[spoiler alert –
I do make some references to season 4 for those who are behind on the series]
I am equally fascinated by the upstairs and downstairs
ladies of Downton Abbey. I adore Lady Mary and identify with the steadfast,
loyal Anna (perhaps because I have a bit of a crush on Mr. Bates). I sigh over
Edith’s personal tragedies and cheer for Isobel Crawley’s plucky (if somewhat
naive) spirit. I smile at downtrodden Daisy and admire the restless, compassionate spirit of Sybil. And where
would the show be without the Dowager Countess – the delightfully grumpy
matriarch with her sharp, witty tongue?
The writers of the PBS series Downton Abbey have created an
array of fascinating and complex female characters, perhaps the best array of
female characters I have seen for a long time on television. They face personal
trials and a changing world. They fight and stick together. They challenge and change and grow and
stretch. They make mistakes and pick themselves back up. They fail and try
again.
The show reaches into different generations and across economic
situations. We meet women at the lowest ranks like Ethel Parks, the maid gone
wild who bears a child out of wedlock. Out of a job and dumped mercilessly by
the father, she is left to support her little one in any way she can. She is
not an admirable character, but even the coldest heart cannot feel completely
unsympathetic toward her plight. In that time, and even sometimes now, there
was no place for women in her situation. There future was a downward spiral.
Even in the show, her only real solution is to give up the child.
It was in Isobel Crawley, Matthew’s mom, that I saw, again
and again, the changing attitude of women toward their own gender and their
role in society. Women decided that it was time, past time, for them to get
involved – to help others – to change the world for the better. The show
portrays this in the upper-middle class Crawley and in the privileged daughter
of the estate, Sybil.
As the war begins, neither woman can stand by and watch.
They feel they must do something – anything – to help. Sybil trains as a nurse.
She wants to “do something!” Isobel
urges the opening of the Downton estate as a refuge for recovering soldiers.
Her maid, catching the spirit, opens the Crawley home as a soup kitchen for the
returning wounded and poor. The generous and impulsive spirit of these women
breaks tradition and pushes social boundaries.
In Lady Edith, we see the spark of need for women to have their
voices heard. Up until that time, women voted by influencing their husbands’
opinions. To speak aloud, to voice one’s personal and political opinions, was
really unheard of. But Edith begins to write, first a letter to the editor and
then a column. Her position in society opens doors, and it would not be long
before women became political journalists and commentators. It would not be long before they earned the
right to vote. These women changed who we are today.
People have had mixed emotions about Lady Edith’s unwanted
pregnancy in Season 4, perhaps an even stronger reaction than they did over Ethel's similar predicament. I was surprised that some thought it inappropriate for
the time period. After all, her struggle on whether or not to keep a child born
out of wedlock is as old as time. The burden, it seems, generally falls to the mother and her company of women. Notice how influenced Edith is by her grandmother and aunt.
Their opinions weigh heaviest on her heart.
Across the pond and even the globe, we are a shared womanhood indeed, fighting similar
struggles, learning difficult lessons, and working to articulate an honest voice, to do our part.
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