History Literature / HettyFeather

* ChildrenAreInnocent: At one point Hetty comes across some girls in the shadier alleys of London, wearing make-up and provocative clothing, "seeming to be begging." Hetty fails to realise that they are most likely prostitutes, though she notes that she finds them more menacing than the rough boys who stole her boots.

%% * AbusiveParents: Sissy's alcoholic father.
%% * AlcoholicParent: Sissy's alcoholic father.

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Lil. [[spoiler: Miss Smith dedicates a book in her memory.]]

* OldFlameFizzle: Hetty loses the connection she had with her old foster siblings, Gideon and Martha, and by the age of ten considers Polly her dearest friend.

* SickEpisode: Chapter 13 which covers an influenza outbreak.

%% * CinderellaCircumstances: All girls at the hospital are destined for service

%% * UnfortunateName

* ReplacementGoldfish: Mr and Mrs McCartney adopt Polly to take the place of their dead daughter and even rename her Lucy.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mrs Briskett and Sarah.

* FieryRedhead: Hetty. Her temper gets her into trouble more than once.

* FieryRedhead: Hetty's flame red hair mirrors her flame red temper.

* ClosetPunishment: Hetty gets locked in the punishment attic by Matron Bottomly and Miss Morley for twenty-four hours.
* ElectiveMute: Gideon, after getting lost for hours after dark as a five-year-old, though he resumes speaking at the hospital.

* ImagineSpot: Called 'picturing,' this is Hetty's favourite pastime. She occasionally gets acrried away, being prone to flights of fancy.

* OldFlameFizzle: Hetty loses her connection with her old foster siblings, Gideon and Martha, and considers Polly her dearest friend.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Mr and Mrs McCartney adopt Polly to take the place of their daughter who died of the influenza and even rename her Lucy after her.

* SadistTeacher: Miss Morley, who seems to find it irritating when Hetty knows a question. When Polly innocently corrects her for making a mistake in arithmetic she shocks the class by striking her hand with a ruler for impertinence, something which none of the girls have experience before.

* FieryRedhead: Hetty. Her temper gets her into trouble more than once.

%% * CinderellaCircumstances: All girls at the Hospital are destined for service.

%% * SmallTownBoredom: What Hetty experiences after returning to the village.
%% ** Jem, Hetty and Bertie in 'Little Stars.'

* DarkerAndEdgier: Certainly deals with more morose topics than the previous books, such as sexual assault.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Between Jem and Hetty for the whole series. Although Jem does end up marrying Janet and Hetty ends up with Bertie, there are many instances which explain otherwise some sort of unresolved connection between them, such as Jem's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove right before his wedding to Hetty's hysterical reaction to his engagement and crying all the home from it:

* RecycledPremise: Takes heavy inspiration from ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables''. There is a red-headed hot-blooded orphan heroine with emotional baggage who longs for adventure. She wants to succeed academically. She has brooding brunette male love interest(s) with whom said heroine has BelligerentSexualTension.

* BrokenPedestal: When Hetty reunites with Madame Adeline after running away on Jubilee day, she realises her fantasy about Adeline being her mother was a childish fancy and that Madame Adeline is no longer the stellar young performer she once was. Hetty even comments she looks 'older' without her red wig and makeup.
%% * BrotherSisterTeam: [[MasculineGirlFeminineBoy Hetty and Gideon]], especially throughout the first part of the book, despite not being biological siblings.

%% * BrotherSisterTeam: Hetty and Gideon throughout the first part of the book in the Hospital.

* BigSisterInstinct: Hetty feels very protective over her foster brother Gideon.

%% * InsufferableGenius: Hetty, particularly as a child. By the 3rd book Hetty has mellowed in her precocious-ness.

* TheRunaway: Hetty first runs away age 10 during a hospital outing in Hyde Park to seek out Madame Adeline, who she has a childhood fantasy is really her mother. She runs away again to the circus 5 years later after realising she can't stay in the village.

* LoveTriangle: Between Janet, Jem and Hetty in ''Emerald Star''. Jem is torn between Hetty and Janet. Made even more painful when Hetty almost ''ruins'' Jem and Janet's wedding by cropping up, causing Jem to admit his undying love for her and her kissing him in ''Little Stars''.

* BettyAndVeronica: [[LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine Janet and Hetty]], of which Jem has to choose as Archie and is a big source of tension due to Hetty feeling guilty of the LoveDodecahedron she feels she has caused. [[spoiler: Janet wins out in the end as the GirlNextDoor.]]
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Hetty really wants to find and reunite with her parents. Even when Hetty finds her father she thinks he's single and childless, ready for a family but finds he's happily married with two children who ''aren't happy'' in ''Emerald Star''.

* WickedStepmother: Katherine to Hetty. Katherine is Hetty's stepmother and she is antagonistic towards Hetty; mostly because she is upset that her husband had a child out of wedlock and didn't tell her. Also, it is in response to how Hetty behaves towards her.
%% * VillainOfTheWeek: [[AlphaBitch Katherine]], who functions as Hetty's stepmother with which she does not get along with.

* BettyAndVeronica: [[LightAndDarkFeminie Janet and Hetty]], of which Jem has to choose as Archie. [[spoiler: Janet wins out in the end as the GirlNextDoor.]]

%% * BettyAndVeronica: Janet and Hetty in 'Emerald Star'.

%% * TheCityVsTheCountry

* VillainOfTheWeek: Mr Buchanan, an elderly author whom Hetty is eager to impress. In exchange for stamps to write to her mother, hetty transcribes his work. [[spoiler: Hetty ends up showing him her memoirs, of which he steals the plot for his own novel, culminating in a fight that unsurprisingly gets Hetty fired.]]

%% * SculleryMaid: Hetty goes into service at the beginning of ''Sapphire Battersea''.

%% * RedheadInGreen: Hetty on the cover.
%% * VillainOfTheWeek: Mr Buchanan.