Rule of Rose Mysteries

In the Classroom of the orphanage, one can get a close-up view of a chart labeled “Achievement Table”. The game’s camera, unfortunately, pans to the left, which adds to the difficulty of reading the names listed on it.

Perhaps someone can take, and post, a higher resolution picture of the names on this table (as was done with the “mysterious objects” of the rear gate area)? Alternative names based on player’s readings of the table are also welcome.

My best efforts at reading the table yield, with some uncertainties, the listed names following. Some of these names are guesses based on Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies. The names on this list that correspond to the names of the Gashlycrumb Tinies are Basil, Clara, Fanny, George, Hector, Ida, Kate, Leo, Quentin, Susan, Una, Victor, and Yorick. All of the “strange names” mentioned in Amanda’s diary (and found on airship cabin door name tags) are here too. See my blog-post The Mystery of the Strange Names and its comments-thread, and also see comments nos. 1-5, 24, and 25 of Document-based Time-line: After Jennifer Arrived at the Orphanage.

Amanda
*Basil
Clara
Diana
Eleanor
*Fanny
*George
*Hector
*Ida
[—No J !!!!!—]
*Kate (???)
*Leo
Margaret (this would be Meg’s real name)
Nicholas
Olivia
*Paul
*Quentin (???)
*Rolf
Susan
Thomas
*Uma or Una (???)
*Victor (?)
Wendy
Xavier
*Yorick (???)
*Zoe (?)

There is a name, and only one single name, for every letter of the alphabet, except for the letter J.

Why isn’t Jennifer’s name on the list?

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I think that I have found some strong evidence against the theory that the forest scene at the end of the “Sir Peter” chapter of Rule of Rose might actually be the occasion of the hanging of Mr. Hoffman (see Part 1 of this series of blog-posts, and the comments there, for discussion of that theory). This evidence also argues against the “Mondays pea…etc.” chant being about Hoffman, Martha, or Clara.

At the end of that final scene, in the forest, of the “Sir Peter” chapter, Jennifer sticks a maggoty dead rat in Amanda’s face.

In Amanda’s diary, the following entry was made:

Sunday, June 1

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Those awful things got into my mouth!
She’ll be sorry the next chance I get.
But why me again?
What have I done?
(Working Class Luggage, “Rag Princess Sews”, Amanda’s Diary)

If the statement, “Those awful things got into my mouth!”, can be safely assumed to be a reference to the maggots getting into Amanda’s mouth when Jennifer thrust the maggoty dead rat into Amanda’s face, then we must date the forest scene to June 1, which is long before the time when Hoffman, Martha, and Clara disappeared (they were all present in the orphanage as late as November).

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The idea that Mr. Hoffman was murdered at the Orphanage might seem far-fetched to many readers, mainly because of the following entry in Mr. Hoffman’s diary (and Jennifer’s comment on it):

(Jennifer:) “…the last page is particularly interesting… It’s Mr. Hoffman’s last entry before he disappeared.”

11 November 1930

I’m leaving the orphanage.
Clara’s here to look after things, and the children are quickly growing up.
I’ve done right and fulfilled my duty.
…Bloody hell!
All the trouble started when that wretched child arrived…
I’ve done nothing to deserve this!”
(Headmaster’s Room, Hoffman’s diary, “Once Upon a Time”)

(Jennifer:) “…That’s the end of the diary. We never saw Mr. Hoffman again.”

Isn’t this proof that Mr. Hoffman left on his own? And doesn’t Jennifer even tell us in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter that Mr. Hoffman, Martha, and Clara “left”?

Actually Jennifer never tells us that they “left”, as is sometimes claimed. She only tells us, as above, that Mr. Hoffman “disappeared”, and Martha and Clara “soon followed”:

Headmaster’s Closet:

–At the shelf that has shoes:

(Jennifer:) “That day, Mr. Hoffman disappeared, like he was running away from something. He had tried too hard to be someone he wasn’t. The expectations were too much for him… and he wanted to escape those restrictions. However, children and adults live in the same world, and we must both play by society’s rules.”

and

Entrance-way:

–At the portrait of Hoffman:

(Jennifer:) “One day, Mr. Hoffman suddenly disappeared. Clara and Miss Martha soon followed, leaving me and the other orphans alone.”

But doesn’t this still seem to indicate that Mr. Hoffman left on his own, rather than was murdered?

If this was all that we had to go by, I would be inclined to think so. But there are some intriguing other clues that relate to Mr. Hoffman’s “disappearance”.

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The first section of the following blog-post was based on my mistaken identification of the head of the seamstress as being that of a bear rather than of a pig. See the links to pictures in comment #4. Thank you Pandora for the correct identification (comment #6)! The very last section of this blog-post, however, could still be valid.
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The animation that begins the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter of Rule of Rose is described by TheSinnerChrono’s “Rule of Rose Game Script” as follows:

A girl works at a sewing machine. Her hand gets punctured by the needle; the wheel continues to spin and she’s pulled through the machine, becoming flattened by cloth.

TheSinnerChrono failed to mention a very important feature of this “girl”: she has the head of Joshua-the-bear!

As the only person who we see sewing in Rule of Rose is Amanda, this establishes, it might seem, some sort of co-identity between Amanda and Joshua-the-bear!

What could THAT possibly be about?

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I have stated before that I believe that the months ascribed to the chapters of the Rule of Rose game are unreliable.

