A Great Lady

Breann Adams
Apr 9, 2017
3 min read

*Spoilers may be in this blog post*

The glory and splendor of the TV series, Downton Abbey, is breathtaking. From the great houses, to the beautiful gowns, we see prim and proper great ladies who know their place in society. From Lady Mary, the oldest of the three girls, to Lady Sybil, who is the youngest, the role of the female characters in the 1900s is very clear. I will be using the sociological and Marxist analysis from the Media Analysis Techniques textbook by, Arthur Asa Berger, to look at the roles of these female characters.

Lady Mary, Edith and Sybil are all expected to behave according to the time period that they live in. Lady Mary is the oldest and is expected to marry first and well. She finds however, that being a woman in the 1900s in England has restrictions. She cannot inherit the estate because she is a woman and she is expected to marry her cousin, who will inherit the estate. She finds herself a part of the bureaucracy that decides her future and she is not happy (Berger, 2014). With the status of her family, they follow the rules that are set for the many great families of that time.

Lady Edith, the seemingly underdog of the show, faces her own societal restrictions with being a woman. In her article, Lady’s First, Lily Rothman puts it splendidly, “Jilted by suitors, insulted by her older sibling, pitied by her parents: there’s a reason Lady Edith, Downton Abbey’s middle sister to end all middle sisters, has a reputation as a sad sack” (Rothman, 2014). From the very first episode, the viewers have sympathy for Edith. Edith Crawly’s role as a woman is tested when she writes a newspaper column and eventually inherits that newspaper. Not only is she judged for her role with this newspaper, but she is also judged for the baby that she has outside of marriage. One can argue that Edith feels a sense of alienation from the rest of her family with how she is constantly put down and made to feel like a, well, like a loser (Berger, 2014).

Lady Sybil, the youngest of the sisters, finds herself in love with a person whose social class deems him unacceptable to her family. Rather than falling in love with a gentleman, she falls for the family’s chauffeur, Tom Branson. This is a man with no title and no position. Due to her position, this relationship is frowned upon and is forbidden. This can be seen as a problem with status. Tom, the chauffeur, has a low societal status, while Sybil has a high status as an elite (Berger, 2014).

So what can we take away from this show and the female characters...the She did what?! All of the Crawley girls are in the elite class of that time. With money and positions, they have advantages but also many restrictions because they are females. The values that the high social class families hold in that time period dictate how they are supposed to behave. It gives an accurate description of these roles too. "In the tradition of the most factually careful kind of British heritage, however, Downton has made the appearance of period accuracy its priority" (Byrne, 2014). This show is personally one of my favorites. I love seeing the progression of each character throughout the six seasons. If you have not watched Downton Abbey I highly recommend that you grab a cup of tea, possibly Earl Grey, and sit down and be transported back to the 1900s.

*All information about this show was from personal knowledge but can be found in the TV series itself.

*All pictures retrieved from Google Images.

- Berger, A, A. (2014). Media analysis techniques. SAGE Publications, no. 5.

- Byrne, K. (2014). Adapting heritage: class and conservatism in downton abbey. Routledge. Taylor and Francis Group, Vol. 18, No. 3, 311–327

- Fellowes, J., Neame, G., and Eaton, R. (Executive Producers). (2010). Downton Abbey [Television Series]. Washington D.C.: PBS

- Rothman, L. (2014). Lady’s first. Time Inc., vol. 183, no. 3. p54. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.library.aurora.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6& sid=60063a9c-592a-4e1b-9522-f96f7023c5d2%40sessionmgr4009&hid=4104