Summary
Mr. Carrisford and the children of the large family are anxiously awaiting Mr. Carmichael's return from Moscow. If all has gone well, Mr. Carmichael will arrive in London with Captain Crewe's daughter—he is in Moscow to speak to the adopted daughter of a Russian family, hoping the daughter is in fact Sara Crewe. He arrives with bad news. The adopted daughter in Moscow is actually a girl named Emily Carew. Carrisford is completely heartbroken, though Carmichael tries to cheer him up. They decide to start searching London's many schools, starting, for lack of any better idea, with the one that happens to sit next door to their homes. Carrisford mentions that there is a child there who interests him, although she's far too sad-looking to be a relative of Captain Crewe. At this moment Ram Dass enters the room with news of the servant girl next door (Sara, though none of these men know it). Ram Dass reports that Sara has come to return his monkey; knowing about Carrisford's interest in Sara, Ram Dass has asked her to stay and chat. Sara enters with the monkey and greets Carrisford politely. Sara casually mentions being brought up in India, and Carrisford realizes that she may be the girl he's looking for. Feeling too overwhelmed to ask further questions, he has Carmichael take over. Sara tells Carmichael her sad story: how she was brought to Miss Minchin's as a student by her now-dead father. The men realize that Sara is Captain Crewe's daughter, and Mr. Carrisford is so shocked that he nearly faints. Sara, hearing that Carrisford and Carmichael have been seeking her out and that Mr. Carrisford is the friend of her father's whose business dealings led to Captain Crewe's downfall, is scarcely able to believe the coincidence.
While Mr. Carrisford is recovering, Mr. Carmichael's wife comes to help Sara. She explains that Carrisford never actually lost Crewe's fortune, but that he incorrectly thought that he had, and became so distressed that he grew very ill. Sara also learns that Ram Dass and Carmichael were responsible for the surprises that were left in her attic. Sara goes to meet Mr. Carrisford, who already looks as if he's recovering from his stress-induced ill health. He has decided that Sara should never return to school. Instead, Mr. Carmichael will speak to Miss Minchin and explain the change in her situation. Unbeknownst to the assembled characters, though, Miss Minchin is already on her way. She has heard about Sara stopping by the house next door and, assuming she is intruding, decides to go fetch her servant and apologize on Sara's behalf. As she enters, Sara stays calm. Carrisford explains that he was about to send his solicitor, Carmichael, to speak to Miss Minchin. Confused, she explains that she is merely there to retrieve her servant. She instructs Sara to go home, but Carrisford tells Sara to remain at his side, and explains to Miss Minchin that her new home is with him. Moreover, Captain Crewe's fortune has been restored, making Sara rich again. Few princesses, Carmichael explains, have more money than Sara. Distraught, Miss Minchin tries to at least get on Carrisford's good side by arguing that she's cared for Sara over the years, and that Sara should return to school. Carmichael replies that Sara herself can decide whether to go back, and of course, she refuses. Miss Minchin, in response, threatens that she will no longer be allowed to see Lottie or Ermengarde. But Carmichael points out that this isn't really her decision to make. Sara tells Miss Minchin that, even in her most desperate moments, she has tried to act like a princess. Now, of course, she is as close to a princess as any non-royal person can be.
The book's point of view shifts, allowing readers to witness a conversation between the Minchin sisters. Amelia timidly points out to her cranky sister that she has probably been too harsh on Sara, which only makes Miss Minchin crankier. This only emboldens Miss Amelia, who lets go of all her inhibitions and calls her sister out for being materialistic and hard-hearted. That evening, word spreads to the students when Ermengarde receives a letter from Sara sharing the good news. The revelations cause a total uproar among the students. One forgotten person, though, is saddened. Becky feels more alone than ever—until Ram Dass appears in her attic unexpectedly. He has brought a letter from Sara, and news that Sara wishes for Becky to work for her instead of for Miss Minchin.
Sara now has a set of new companions—the Carmichael children, who love hearing her stories of life in the attic and of the surprises from Ram Dass. Mr. Carrisford, who has asked Sara to call him "Uncle Tom," also shares his memory of the events at Sara's behest, describing his own interest in the poor girl next door and Ram Dass's ideas for how to improve her lot. Sara and Carrisford get along wonderfully, and he continues to surprise her, even getting her a dog as a gift. Sometimes, Lottie and Ermengarde even join these happy get-togethers. Sara is troubled by one thing, though—the memory of the child even hungrier than herself, who she encountered outside of the bakery. She now wants to give the kind baker money, so that she can provide food for any poor children who arrive on her doorstep. Carrisford encourages her to do so in the morning. Through her window the next day, Miss Minchin watches angrily while a happy-looking Sara and Becky ride in Carrisford's carriage to the bakery. The woman remembers Sara and is all too eager to help her feed the city's hungry children. Sara mentions the child who used to sit at the bakery's entrance, and the woman reveals that she has taken the child in, clothed her, and fed her. The child emerges from the bakery's back room, looking healthy and cared-for. Sara and the girl, whose name is Anne, shake hands, and Sara mentions that the girl might enjoy personally feeding children as hungry as she once was. Then she goes back to Carrisford's carriage and heads home.
