Tattycoram was a foundling - the family took her in. They patronised her somewhat- they had good intentions but there seems to have been a bit of self-indulgence there too. (Her former name is Harriet Beadle, the family give her the silly made up name in true slave fashion).Certainly her "serious anger-management problem" is not unexpected, considering the position she has been forced into by her circumstances, while "the strong-willed Miss Wade" is likewise pushing her own concept of Harriet's identity. I recently saw a BBC series on Little Dorritt, where Tattycoram was portrayed as a young black woman, based on her description in the novel as "a handsome girl with lustrous dark hair and eyes, and very neatly dressed." (McLean) She was portrayed as being more a foster child of the family, who nevertheless is treated demeaningly. On the one hand, the family implies that she is a member of the family, on the other hand, she is given a childish name, taught to control her anger by counting - like a child - and dressed in much simpler fashion than the women of the family. The family think they are doing her well by rescuing her from the home, but they are coercing her into a position over which she has no control, just as the First Nation children described by Cummins were sent to schools to "improve their lot."
Tattycoram had developed a serious anger-management problem... The strong-willed Miss Wade encourages Tattycoram and eventually entices her away. (While with Miss Wade, pointedly, she reclaims her original name) ... Tattycoram eventually repents and goes back to the family ... And when she returns - you guessed it - she takes the silly name again, and submits to a sermon from her former master on the importance of submission and duty.
(Sam R.)
Schools like the one Harriet Beadle attended in Dickens' time were still going strong in Ireland until the 1990's. According to an article in the Guardian, "More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families – a category that often included unmarried mothers – were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last facilities shut in the 1990s." (McDonald) These schools may have been called "Reformatories" but mostly demeaned the children with poor living and working conditions, as well as the sexual abuse reported in the article.
A similar story is told by the movie The Magdalen Sisters. (See Wikipedia - MS,) which demonstrates how the 3 protagonists negotiated their identities to survive.
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My mother,aunts and grand mother were taken off the streets of new york city in 1929 and placed in one of these places,my grandmother died there in 32, laid to rest in a unmarked grave in some potters field,my mother and aunts remained until they were 18 then left to live there lives,however after may talks with both my aunts and mother ive leanred these were not storybook or nice places,inmates were beaten,abused and often starved after being beaten by the nuns for some offense,be it stealing food or soiling ones self,the movies you list here was truly very ,much in line with what my family said and all of them died long before the movie came out,tragic events and terrible treatment from, the church'
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