Character Sketch: The Hundred Dresses - I - Class 10 PDF Download

Wanda

• Wanda Petronski is a Polish girl who has shifted to America from Poland with her parents. Wanda posses a Polish heritage. Wanda is a name difficult to pronounce. She belongs to a very poor family and lives in the poor area of town with her brother and father upon Boggins Heights. She is very shy and quiet. She does not talk to anyone and hardly speaks anything in class or laughs. She has no friends and sits in the last row of the class with some naughty boys so that nobody notices her. She wears the same faded blue dress every day which is not ironed but clean.
• Everybody teases her in class for her dress and shoes every day. In anger, she claims of having a hundred dresses and sixty pairs of shoes at home. She is very determined and shows her determination in the drawing competition by displaying a hundred sketches of dresses she claims to own. Each of them is so beautiful, that she wins the competition and surpasses Peggy. Wanda posses a great capacity for forgiveness and extending friendship to Maddie and Peggy. Everybody in the class claps for her in joy.

Peggy

Peggy was a rich, pretty American girl. She was intelligent, good at studies and scored good marks. She loved fun and enjoyed teasing Wanda because of her faded blue dress. She kept asking her mockingly how many dresses she had. She took Wanda a dull-headed girl and could never realize how bad Wanda must be feeling about her teasing. She changed her opinion when Wanda won the girl’s medal in the drawing competition. She praised wholeheartedly Wanda’s drawings. She also visited Boggins Heights and wrote letters when Wanda stopped coming to school.

Maddie

• Maddie is a very sensitive and emotional girl. She feels very sad when Wanda's father disclosed that he has withdrawn his daughter from the school. She has a very sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. She curses herself that she failed to stop Peggy from teasing Wanda. She feared Peggy as she will be the next victim for her non-sense. 
• But she was able to conquer her fears when Wanda left the school. They collected the courage to went up to Wanda's house and apologize her for not taking the step to stop Peggy. She changed herself at the cost of her friendship with Peggy, so no other girl will have to face the teasing from her on poor dressing or unusual names.

Miss Mason

• Miss Mason is the teacher of the story ‘The Hundred Dresses’ by El Bsor Ester the author tries to portray the anguish and sorry plight of immigrants through the character of a Polish immigrant girl called Wanda.
• Wanda is confronted with a very cruel world when she goes to school. Her school mates make fun of her and treat her very badly. However, through the character of her teacher Miss Mason, the author shows the brighter side of human nature. Miss Mason is not heartless and cruel.
• She understands Wanda’s condition. She is empathetic towards her. She treats her gently and patiently. She is compassionate and wise. She is one of those teachers who students love and respect. She is an epitome of humanity and kindness.