The Dana Girls - Characters

Characters

The series' principal characters are Louise and Jean Dana, teenage orphans who solve mysteries while attending the fictional Starhurst School for Girls in Penfield, not far from their hometown of Oak Falls. When on vacation, the girls stay at the home of their guardians, their uncle, Captain Ned Dana, master of the S.S. Balaska, and his spinster sister, Aunt Harriet Dana. The household also includes a bungling maid, Cora Appel, often teasingly referred to as "Applecore" by Jean and Louise.

At school, the Dana girls are firmly under the control of the headmistress, Mrs. Crandall, who approves absences from class and other exceptions to the rules only when deemed absolutely necessary to the girls' detective work, however, as the series progresses and mysteries are solved to the benefit of the school, this becomes more and more frequent. Mrs. Crandall often volunteers herself or her husband to assist with investigations, either by driving them, chaperoning them, or at times, actively engaging in activity such as spying from horseback! Her husband, the bookish Professor Crandall, is usually occupied in his study and generally takes no interest in administrative affairs. It is rumored that the professor is engaged in writing a monumental English-language history of Ancient Greece and he is usually left alone by the student body, but the Dana girls discover he can be a useful source of obscure facts relating to the clues in a mystery. He generally takes a less active role in sleuthing than his wife, acting as a driver, escort, or researching a clue academically.

The Dana girls' principal recurring antagonists are the school bully, Lettie Briggs, the wealthiest girl at Starhurst, and her lackey Ina Mason. Lettie and Ina frequently attempt to solve the Dana girls' cases themselves while throwing their rivals off the scent; these attempts invariably fail and redound to Lettie and Ina's profound discredit. Lettie becomes angry in the first volume upon not receiving the room assignment of her choice in favor of the Danas, and serves as a rival (unsuccessfully) and prankster. Most of her pranks are to discredit the Danas, scholastically, athletically, morally, or detective skill: she alters or steals school assignments, plaigirizes their work, destroys academic research, puts acid on a towel before an athletic competition (to injure a hand), jeers/cheers against the Danas, short-laces shoes, hires a thug to disrupt an ice skating competition, and spreads rumors of untoward romantic leanings, their ethnic heritage, and other character slurs. Incredibly, based upon their academic performance and favored status, Mrs. Crandall remains neutral, and usually believes the reports until the Danas make an explanation, and she is satisfied with her investigation. This usually serves to delay Dana investigations. Lettie, on the other hand, despite her disruptive and actual criminal behavior, rarely receives due punishment.