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Downton Abbey References: Season 5, Episode 8

2/25/2015

References from Downton Abbey Season 5, Episode 8

Lots of references this week!

There is a significance-packed exchange about the events in Amritsar, a horrible massacre of non-violent protestors, which took place in India in 1919, killing more than 370 people and injuring 1,200.

Lady Grantham: Tell us more about British India.
Lord Flitshire: It's a wonderful country. Bombay is a marvelous city. I'm not sure how long British India has to go.
Mrs. Crawley: We heard about that terrible Amritsar business.
Shrimpie: Amritsar was a very unfortunate incident, ordered by a foolish man.
Lord Sinderby: I can't agree. General Dyer was just doing his duty.
Shrimpie: You haven't got that quite right.
Lord Sinderby: I suppose we're entitled to our own opinion.
Lord Grantham: Are we? I hesitate to remind you that Shrimpie knows India and you don't.

Though his position in favor of General Dyer, I think, is given to add to our dislike of Lord Sinderby, much of England agreed with him. A campaign by the Morning Post newspaper raised the huge sum of £26,000 for General Dyer, who was pensioned out of the Army. The campaign was led by none other than the poet and author, Rudyard Kipling, whose literary reputation may have suffered in later years as the Empire fell, and his defense of the man some call, “The Butcher of Amritsar” was seen in a different light. Prolific poet, author, composer and painter, the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in response to the massacre, in 1919, the year before Gandhi began his movement of “non-cooperation,” and parts of E.M. Forster’s novel, “A Passage to India,” are said to be inspired by events at Amristar, of which Forster was made aware from a friend serving in India at the time.

Other references:

The restaurant Rules, where the ladies go to lunch, is open to this day. Founded in 1798, it bills itself as Britain’s oldest restaurant, and is located on Maiden Lane near Covent Garden. Pictures of the fabulous interior can be seen at their website, included in the links at the end of this article.

Miss Baxter and Mr Molesley invite Daisy to join them to see the Wallace Collection, which is famous for its paintings of Titian, Rembrandt, and others, and especially for its French art and porcelain of the 18th century. Mr. Molesley refers to it as a “small” museum. Its locale, Hertford House, was formerly the private home of Sir Richard and Lady Wallace. A quick visit to their website gives you some idea why such a place would open Daisy’s eyes for the world beyond Downton.

The Dowager Countess refers to attending a prior wedding at the Registry, namely that of the Fifth Earl of Rosebery to Hannah de Rothschild, which took place in 1878. The reference is significant, as Hannah de Rothschild was a member of the famous Jewish banking family, and so it was an interreligious marriage, like that of Rose and Atticus.

A couple of fabulous words made their way into the script this week.

Responding to Lady Flintshire’s comments about returning home and moving her “real” pictures out from storage, to replace the ones she had hung for her tenants, Tom Branson says, “what a palaver!”

Palaver n.

            talk that is not important, or meaningful.

            excitement or activity caused by something that is not important.

And when discussing Lord Sinderby’s disapproval of the coming marriage, the Dowager Countess remarks wryly that perhaps “Lady Rose MacClare is a mesalliance.”

Mesalliance n.

            a marriage with a person thought to be unsuitable or of a lower social position.

The Countess also offered my favorite line of the week, as she so often does. When Lady Mary asks her, “Granny, do you think Lord Sinderby would try anything horrible to prevent the wedding?” She says, “He'd certainly like it stopped.” Mary replies, “But he does love Atticus.” The ever-insightful Countess rejoins:

            “My dear, love is a far more dangerous motive than dislike.”

LH

Links:

Rules restaurant

http://www.rules.co.uk/restaurant/

Scene of Amritsar from Gandhi:

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/360217/Gandhi-Movie-Clip-Jallianwala-Bagh-Massacre.html

Wallace Collection

http://www.wallacecollection.org

Downton Abbey Literary References: Season 5 Episode 7

2/16/2015

As usual, the show had some timely references this week, and also made a literary reference to one of Britain’s most popular, if controversial, characters, Rebecca Sharp from William Makepeace Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair.”

