Charlotte Sometimes

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Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer

Independent Negotiated Study Essay

“The plot of Charlotte Sometimes is clearly crafted and griping to read”

The plot of Charlotte Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer, is clearly crafted and gripping to read. The clever themes and believable characters help to make the plot work. The major themes in the book are family love, time travel and war. The story is about two girls, Charlotte Mary Makepeace, and Clare Mary Moby, who are living in 148 and 118. It was Charlottes first day at boarding school but the next morning she woke up to have swapped with Clare who is sleeping in the same bed forty years earlier, in the middle of the First World War. The book, written in 16, is told in three parts. The first is the beginning of Charlotte and Clare’s adventures, the second is the climax of the book and tells of when Charlotte is at Flintlock Lodge, and the third part of the book concludes when they come back to their right times.




The theme of time travel used in the book might not be realistic enough to work, but in this case it does because you forget they are traveling in time when they have so many other problems associated with it. To read this book you need to have an imaginative and open mind. The bed is described more as magic then time travel, but they are still traveling in time. In the end we never find out why the bed was magic only for Charlotte and Clare, but a lot of other things come clear.

War is used as a theme in the book. In both times there is a war going on. The war in 148 and the war in Clare’s time, 118, the First World War, are very different. For example the aircraft in 148 were very different to those in 118. “ When the aeroplanes came they blotted out all the other sounds. She thought how frightening this must have seemed to Clare at first. Whatever had she thought the enormous sounds could be? ….

But in 118 so far Charlotte had only heard one aeroplane… which had quiet excited Emily, who cried ‘A plane, a plane! Can you see it, Bunty? Can you see it,

Clare?’ ” (p)

Charlotte becomes very confused about what she is meant to be doing and where she is meant to be in her real time. It was Clare’s idea to make a diary so they knew what homework they are meant to do and how they are meant to be acting. This doesn’t always work though. For instance Charlotte didn’t know she was meant to be Susannah’s best friend and made Susannah upset. It is also difficult to tell one another of other little things, for example the rules in 118 are different to 148 and Charlotte didn’t know. “ ‘ But I thought,’ said Charlotte, ‘honestly, I thought the rules said….’ And then she remembered she had heard the rules in her own time, not here, and that they weren’t necessarily the same rules now.”

Charlotte finds it hard to hide her surprise and excitement at waking up in a new place and time. “The very next morning when she woke beside Emily again, Charlotte, pleased gave her a special smile of greeting; before being reminded by her look of surprise that as far as Emily was concerned she had been there all the time.” (p4) It is especially difficult, as she does not tell anyone in her own time what is going on. She has some comfort in the fact that Emily knows what is going on in Clare’s time. When Charlotte was stuck as Clare for a long time, Clare told Elizabeth what was happening. When Charlotte came back she was glad Clare had done this so she would have someone to confide in as well.

Charlotte gets very confused about who she is. She had almost emptied the thought out of her head that she was ever Charlotte and accepted the fact she was going to be Clare the rest of her life. While staying at Flintlock Lodge, she had a dream about changing into Aggie. The dream shows how confused and upset she really is about the things that are happening, although she tries to keep a brave front for Emily. “ ‘I’m not Aggie,’ she was crying, not knowing if aloud or in her head. ‘I’m not Aggie. Go away! I’m not her. I’m Clare, I’m Clare. No, I’m not. I’m Charlotte. I’m Charlotte, I’m Charlotte.’ She was screaming it at last, again and again. ‘I’m Charlotte’ ” (p17)



Clare and Emily have a very close relationship as sisters. They have the same type of relationship as Charlotte and Emma’s. When they are first writing to each other in their diary, Clare tells Charlotte to look after Emily. They are both very protective and worried about their sisters and miss them when they are in different times “I don’t think we should tell Emily. I don’t want to tell her because I think she might be frightened and not understand. Please, Charlotte, just go on acting as if you were me and not say anything and look after her.” (p40) As the book progresses, Charlotte and Emily act more like sisters and become good friends. It is still obvious though that Emily misses her sister and sometimes gets angry with Charlotte that she is there instead of Clare.

Apart from the obvious similarities in names, which are there to help us see the similarities in their relationships, they also have a lot in common. Clare and Charlotte are around the same age, as are Emily and Emma and evidently Charlotte and Clare have very similar personalities and appearances, because they are so alike no one releases they are different people. But there are differences; Clare is bossier, stern and more responsible then Charlotte. Also Clare is more religious “ ‘Janet and I are very puzzled. Why do you take such ages to say your prayers some nights before you go to bed, and others not at all?’”

Even thought Charlotte and Clare never knew each other and only spoke in the letters to each other they wrote through the diary, Charlotte felt very sad when she discovered out Clare had died. This was probably also because Clare died just a few days after she came out of 148 and it could have been Charlotte, if she had been there a few days longer. “On that bleak track, the sun almost gone again, tears were pouring down her face. She was crying and crying for a girl who had died more then forty years before, whom, in any normal world, to any normal way of thinking, she could not possibly have known; whom she had never seen, though she had lived as her. She was crying for herself, perhaps and for Emily.” (p178).



In conclusion the book was very well thought out and the plot well planed. It makes you think about time travel and other mysterious things. For example, the plot wouldn’t have worked if Clare hadn’t died before 148 when she swapped with Charlotte, because she couldn’t be living two lives at the same time.



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