The airship chapters are ascribed the following months (in 1930):

April_________The Unlucky Clover Field
May__________Sir Peter
July__________Bird of Happiness
August________Mermaid Princess
September____The Goat Sisters
October_______Rag Princess Sews

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If we take note of the progression in the number of Wendy’s drawings posted on the wall of the Sick Room, we find the following pattern:

April_________The Unlucky Clover Field__________2 DRAWINGS
May__________Sir Peter______________________3 DRAWINGS
July__________Bird of Happiness_________________________(no access)
August________Mermaid Princess________________________ (no access)
September____The Goat Sisters__________________________(access; but no drawings at all on the wall)
October_______Rag Princess Sews______________4 DRAWINGS

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Now let’s look at the height progression of Amanda’s covered-up sewing project in the Working Class Luggage area:

April_________The Unlucky Clover Field____________________(no project present)
May__________Sir Peter________________initially SHORTEST-SIZE,
_______________________________________then MID-SIZE later in the May chapter (at which time Amanda says: “It’s almost ready.”)
July__________Bird of Happiness__________________________(no project present)
August________Mermaid Princess__________________________(no project present)
September____The Goat Sisters___________________________(no project present)
October_______Rag Princess Sews______________TALLEST SIZE

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In both of the above progressions, the pattern breaks after the “Sir Peter” chapter and then resumes again in the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter.

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I’m going to start our discussion of Amanda’s sewing project by posting the entire text of the “Rag Princess” storybook here for reference:

Once upon a time,
there was a girl who sewed rags,
day in, day out.
The stench of the rags seeped into her clothes.
Her stepsisters wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball.
The girl stayed at home and her jealousy festered.
One day.
a fairy godmother came,
cast a spell on the girl, and said,
“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”
The girl patched together the sooty rags,
and that’s how she became the Rag Princess.
A very stinky princess indeed.
She stunk up the whole town, in fact.
No girl who stunk so would be allowed into the ball.
I’ll make that girl wear this awful dress myself!
And thus, the Rag Princess and the girl in the rag dress became play pals.

In the “Rag Princess” storybook, the Amanda’s sewing project begins as a dress for herself:

“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”

But it is a project that fails:

No girl who stunk so would be allowed into the ball.

Some entries in Amanda’s diary seem to relate to this sewing project.

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The subtitled text of the “Rag Princess” storybook concludes:

One day.
a fairy godmother came,
cast a spell on the girl. and said,
“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”

The girl patched together the sooty rags,
and that’s how she became the Rag Princess.
A very stinky princess indeed.
She stunk up the whole town, in fact.

No girl who stunk so would be allowed into the ball.
I’ll make that girl wear this awful dress myself!

And thus, the Rag Princess and the girl in the rag dress became play pals.

When Amanda uses the phrase “that girl”, I think that we can safely assume that Amanda means Jennifer. In her diary, Amanda wrote (April 4), in an obvious reference to Jennifer: “I’m still lower class, even after that girl came.”

What interests me the most in the storybook text above is the mention of the ash-grey dress.

Think about it.

Who wears an ash-grey dress in the Rule of Rose game?

Jennifer, no?

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In the Perrault version of Cinderella, in the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, and in the Disney animated movie version of Cinderella, there are only two step-sisters for Cinderella.

In the “Rag Princess” storybook, however, the illustrations show that the rag princess has three step-sisters. Why this change in the number of step-sisters? I propose that there are three step-sisters because the story here is depicting the relationship between Amanda and three orphans: Diana, Meg, and Eleanor.

In the airship, during the “Unlucky Cloverfield” chapter of Rule of Rose, after coming up the stairs and entering through the door into the First Class Guest Sector, one can find a sign hanging on the wall to the left which describes “Social Rank”:

Social Rank
Refined Class
Duchess…..Diana
Countess….Eleanor
Baroness….Meg
—Lower Class—
Poor………..Amanda
Beggar…….Jennifer

The text of the Rag Princess storybook tells us:

Her stepsisters wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball.

The girl stayed at home and her jealousy festered

I propose that the “real life” situation being described is this: in the Aristocrat Club, the girls Diana, Meg, and Eleanor are ranked socially as “Refined Class (”wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball”), but Amanda is ranked “Lower Class” and desperately wants to move up to “Refined Class” rank (”stayed at home and her jealousy festered”).

We see, in the storybook illustration, a castle off in the distance. This is the site of the ball and indicates that the ball relates to aristocracy.

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Turn the page of the “Rag Princess” storybook again and we get the following subtitled text:

Her stepsisters wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball.

The girl stayed at home and her jealousy festered

Here we have the beginning of a Cinderella theme in this storybook.

The Cinderella story has a connection to the stinky and filthy themes (brought up in Part 2 of this series of blog-posts) in that Cinderella is associated—via her name—with the idea of being unclean. The Perrault version of Cinderella tells us:

When she had done her work, she used to go to the chimney corner, and sit down there in the cinders and ashes, which caused her to be called Cinderwench. Only the younger sister, who was not so rude and uncivil as the older one, called her Cinderella.

The Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella tells us:

she had no bed to go to, but had to sleep by the hearth in the cinders. And as on that account she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.

On the previous page of the “Rag Princess” storybook we were shown Amanda at the sewing machine, and we were told she “sewed rags, day in, day out.” This theme of being worked hard matches the Cinderella theme. From the Perrault version of Cinderella again:

She [Cinderella’s stepmother] employed her [Cinderella] in the meanest work of the house. She scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and cleaned madam’s chamber, and those of misses, her daughters.

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Turning the page, we get the following subtitled text:

Once upon a time,
there was a girl who sewed rags,
day in, day out.
The stench of the rags seeped into her clothes.

This begins the stinky theme of the “Rag Princess” storybook. Later in the “Rag Princess” story book, Amanda-in-the-storybook (that is, the Rag Princess character) will be called “a very stinky princess indeed” who “stunk up the whole town“.

I propose that we have, in this stinky theme, a theme that connects with the filthy theme associated with Jennifer.

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