PLAN:

1. Eva is presented to be a strong-willed, resilient and outspoken 9-year-old

Jewish girl whose life is ruled by fear.
- Strives to bring her parents out of Germany / tries to live her best to make
Helga proud
- Sarcastic when departing from Germany / confident in using German (link to
next idea)
2. Evelyn is presented to be a bitter, fastidious English woman who suffers
from emotional hardships.
- Her distant relationship with Faith
- Obsessive cleaning and need to be perfect
- Coping her fear with the Ratcatcher
3. Although Eva and Evelyn are characterised as two separate characters,
Eva is considered to be a part of Evelyn’s repressed psyche.
- Evelyn’s evocation
- Talking to her inner self (Dialogue at the end of Act 1 Scene 2)
- Past exerts influence to present e.g Guilt
ESSAY:
In the family drama Kindertransport written by Diane Samuels in 1993, Eva and
Evelyn are undeniably the most interesting and complex characters. They are
presented to have different personalities although Eva is often seen as the inner self of
Evelyn.

Firstly, Eva is presented to be a strong-willed, resilient and outspoken Jewish girl

whose life is ruled by fear. Her strong resilience is demonstrated by how she strives to
bring her parents out of Germany. “Ich muss sie befreien. (I have to get them out)”
She feels it is all her responsibility to save them from the control of Nazis. Eva tries to
assign her parents jobs and write letters to the authorities for permits. She lives at her
fullest potential so that she can make her “Mutti” proud. She is devastated when her
parents have not come to England. The stage directions indicate that ‘Eva shakes in
distress’, suggesting how she is experiencing immense pain and struggling to accept
the news. When the war broke out, Eva and her parents could no longer exchange the
letters. She assumes they are dead. Eva realises she has to stop worrying about her
family in order to move forward. There are many scenes when Eva cries or is
frightened. One instance is when Lil confronts her for returning home late and forces
her to speak English. “Ich bin deutsche!” The repeated use of exclamation marks
highlight how Eva is scared of being thrown out by Lil and becoming homeless. It
also shows how Eva is outspoken because she resorts to use German language in
desperate situations even though no one will understand what she is saying. Although
we could see how Eva is trying to be brave in some cases, fear eventually kicks in and
makes her feel insecure. This is demonstrated when ‘Eva starts crying’ when she
misinterpreted the Organiser’s words and believes she does not have a foster family.
This forms a contrast to when Eva is on the train, when she talks sarcastically to make
her feel confident about sending away, “Stuff your stupid Hitler. Stuff your stupid
toffees!” Eva cannot deal with her fear and frustration as a child. She is emotionally
very unstable.

On the other hand, Evelyn is presented to be bitter, fastidious and indecisive who
suffers from emotional hardships. Evelyn has an uneasy, almost awkward relationship
with her daughter - Faith. It is shown through the dialogue between the two. When
Faith is hesitant about the decision to move into the new flat, “It seems all wrong.”
Evelyn responds, “It seems perfectly straightforward to me.” This emphasises the lack
of understanding between the two. The short and precise replies from Evelyn also
suggests her coldness toward Faith. Secondly, Evelyn is also attentive to unnecessary
details in her life. This is presented through her obsessive cleaning. In the start of Act
1 Scene 1, Faith is trying to have a conversation with Evelyn. However, Evelyn is not
engaged at all because she is ‘polishing madly’ to the glasses. Her constant cleaning is
likely to be Evelyn’s way of coping with her emotional issue. This is supported when
Evelyn uses metaphorical language, “A chipped glass is ruined forever.” The glass
symbolises the heart and implies the fragility of one’s mental state. Samuels
purposefully incorporated the sentence to suggest how Evelyn’s traumatic childhood
memories had left her mental state broken and could not possibly recover. Lastly,
Evelyn is indecisive. Even though she tries to repress her childhood memories and
change her identity in order to evolve into a ‘new’ person, she keeps on hold of a box
of letters and photos since her arrival in England. It is only when Faith discovers about
her past does she start to tear all of the papers. In Act 2 Scene 1, when Lil suggests she
should get rid of them, Evelyn ‘is still’ and ‘looks at the paper’, indicating how she
really wants to destroy all evidence of her past, but feels immoral to do so.

Although Eva and Evelyn are characterised as two separate persons, Eva is considered
to be a part of Evelyn’s repressed psyche. The play is written through Evelyn’s
evocation, a theatrical device that was coined by Samuels to bring her past memories
alive in the present. It allows us to see how Evelyn continues to be affected by her past
and how she cannot potentially detach herself from these memories. We are also able
to notice that fear and guilt plays a significant role in both Eva and Evelyn’s life.
These two feelings are presented through the character of the Ratcatcher - a mythical
figure who appears in all drastic events, such as in the railway stations where Eva is
going to be sent away and in Evelyn’s emotional battles. At the end of Act 1 Scene 2,
Evelyn seems to be reassuring Eva, who is actually her inner self, about how the
Ratcatcher will not come to find her. This is ironic because even Evelyn is still
constantly haunted by the Ratcatcher. “I won’t let him. I’ll do everything I can to stop
him.” The Ratcatcher only punishes ungrateful children. Evelyn believes that if she is
not leading a perfect life, he will come and send her away. The Ratcatcher can also be
seen as a representation of guilt. In the final scene, Evelyn is sobbing alone in the
attic, likely to be caused by the memory of her being cold towards her birth mother.
‘The shadow of the Ratcatcher covers the stage’ as Evelyn and Faith leave,
emphasising how Evelyn could not escape from her past and the feeling of guilt. The
stagecraft of the Ratcatcher makes the form of the play expressionistic, because
Eva/Evelyn’s fear and guilt is made visible and audible (the Ratcatcher music).

As of above, Eva and Evelyn are the most predominant characters in the play
Kindertransport.