The Brave New Feminist World of Joan Lindsay’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock”

Abstract

An analysis of the significance of the fate of the missing women in 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' results in a discussion of feminism as portrayed in the novel. Joan Lindsay shocks us into an awareness of what women are capable of against the odds which society would impose on them, and indeed against any expectation of what would seem humanly possible. Thus she gives us a sense of what motivates some women to reach their full potential, even if others fail.