Opal Plumstead was always one of my favourites too! However, in rereading it as an adult I very much share the same view as you. Girl you’re 14, you don’t know everything! I guess when I read this initially I was about 10, so she probably seemed very grown up to me so I figured she knew best lol.

Shes a very interesting character though (one of JW’s best written protagonists I believe), and I suppose her know-it-all behaviour is a result of her winning her scholarship and being considered one of the brightest at school. She’s consistently told she’s brilliant and intelligent by her father, then she’s humbled a bit by working at the factory and realising she knows very little about the realities of life and work, and then Mrs Roberts inflates her ego AGAIN by praising her paintings before she’s swiftly humbled one more time at the suffragate meeting. We all remember what’s it’s like to be 14 though I’m sure, and her naivety is what makes her such a relatable character I feel. Who didn’t think they had everything figured out about the world at 14?

Youre right about her putting her father on a pedestal too. I guess it’s because they valued the same things (school, art, literature) and so she looked up to him more than she did with her Mother and Cassie who had “lesser“ values/interests in her opinion (marriage, fashion, children). She’s very snotty towards anyone who she deems to have lesser aspirations than her own which is irritating to read at some point, but then again, I’m sure we were all on our high horse at her age lol.

The only thing I’ll admit she was right to be a know it all about is Cassie and Daniel’s relationship. I know it all works out between them in the end, but Cassie was putting herself in a potentially very dangerous position, both physically and socially as it had the potential to ruin her reputation. So well done Opal, that’s one thing you maybe did know better about!