History Literature / TheThornBirds

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Meggie is floored by how wonderful making love with Ralph is, especially compared to [[LousyLoversAreLosers how bad sex with Luke was]]. Justine has a similar reaction after sleeping with Rain, having found sex with her previous lovers to be "pleasant", but not particularly spectacular.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Meggie is floored by how wonderful making love with Ralph is, especially compared to how bad sex with Luke was. Justine has a similar reaction after sleeping with Rain, having found sex with her previous lovers to be "pleasant", but not particularly spectacular.

** When Meggie goes to Matlock Island, the caretaker tells her that his wife is afraid that she'll seduce him. Upon meeting the woman, Maggie is surprised to see that she's [[MayDecemberRomance much younger]] than him and [[UglyGuyHotWife quite pretty]], making her suspicions very irrational.

** When Meggie goes to Matlock Island, the caretaker tells her that his wife is afraid that she'll seduce him. Upon meeting the woman, Maggie is surprised to see that she's [[MayDecemberRomance much younger]] than him and [[UglyGuyHotWife quite pretty]], making her suspicions quite irrational.

* LoveWillLeadYouBack: At the end of the first episode, as Ralph leaves Meggie to begin his ascent in the church, she declares, "Go on to that God of yours, but you'll come back to me, because I'm the one who loves you."

* MixedRace: [[spoiler: Frank's dark eyes that had bewildered Ralph (seeing as the rest of the family is light-eyed) are explained when it is revealed that his real father is half Maori. Fee herself has a distant Maori ancestor.]]

* SexComedy: Justine's first time. She starts laughing uncontrollably when she sees a reflection of her her partner's bouncing buttocks (whose hair tufts make her think of Dagwood). Her partner is less amused, however. Perhaps it's payback for when they got started, His reaction upon seeing her naked is to exclaim, "Good God! You really ''are'' a redhead!" To which she snaps, "What did you expect? Purple feathers?"

** Meggie. She dpends years lusting after a priest, wanting him to forsake his vows to be with her. She also denounces the church constantly, blaming it for costing her both of the men she loves--Ralph and Dane. She also utimately commits adultery with said priest and passes his child off as her husband's and blasts her mother for neglecting her and her siblings and blatantly favoring her oldest son. But she won't divorce her husband even though she's left him because she's a "good Catholic" and she neglects her daughter in favor of her son just as her mother did to her. She also blasts Ralph for failing to realize that Dane was his son, overlooking the fact that ''she herself'' never told him.

Has been described as the Australian ''Gone with the Wind'', and with good reason. Not to be confused with the Korean drama [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the same name]].

Has been described as the Australian ''Gone with the Wind'', and with good reason. Not to be confused with the Korean drama [[{{Names the Same}} of the same name]].

* AmbiguouslyGay: None of the Cleary brothers ever leave Drogheda, marry, or even date. It's implied that Fee's negligence has left them completely clueless about how to even approach a woman, but there could always be another reason. . .

* AuthorAvatar: Meggie and Justine are both based on Colleen [=McCullough=] herself--an Irish father and mother of part-Maori ancestry (Meggie), and a difficult relationship with her mother [[spoiler: and whose brother drowned when young.]](Justine).
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Fee unfortunately realizes too late that she does love Paddy [[spoiler: shortly after Paddy's death because she was too busy mourning for her old love]]

* BigFancyHouse: The Drogheda mansion.

* BlackSheep: Poor Frank.

* BreakTheCutie: Fee and Meggie, repeatedly.

* CelibateHero: Ralph is like this, until, well, he isn't so celibate.
* TheCharmer: Luke
* ClingyJealousGirl: Mary Carson is so enamored with Ralph that she outright admits that she dislikes Meggie simply because Ralph is fond of her--Meggie is still a ''child'' at this point. Even in death, she invokes this, leaving her fortune to Ralph so that he'll advance in the Church--but be separated from his beloved Meggie.

* DeadpanSnarker: Justine, usually at her mother's expense.

* {{The Epic}}
* [[EverythingsBetterWithCows Everything's Better With Sheep]]: The Clearys are sheep farmers.

* FallenPrincess: Fee.
* FieryRedhead: Paddy. Also Justine, at least in the book.

* ForbiddenFruit: Ralph and Meggie, to each other.
* GenerationXerox: Meggie is determined never to play favorites with her children, yet she blatantly favors Dane just as her mother did Frank. [[spoiler: She also loses her favorite child, just as Fee did.]]

* HeroesWantRedheads: Ralph and Meggie, Rain and Justine.

