Never Let Me Go Section 4: Madame and Miss Emily

                The characters of Madame and Miss Emily illustrate Kazuo Ishiguro’s utilization of indirect characterization and symbolism in order to enhance the themes of Never Let Me Go. When Kathy and Tommy arrive on Madame’s doorstep to talk to her about applying for a deferral, they unexpectedly enter into a conversation with both Madame and Miss Emily which answers many of their questions about their existence and lifestyle that had bothered them since a young age. Because I had been under the assumption throughout reading the entire novel that Hailsham had been an institution supported by the donation program in order to raise the clones which would one day become their source of vital organs, I was highly surprised to learn of Madame and Miss Emily’s true motivation behind running Hailsham. Miss Emily explains that, at the time Hailsham was founded, most clones were raised in inhumane environments and given no hope at a life deemed worthy of a normal human being; therefore, their entire lives were spent in misery and inferiority until the process of donations began for them and they reached completion. Miss Emily and Madame found this practice to be highly unjust, and therefore they founded Hailsham as an institution to provide clones with a proper living environment and education in order to give them as normal a life as possible for as long as possible. Furthermore, by educating the children and gathering their work into large collections, Madame and Miss Emily hoped to prove to society that these clones had souls and were humans just like them. Therefore, these two women, who were initially depicted as having little affection for the Hailsham students and were often depicted in an even foreboding light, indirectly characterized themselves through this conversation with Kathy and Tommy as being very admirable, moral women. This indirect characterization is therefore essential to understanding the roles that Madame and Miss Emily played in the novel and ultimately understanding the purpose of the lifestyle that Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth lived at Hailsham.

                In addition to utilizing indirect characterization through the characters of Madame and Miss Emily, Ishiguro also employ symbolism through these two women. Despite the immense measures and countless hours of tireless work which the women gave to provide the clones with a better life, Miss Emily ultimately admits to Kathy and Tommy that both women were always a little repulsed by the very idea of them. Miss Emily admitted this to Kathy and Tommy when stating, “…Marie-Claude is on your side and will always be on your side. Is she afraid of you? We’re all afraid of you. I myself had to fight back my dread of you all almost every day I was at Hailsham. There were times I’d look down at you all from my study window and I’d feel such revulsion…” (Ishiguro, 269). I found this opinion of the women towards the clones to be highly symbolic of social issues in society today. While human cloning for the purpose of organ donations may not exist today, other fairly similar issues do plague society, such as human trafficking and extreme poverty and disease in third-world countries. Although people do see that these injustices are highly immoral, they are also repulsed by some of the poor creatures who are victims to these tragedies, and while some try to help, these injustices have yet to be truly terminated because too many people are repulsed or indifferent. Therefore, I found the fact that the very women who were trying to help the clones were also afraid of them to be symbolic of the way that many social issues in society today are dealt with; thus, the role of both Madame and Miss Emily at the conclusion of this novel due to indirect characterization and symbolism is essential to understand the work’s meaning.