Daisy twice refused Mr. Molesly’s (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) offer of help with the book, first when he first said, “shall we work on Vanity Fair when you've finished tonight?” and then again when he asked more specifically, “shall we discuss the vices of Miss Becky Sharp?”

The two main female characters in Vanity Fair represent opposite ends of the spectrum of female morality. Amelia Sedley embodies an ideal of femininity while Rebecca Sharp portrays a quintessential gold-digger and social climber. Sharp is cited by Virginia Woolf in “A Room of One’s Own” among a list female characters who have “burnt like beacons in all the works of all the poets from the beginning of time,” but who do not represent women in the real world. Indeed, Becky Sharp is often cited in feminist critique such as “The Madwoman in the Attic,” a book about the 19th century literary imagination (by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Grubar) which quotes a passage that compares Becky to a monster that is “diabolically hideous and slimy.”

One of Becky’s most famous quotes is:

“I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.”

Perhaps the vices of Becky Sharp will be a cautionary tale that will discourage Daisy from her attempts to change her station in life, or perhaps she will overcome the oppressive notion of “The Angel in the House.”

“The Angel in the House,” was the name of an epic poem written around the same time as Vanity Fair, and in Victorian times came to refer an idealized femininity. Gilbert and Grubar, in their passage on Vanity Fair, compare the novel’s “good” girl Amelia Sedley to the heroine of the poem, Honoria. The poem, “The Angel in the House” was written by Coventry Patmore. Yes, the same name and spelling as Downton’s cook and Daisy’s ally, Mrs. Patmore. And, the family that Becky Sharp marries into in Vanity Fair is named… Crawley!

Whether she keeps studying or not, Daisy is astute when she says that the new Prime Minister, (Ramsay) MacDonald “seems to limp from crisis to crisis.” She doubts whether the first ever Labour Government will last a year. In fact, they did not last and MacDonald was ousted after nine months in office.

But Mr. Mason is prophetic when he says, “Next time, when they're elected, it'll be for longer, and soon a Labour Government might seem ordinary.” MacDonald served again from 1929 to 1935.

Another serious issue raised in this episode was the anti-Semitism in Britain, mentioned by the mother of Rose’s suitor who says at dinner, “Lord Grantham, we both know what we're up against.”

Noted historian David Cesarani writes that during the years between 1920 and 1924, there was “intense opposition to Zionism in the British press,” and that “this agitation occurred during one of the worst phases of anti-Semitism in modern British history.” Some British anti-Semites, notably Henry Hamilton Beamish, who founded an anti-Semitic organization called the Britons, equated Jewishness and bolshevism. This theme was alluded to in a previous episode, when the displaced Russian royalty express their disdain for Mr. Aldridge, perhaps because they blame the Jews for the murderous coup that killed the Tsar and his family in 1918. British Anti-Semitism is one of the themes of the movie “Chariots of Fire,” which takes place at the summer Olympics of the year in which this episode is set, 1924.

Lastly, Rose, who is so terribly in love, is encouraged by Lord Grantham not to rush things, but she counters that she wants to “rush in like Billy-o.” The term “Billy-ho” first appeared in print in 1885, and its origin seems to have been from the steam trains from Liverpool to Manchester, one of which was called “Puffing Billy.”

LH

Downton Abbey Literary References: Season 5 Episode 6

2/10/2015

In last night’s episode, two books played an important part in the plot. The first, “Married Love” by Marie Carmichael Stopes, Sc.D., Ph.D. is discovered by Mr. Bates, who assumes that his wife Anna is using the well known treatise to practice contraception. The book was also mentioned in Season 2 by Mrs. Hughes, when she confronted the maid Edna of trying to entrap Tom by telling him she got pregnant.

Published in the U.S. in 1918, and later banned for indecency, Stopes dedicates the book to “Young husbands, and all those who are betrothed in love.”

A British counterpart to Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in 1916, Stopes was a lifelong advocate for women’s rights and opened the first birth control clinic in the U.K. in 1921.