* {{Homage}}: Ralph and Meggie's romantic beach interlude has been described as the most passionate such scene since ''Film/FromHereToEternity''
* HotForPreacher[=/=]SoBeautifulItsACurse: Mary and Meggie aren't the only ones who lust after Ralph. Dane has his admirers too--two girls almost drown because they're so enamored of him that they follow him out for a swim, only to get caught in the strong current.
* {{Hypocrite}}:Meggie. She dpends years lusting after a priest, wanting him to forsake his vows to be with her. She also denounces the church constantly, blaming it for costing her both of the men she loves--Ralph and Dane. She also utimately commits adultery with said priest and passes his child off as her husband's and blasts her mother for neglecting her and her siblings and blatantly favoring her oldest son. But she won't divorce her husband even though she's left him because she's a "good Catholic" and she neglects her daughter in favor of her son just as her mother did to her.
** She also blasts Ralph for failing to realize that Dane was his son, overlooking the fact that ''she herself'' never told him.

* IfICantHaveYou: For all that Ralph encourages Meggie to forget him and marry someone else, he gets pretty peeved when she actually goes and does it, and Fee has to call him out on his hypocrisy. Twice.

* IrishPriest: Ralph
* {{Irony}}: meta version. In the story, Meggie marries Luke in an attempt to move on from her love for Ralph. In real life, Rachel Ward (Meggie) and Bryan Brown (Luke) were the ones who fell passionately in love on set; they've been happily married since 1983.

* LandDownUnder

* MenAreBetterThanWomen: Fee's attitude towards her children for much of the book. She dotes on her sons but barely acknowledges Meggie's existence. It has suggested that her own hard lot is why she had no enthusiasm about having a female child. She does come to respect and grow closer to Meggie in later life.

*** In the midquel too--Luke only resurfaces in Meggie's life when he hears about Dane, assuming the boy is his. He pays little attention to Justine during the following weeks, and when Meggie kicks him out for good after he slaps her, it's Dane he snatches and seeks custody of.

* MommasBoy: Frank, and later Stuart.
* MouthyKid: Justine

* NonIndicativeName: "The Missing Years", referring to the roughly 15-20 years skipped over by the original series, only covers approximately ''one'' year of that time, if even that much.

* OedipusComplex: Fee and Frank, to a downright disturbing level--he flips out at the sight of Fee's pregnancy, horrified at the undeniable evidence of Fee and Paddy's sexual relationship. The animosity between him and Paddy is outright described as "the rivalry for Fee".

* ParentalFavoritism: Justine knows all too well that Dane is the favorite. In the book, she's gotten over it (Meggie doesn't neglect her nearly as much as she does in the movie), while in the movie she resents her mother for it, although not Dane.

*** It is also implied that Meggie is Paddy's favorite.

* RagsToRiches: The Cleary family does this; they go from living a very meager existence on New Zealand to living on a fantastic country estate in Australia, even if they do spend the first few years living in the servants quarters.

* RichBitch: Mary Carson again.

* SexComedy: Justine's first time. She starts laughing uncontrollably when she sees a reflection of her her partner's bouncing buttocks (whose hair tufts make her think of Dagwood). Her partner is less amused, however.
** Perhaps it's payback for when they got started, His reaction upon seeing her naked is to exclaim, "Good God! You really ''are'' a redhead!" To which she snaps, "What did you expect? Purple feathers?"

** Dane also. Fitting as he's Ralph's son.

* SiblingRivalry: Averted; Justine doesn't resent Dane for being their mother's favorite, they love each other dearly and he's the only person she lets herself be close to for a long time.
** Also averted with Frank and Meggie; despite the fact that he is their mother's favorite child, and she seems for many years to be her ''least'' favorite, Meggie adores Frank and vice versa. In fact, Frank seems to be genuinely fond of ''all'' his younger siblings, with Meggie being his favorite. No mean feat, considering that he despises their father.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler: Stuart and Dane.]]

* GrandStaircaseEntrance: How the mini-series presents Meggie's entry into Mary Carson's birthday party. Ralph certainly takes notice.

* {{Hypocrite}}:Meggie. Spends years lusting after a priest, wanting him to forsake his vows to be with her. Denounces the church constantly, blaming it for costing her both of the men she loves--Ralph and Dane. Ultimately commits adultery with said priest and passes his child off as her husband's. Blasts her mother for neglecting her and her siblings and blatantly favoring her oldest son. But she won't divorce her husband even though she's left him because she's a "good Catholic" and she neglects her daughter in favor of her son just as her mother did to her.

* SternNun: Sister Agnes, who is more sadistic than stern.

* MayDecemberRomance: Ralph is eighteen years older than Meggie. To a lesser extent, Rainer and Justine. He is ten years older.

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Mary flat-out declares that she's going to die the night of her 65th birthday for and indeed she does.

* BadAssGrandma: Fee's grandmother who refused to let the rest of the family disown Fee when Fee got pregnant as a teenager. When she was dying she arranged for Fee to marry Paddy because she realized the family would throw Fee out once she passed on.

* OedipusComplex: Fee and Frank, to a downright disturbing level--the animosity between him and Paddy is outright described as "the rivalry for Fee".

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: A rare case where the "someone" is alive. Fee and Meggie dote on sons Frank and Dane, respectively, as they and the boys respective fathers cannot be together.