school teachers in literature

[cacian]

Looking for examples of famous or infamous schoolteachers or ''maitresses'' in literature and books.
The closest I got to is
Jane Eyre
any others?
Thank you!!

[blithesky]

And then there were none
The Catcher in the Rye

[kasie]

Villette - Charlotte Bronte
Tom Brown's Schooldays - Hughes
Nicholas Nickleby - Dickens
Goodbye Mr Chips (sorry, can't remember the author)
Tha Browning Version - Rattigan

[Charles Darnay]

Teachers are often negatively portrayed in Dickens.

Mr. Gradgrind - Hard Times
Mr. Squeers - Nicholas Nickleby
Mr. Sharp - David Copperfield

Then there is father Dolan in Joyce's Portrait

And don't forget about Roald Dahl's Matilda!

[rootinghog]

Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses
I haven't read much Dickens, but I imagine he has a whole mess of nasty teachers
...but Harry Potter has pretty much cornered this market.

[cacian]

And then there were none
The Catcher in the Rye

Do you mean the English teacher Mr Antolini?
what does ''catcher in the rye'' actually mean?

[Calidore]

Zenna Henderson's wonderful SF stories often feature teachers (she was one herself).

[PoeticPassions]

Do you mean the English teacher Mr Antolini?
what does ''catcher in the rye'' actually mean?

If you read the book you will be able to decipher the meaning or the symbolism of the title...

Since it is the end of the day, and I have no brain power or energy left to describe it myself, here is an excerpt from a source on the meaning of the title and the symbolism:

''Holden overhears a child/kid singing the Robert Burns song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye.” In Chapter 22, when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, he replies with his image, from the song, of a “catcher in the rye.” Holden imagines a field of rye perched high on a cliff, full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by “catching” them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. As Phoebe points out, Holden has misheard the lyric. He thinks the line is “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye,” but the actual lyric is “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.” '''

but in essence, Holden wants to save or catch the children before they fall from innocence... before they are tainted. This is an interesting theme that runs through the novel (the struggle against the loss of innocence and childhood).

[DarkAntigone]

Robert Langdon?

[cacian]

If you read the book you will be able to decipher the meaning or the symbolism of the title...

Since it is the end of the day, and I have no brain power or energy left to describe it myself, here is an excerpt from a source on the meaning of the title and the symbolism:

''Holden overhears a child/kid singing the Robert Burns song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye.” In Chapter 22, when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, he replies with his image, from the song, of a “catcher in the rye.” Holden imagines a field of rye perched high on a cliff, full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by “catching” them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. As Phoebe points out, Holden has misheard the lyric. He thinks the line is “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye,” but the actual lyric is “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.” '''

but in essence, Holden wants to save or catch the children before they fall from innocence... before they are tainted. This is an interesting theme that runs through the novel (the struggle against the loss of innocence and childhood).

Thank you for that PeoticPassion very much appreciated.


Robert Langdon?

Dan Brown/DaVinci of course who else!!

[Emil Miller]

And the most rascally of them all?
Captain Grimes in Decline and Fall.

[kelby_lake]

Jean Brodie- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

[IntravenousJava]

It's a bit of a stretch, but Addie Bundren had been a schoolmarm before marrying Anse in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. My favorite one to hate has already been cited: Wackford Squeers from Dicken's Nicholas Nickleby.

[Kafka's Crow]

...I loved it and still do. Just read her poems, Tom . . . “
“What?” I shouted, lifting out of my chair and moving angrily toward
Lowenstein. “Just read my sister’s poetry? I said I was a coach, Doctor,
not an orangutan. And you must have forgotten that other minor detail
in my pitiful curriculum vitae. I’m an English teacher, Lowenstein, a
wonderful English teacher with astonishing, outsized gifts for making
slack-jawed southern morons fall in love with the language they were
born to damage.

Tome Wingo in The Prince of Tides by Pat Conry

[mal4mac]

"Old School" by Tobias Wolff is about a remarkable school for children who are, potentially, gifted writers. The headmaster is a personal friend of Hemingway, and has actually published work himself! The other teachers are of a similar high calibre. You might think such a special school is about as likely to exist as Hogwarts, but, if you suspend disbelief, I defy you not to like this novel. I'm about half way through and I'm finding it totally riveting. The headmaster can call on some pretty special temporary teachers ... like Hemingway and Frost in person! The kids have to write a piece of work that will impress the famous guest lecturer, with the prize being a private audience with the master. Will our hero get to meet Hemingway?

But I have to agree about Wackford Squeers from Dicken's Nicholas Nickleby as my favourite portrait! Also check out "Our Mutual Friend", the teacher in that, Bradley Headstone, is even more evil & mad than Wackford Squeers. Another famous teacher in Dickens is Thomas Gradgrind in "Hard Times", famous for his pursuit of "facts, facts, facts" - considers poetry, fiction and other pursuits as "destructive nonsense".

[qimissung]

The Corn is Green

The Miracle Worker

Conrack

Up the Down Staircase

To Sir with Love

These are probably not really considered Literature with a capital L, but they are very good, nevertheless.