The Secret Place

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, sexual violence, bullying, and gender discrimination.

French’s novels are rooted in Ireland’s culture, history, and politics, and many of her works explore the impact of societal changes on young people. By depicting the complex social hierarchies of adolescent girls in Ireland, the author delivers a multifaceted critique, examining the rigorous Catholic standards of decorum that govern the characters’ lives and fuel their need to rebel in various ways. However, the girls’ attempts to conform to the sober strictures of the school are further complicated by an entirely different set of standards that they must also appear to meet: their peers’ expectation that they will project a certain degree of sexual desirability for boys. As the members of Holly’s and Joanne’s groups strive to adhere to conflicting social rules, they experience deep stress, and their social groups begin to unravel. 

Although Irish society has rapidly modernized, it continues to remain bound to a certain extent by Catholicism’s rigorous strictures. Within the world of the novel, the girls who attend St. Kilda’s, a Catholic boarding school, are expected to comport themselves like young Christian women, valuing modesty and chastity and refraining from any sexual (or amorous) activities before marriage.