You might be wondering why I changed from animal character explorations to character explorations. Well, I realized I had done all the animals from the series that I have read. Most other animals are mentioned too little to write about.

So, my first character exploration is on Dinah. I generally like to pick less mentioned, or ‘in the shadows’ kind of characters, which is why I didn’t pick George, or Darrell, or someone like that.

So, now for Dinah. Dinah Mannering (later Cunningham)  is a girl from the Adventure Series. She has a brother called Philip, who she often fights with. Everything about her is shown as fiery and hot-tempered. She can be a bit scornful and unkind at times, especially at any weakness shown. Lucy-Ann is often a victim of her scorn, as she is the weakest of the 4 (forgive me, 5!) and scared easily, while Dinah tends to be much braver.

In The Valley Of Adventure, once, while discovering the path to behind the waterfall, the two girls are alone as the boys have gone to get food. Before they know they are coming out behind the waterfall and they hear a roaring noise. Dinah suggests it might be a fire in the heart of the mountain, and Lucy-Ann is scared to face a fire that makes a noise like that. She begs Dinah to turn back, but her request is rudely declined as Dinah tells her to go back alone or walk with her. This is an example of Dinah’s scorn and a little unkindness.

Dinah is also very impatient, and always like to be doing something. She never likes to sit still. Numerous moments in the series proves this. Whenever doing anything, while the others stop to discuss something, or sway off their original path of discussion, it is Dinah who spurs them on, with her usual impatience and desire to do something.

Her dislike and disgust of all living animals often leads to conflict between her and her brother Philip, who loves all animals and always has some running about him. They yell and kick at each other and Dinah is ready to lash out slaps by the dozen. Dinah’s not all bad though, her tempers go as fast as the come and she’s very loyal to Philip, Jack and Lucy-Ann.

In all, we can describe Dinah as a hot-tempered, scornful, impatient, active girl who hates anything to get in the way of what she’s doing.

Illustrations are by Stuart Tresilian and are taken from the Cave of Books

Find more of Sunskriti’s character explorations here, or more posts about Blyton’s characters here.