Here’s more about the book from Curtin University Library, which has a Women’s Health Collection of over 500 important books and pamphlets documenting the history of women’s health:

“On its release, Married Love gave Stopes overnight fame. More than 2000 copies were sold in a fortnight and it was the first sex manual published in the UK. Many letters are available in archival collections that were written by women thanking Stopes for her work and asking for information on birth control. The book was labeled "immoral" and "obscene" by the church, the media and the medical community. In 1935, US academics named Married Love number 16 in a list of the 25 most influential books of the past 50 years.”

Stopes continued her good work until her death in 1958, and the organization Marie Stopes International, founded by the doctor who took over from her at that very first clinic founded in 1918, has more than 600 centers around the world, and has prevented thousands of maternal deaths, and millions of unsafe abortions and unwanted pregnancies. Their vision: “a world in which every birth is wanted.” Their mission: “children by choice, not chance.”

“Married Love” is in the public domain and available free online. Here is just a taste of the language:

“Any well-formed young man or woman is immeasurably more graceful when free from the clinging follies of modern dress, while a beautiful woman's body has a supernal loveliness at which no words short of poetic rapture can even hint. What wonder then that one of the ecstasies of love should be the unveiling of the beloved?”

Another book mentioned in last night’s episode is “The Cambridge Modern History,” which was published in fourteen volumes between 1902 and 1912. Mr. Molesly (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) offers to loan Daisy Volume 5, which he says has “a good chapter on the war and politics in Queen Anne's reign.” Daisy is studying the War of Spanish Succession, in which Queen Anne, who ascended to the throne in 1702, played an important part.

If, as he said, Mr. Molesely received the gift of the set from his father for his fortieth birthday, it would have been a very substantial gift, given that the family had never had a lot of money. Mrs. Patmore obviously understands this, when she tells Daisy not to be “churlish”, adding that “Mr Molesley's offering to lend you one of his prized possessions.”

Finally, there is a reference in this episode to the “Bierkeller Putsch in Munich.” Conservative Bavaria was the center of activity for the National Socialists, and the “Brown Shirts” have been mentioned in previous episodes as having been involved in the violence that may have led to the death of Edith’s lover, Mr. Gregson. In this episode, Lord Grantham says of the events in Munich, “It took days for the police to get the city back under control, and by then any trace of Gregson was buried.”

The “Bierkeller Putsch” literally, “Beer Cellar Revolt” occurred in November of 1923 and was an attempt by Hitler and the Nazis to seize power by force. It failed, resulting in Hitler’s arrest and imprisonment. It was during this imprisonment that he wrote his book, “Mein Kampf”, or “My Struggle.”

LH

New Harper Lee Novel coming in July

2/4/2015

I was excited to hear about this novel coming out, but after reading this article, I'm not sure that the desire to publish it is really the author's wish that it be published.

What do you think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/books/harper-lee-author-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-is-to-publish-a-new-novel.html?_r=0

Downton Abbey's Literary References: Feb 1st Episode

2/2/2015

When the family is discussing Rose’s new friend, Atticus Aldrich, Aunt Rosamund says the name "sounds like a character from a novel by Mrs. Humphrey Ward."

Mrs. Humphrey Ward (1851-1920) was a very popular Victorian novelist, whose works did not retain their popularity after her lifetime. The Bloomsbury’s Guide to Women’s Literature states that her novels, which numbered more than twenty, “deal principally with social and religious themes, often contrasting tradition and progress." Mrs. Ward was also an active anti-suffragist, becoming president of the league opposing rights for women in 1908.

In one speech, she cited one of her many reasons opposing women’s rights:
“The spheres of men and women, owing to natural causes, are essentially different, and therefore their share in the public management of the State should be different.”

Hmm.

The Bloomsbury Guide again: “like many Victorians, she believed that women should set a moral example, as issuing firstly from the home. Ward was also known to be a severe critic of other women writers.”

I’m not sure what Rosamund meant about the name, perhaps that it sounded old fashioned, as Mrs. Ward died in 1920. I like that the show drops in these references, even though I am definitely not feeling inspired to read the novels of Mrs. Ward.

-LH

Downton Abbey References: Season 5, Episode 8

Downton Abbey Literary References: Season 5 Episode 7

Downton Abbey Literary References: Season 5 Episode 6

New Harper Lee Novel coming in July

Downton Abbey's Literary References: Feb 1st Episode

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