In the 2011 film adaptation of Jane Eyre, Scottish actress Sandy McDade plays Miss Scatcherd, a minor villain in the form of an unexplainably cruel teacher of Jane Eyre’s at the Lowood School. She shows a special hatred for Jane and her closest friend Helen Burns, and is used to establish a root of emotional trauma in Jane for the sake of the major characters backstory. Scatcherd is shown twice in the film; in Jane’s first flashback, Scatcherd beats Helen Burns with a stick to the upper back and doesn’t relent until Jane drops her tray of food in front of the entire school to create a distraction. In the second flashback, Jane Eyre is fully grown and about to leave the school when she is flocked with younger girls explaining how much they will miss her. Miss Scatcherd shouts at them and then proceeds to stare at Jane in contempt and say nothing, and Jane mutters a quick goodbye before departing the school for good. Scatcherd’s abusive nature can also be compared to Jane’s Aunt, who had a similar disposition for abusive behavior and extreme discontentment with Jane. These older, female minor characters both fit into the ideas discussed in Will Straw’s article, “Small Parts, Small Players dossier Introduction,” where he states that a distinguishing factor of the minor character is “rais[ing] the question of social identity in its simplest forms – stereo typification” (Straw 79). Miss Scatcherd embodies a classic stereotype often referred to as the “witch” archetype or the “wicked stepmother.” These characters share similarities in that they are played by “performers who fail to pose the problem of celebrity,” usually b-list or unrecognizable actors or actresses that can easily fit the physical characteristics of the recognizable secondary part (Straw 79). The character of Scatcherd and her associated archetype are a result of “female character actors,” due to both gender hierarchy and the prioritization of physical characteristics for starring roles, being pushed into “well-known tropes” instead of roles of substance (Straw 80). Since a similar look and narrative have appeared on screen for decades, “their performance [in these roles can illicit] national distinctiveness” and better receptibility for the film overall (Straw 80). For example, Scatcherd re-enforces overused conception that older female characters in film resent their young female foil, strictly for the narrative of jealousy as a motive for abusive behavior. It also serves to produce depth through a traumatic background in the major character on screen, especially through the strategic use of flashbacks. By using McDavid as an actress in contrast with Mia Wasikowska, the audience is fed a familiar interaction of Scatcherd being the force that causes Jane Eyre pain in childhood, creating empathy through stereo typification of Scatcherd’s character to enhance the youthful protagonist’s qualities and likeability.
Works Cited
Jane Eyre. Directed by Cara Joji Fukunaga, Performances by Michael
Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska, Focus Features and BBC Films, 2011.
Straw, Will. “Introduction: Small Players, Small Parts.” Screen, vol. 52, no.
1, 2011, pp. 78-81.
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