# Gut und böse und Lust und Leid und Ich und Du explained — The Getting of Wisdom

> Chapter companion for The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson.

## What happens

Laura's obsessive friendship with Evelyn Souttar reaches a crisis as Evelyn prepares to leave school. Laura's jealousy, possessiveness, and inability to focus on her studies lead to her failing the midwinter test examinations. The chapter explores Laura's emotional turmoil, her fear of losing Evelyn, and her growing awareness of the fleeting nature of happiness.

## Themes in this chapter

### Friendship and the Desire for Belonging

Laura's intense, possessive friendship with Evelyn highlights her desperate need for belonging and her fear of abandonment.

### Female Adolescence and Sexuality

Laura's jealousy of Evelyn's interest in men and her own vehement rejection of romance reflect adolescent struggles with emerging sexuality and social expectations.

### Education and the Nature of Wisdom

Laura's academic failure due to emotional distraction underscores the tension between formal education and personal wisdom.

## Character check-ins

### Laura Rambotham

Laura is consumed by jealousy and possessiveness over Evelyn, neglecting her studies and failing her exams. She struggles with the impending separation and her own lack of self-control.

### Evelyn Souttar

Evelyn is patient but increasingly weary of Laura's clinginess. She tries to reassure Laura while looking forward to her own future beyond school.

### Mary Pidwall

Mary (M. P.) taunts Laura, calling her a 'cipher,' and predicts Laura will fail her tests.

### Cupid

Cupid joins Mary in mocking Laura, calling her a 'moon-calf' and a 'billy-ass.'

### Lolo

Lolo, a birdlike girl, calls Evelyn away for a secret conversation, provoking Laura's jealousy.

### Miss Snodgrass

Miss Snodgrass observes Laura's sulking and comments on her foolish behavior.

## Key lines

> “Laura, you’re a cipher!” “I’m nothing of the sort!” threw back Laura indignantly. “You’re one yourself.”

Mary Pidwall calls Laura a nonentity, and Laura angrily retorts that Mary is one too.

_This exchange establishes Laura's sensitivity to ridicule and her defensive pride._

> “Look here, Poppet,” said Evelyn at last, and was so much in earnest that she laid her hairbrush down, and took Laura by both her bony little shoulders. “Look here, you surely don’t expect me to be an old maid, do you?— me ?”

Evelyn confronts Laura about her unrealistic expectation that Evelyn never marry, emphasizing her own youth, beauty, and desire for a full life.

_This moment reveals the fundamental difference in their perspectives on love and the future._

> The consequence was, M. P.’s prediction came true: in the test-examinations which took place at midwinter, Laura, together with the few dunces of her class, was ignominiously plucked.

As Mary Pidwall had predicted, Laura failed her midwinter tests, placing her among the weakest students.

_Laura's academic failure is a direct result of her emotional turmoil and obsession with Evelyn._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_getting_of_wisdom_se/chapters/xxiii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_getting_of_wisdom_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_getting_of_wisdom_se/chapters