Analysis
Sara's problems are solved almost as quickly as they arose. She becomes richer than before, and, though she doesn't get her beloved father back, she gets the closest thing: a father figure who was a friend of Captain Crewe and whose personality and personal history are similar to his. Moreover, she gets revenge on those who mistreated her while maintaining moral superiority. Nothing is more painful for Miss Minchin than seeing Sara happy, so Sara can get revenge by simply living well next door to Miss Minchin's school. This all happens through an extraordinary coincidence: Mr. Carrisford, armed with Sara's enormous fortune, is right next door to her the entire time. Some readers might find this coincidence over-the-top or unrealistic, but, in another sense, the coincidence is part of the point. Sara herself remarks upon the strangeness of her proximity to Carrisford, so Burnett clearly isn't trying to avoid drawing attention to the somewhat unrealistic situation. This unlikely turn of events, though, emphasizes one of the novel's themes: the way that magic and specialness can hide in plain sight. Sara sees herself as a princess even when she believes herself to be poor, and she sees the people around her as special and interesting, no matter how mundane they might look. The fact that Mr. Carmichael has looked for a lost child all over Europe, only to find her lurking right under his nose, helps prove the point that anybody can be a "princess," and that, therefore, it's important to treat one's neighbors with dignity no matter who they are. As a matter of fact, Ram Dass, Carrisford, and Carmichael go out of their way to help Sara when she seems like a mere servant, while Miss Minchin mistreats her the moment she thinks Sara is no longer rich. There's a clear lesson here for readers: be kind to people, even if it seems like they can't repay your kindness, because you never know who they'll turn out to be.
The ending of A Little Princess is happy for pretty much everyone except the villain, Miss Minchin, who is forced to acknowledge her own mistake. Becky is freed from Miss Minchin's tyranny, Mr. Carrisford finds his friend's lost daughter, and Anne, who was once a beggar, now is now comfortable and cared-for. However, it's pretty clear that Sara gets the best ending of all—she winds up wealthy beyond anyone's wildest dreams, while the best Becky, Ram Dass, and Anne can hope for is the opportunity to serve a kind master. For Sara, who is of a high-class background regardless of her immediate circumstances, any kind of servitude represents a near-grotesque departure from normalcy, even while Sara is a good sport about having to work for others. For others, though, servitude is a completely natural condition, even though Burnett makes a clear argument that employers should treat servants humanely (especially if they are children). Still, the book's assumption that some people are fated to work while others naturally ascend to higher ranks is part of its thematic distinction between money and class. Sara's class distinguishes her even when she lacks money, while others, like Becky, deserve enough money to be comfortable but don't need the trappings of status that come with upper-class affiliation. In the case of Ram Dass, this is accompanied by a racial/colonialist lens: Ram Dass is described as not only thrilled to serve a European girl far younger than himself, but as uniquely predisposed to do so because of his "Oriental" background. According to both other characters and the narrator, Ram Dass possesses a mixture of creativity, whimsy, slyness, and servility that makes him ideally suited to helping Sara. Through this lens, it is not simply true that upper-class Europeans are luckier than the people who serve them. Rather, class and race predispose certain people to certain ways of life. Nobody, of course, wants to be starved or worked too hard. But in this narrative, some people are actually happier working for others, depending on their background.
Through this lens, Carmichael and Carrisford's discovery of Sara is hardly a coincidence at all. Money, in this novel, is something that comes and goes in essentially coincidental and random ways. Class, though, is synonymous with destiny. Therefore, it's almost impossible, in this narrative universe, for Sara to remain unacknowledged and abused. Of course, Sara also gets a happy ending because she deserves one—she treats others well, so she gets to be treated well. Even this, though, is inextricable from the book's treatment of class. Sara's morality is linked over and over again to class. She maintains her upper-class mannerisms, speech, and values, taking care to get the education expected of a wealthy child even when she has no hope of recovering her wealth. Therefore, she gets a happy ending because she deserves one. Yet her deservingness is impossible to separate from her class background, and her happy ending consists in part of a return to an upper-class lifestyle.
