris and Pam...the list goes on.

* ConvictionByContradiction: Anne-Marie gets mad at Ms Wilcox because she thinks she's a genius poet and Ms Wilcox refuses to recognise that (in reality, she's just a shitty poet). She comes up with a test to see if Ms Wilcox is capable of recognising good poetry, which consists of her submitting a poem by a famous poet (Matthew Arnold) for an assignment and seeing what Ms Wilcox says about it. Ms Wilcox calls the poem rubbish and insults it, so Anne-Marie decides that ''obviously'', Ms Wilcox has no idea what good poetry is. Because there's no way that Ms Wilcox couldn't have read and memorised every poem by Arnold. And it's not possible that maybe she read a few of Arnold's poems, decided she didn't like them and didn't bother with the rest. Or maybe she genuinely thought the poem was bad, because of course teachers have to agree that every poet is a genius. But ''nobody'' points any of this out.

* DrunkWithPower: Angela exploits her fifth-form privileges to have first-formers do chores for her, something which is discussed and disapproved of a lot by the other characters..

* Non-IndicativeName: ''Claudine at St. Clare's'' is oddly named after one of the new students although she doesn't have a larger role than any of the others. ''The O'Sullivan Twins'' to a lesser extent too, since Pat and Isabel's roles are much smaller than in the first book (where this trope was averted).

* AesopAmnesia: Basically every girl who has a major role in more than one book. Angela learns to not be such an AlphaBitch in ''Claudine'', but is right back to her old behaviour in ''Fifth Formers''. Alison, though she does become more assertive and less air-headed overall, never stops idolizing more glamorous girls. Mirabel learns not to be so gruff and antagonistic in ''Second Form'', but then pushes everyone around in her role as games captain in ''Fifth Formers''.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The second through fourth book each have a different antagonist girl who is nasty and spiteful and tries to make life hell for other pupils: Erica in the second, Prudence in the third and Elsie in the fourth. In the fifth, Angela fulfills that role, but since she's more just arrogant and bitchy than an outright evil schemer, she doesn't have to leave at the end of the term and stays on for the next book.

* UnequalPairing: Angela and the many, many first-formers that idolize her.

* ChasteTeens: Somewhat enforced, as they're in a [[OneGenderSchool single-sex]] upper-class British BoardingSchool.
** Almost leads to scandal when Angela learns that Ellen has been meeting with a boy outside the grounds, until Angela learns that he's actually Ellen's out-of-work brother.

The ''St Clare's'' novels are a series of six books by EnidBlyton following twins Pat and Isabel through the titular British BoardingSchool. A lot of the characters are very similar to those in the ''Literature/MaloryTowers'' series.

The original books were written from 1941 to 1945, but recently [[OutlivedItsCreator three additions to the series]] have been made by Pamela Cox - ''The Third Form at St Clare's'' and ''The Sixth Form at St Clare's'' in 2000, and ''Kitty at St. Clare's'' in 2007. However, they aren't particularly convincing as authentic portrayals of Forties life. The original books are as follows:
** ''The Twins at St Clare's''

** ''Summer Term at St Clare's''
** ''Second Form at St Clare's''
** ''Claudine at St Clare's''
** ''Fifth Formers at St Clare's''