Characterization of Clara Tilling

The story is about a girl called Clara Tilling. Clara is fifteen and a half years old. She lives in London, England with her Mother. Her parents are divorced, and it don’t seem like Clara still have a lot of contact with her biologic dad. She goes to a private girl’s school located in London. Clara wears a blouse and a shirt in the story, probably her school uniform. The shirt is with a zipper, so she can undo the zipper fast and let the shirt fall to the ground in the beginning of the story. Her mom comment on her body saying: “…And it’s not as though she’s not got a nice shape” (p.5, ll. 12-13) and: “…spot of puppy fat still but that’s going, good hips” (p. 5, ll 13-14). Clara doesn’t have a boyfriend compared to many of the other girls at her school, but instead she has her friends Liz Raymond and Stephanie.

Inner characterization

Clara Tilling is a girl, that is very strong-willed. If she decides to do something, she will do it no matter the consequence, or if someone tries to stop her. She is firm but can also be a prude. Clara likes getting attention, but sometimes don’t know how to get it. Therefor she can do some crazy things, no one would never dream about doing - like walking totally naked in the school assembly. She definitely has some problems, she is struggling with, but she doesn’t say exactly what it is. You get the sense, that it has something to do with her mother and the attention she gets from her. The mother is focusing on her job and her boyfriend Stan, so she isn’t taking good care of Clara. Clara has to a lot of things herself and are home alone, when her mom is out of the house with Stan.