To Sir with Love

Throughout the novel, Braithwaite believes he is working to civilize his students. He believes that Victorian manners and an adherence to personal hygiene represent indicators of gentlemanly or ladylike behavior towards which all people should strive. However, his students and other characters frequently fail to uphold these ideals, at which point Braithwaite dehumanizes them, classifying them as animals. When Braithwaite first meets Clinty, he finds her to be the polar opposite of femininity, instead exuding a “brash animal charm” (20), which for Braithwaite is not necessarily a compliment. Similarly, when Weston ogles Dale-Evans, Braithwaite refers to him as having “owl eyes” (88). Braithwaite routinely cites characters with a lack of self-control as having animalistic traits.

Similarly, during the incident with Mr. Bell, when the male students seem to lose all reason, they revert back to an animal sense of natural instinct: blood-red in tooth and claw. Braithwaite admonishes them for this, calling them “slobbering” (156) and “mad wolves” (160). Braithwaite uses this language to force the students to acknowledge the indecency of their behavior in hopes that they will change or at least apologize for it. He believes that violence merely begets violence, and that the only way to combat this is by denying those animal urges towards violence.