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PDF version'Downton Abbey' is more myth than Masterpiece Theater
by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Feb. 23, 2012
"Downton Abbey" has attracted so many fans that PBS showed it twice on Super Bowl Sunday so football fans would not miss an episode.
The series about the parallel lives of the downstairs servants and the upstairs aristocrats, like the Orient Express on which some long to ride and at which others prefer to hurl stones, has stirred reactions out of proportion to its Masterpiece Theater origins.
Heidi Schlumpf, the writer of this beguiling column, surveys varying opinions, asking "why a British period drama seems to have taken the world by storm." Is it the costumes, she muses, or is it just "a 'Desperate Housewives' with British accents for those who think they are more cultured?"
She concludes with good sense and good humor that, despite the pull of the Edwardian era in which the series begins, she doesn't "want to live 'Downton Abbey.' I just want to be entertained by it."
She notes that the acute social observer Jesuit Fr. Jim Martin feels a need to justify his viewing it as a "guilty pleasure, his Catholic guilt kicking in because the show celebrates income inequality, snottiness and noblesse oblige."
Writing in The Washington Post, Martin decries "a show about rich people who have poor people working for them. And don't seem to mind."
A month ago, English historian Simon Schama denounced the series in Newsweek, terming it "cultural necrophilia" as well as a "servile soap opera" and "a steaming silver tureen of snobbery."
Not to be outdone, British poet James Fenton, writing in The New York Review of Books, accuses the program of absurd plot twists and of upholding a long-past dynastic way of life centered on the "perpetuation of a gigantic nineteenth century house" that symbolizes the ultimately futile goals of a collapsed social order.
"Downton Abbey" might be better understood, in itself and in the politically correct criticism it evokes, as a story, that is, a Myth that in its purpose resembles the Myths that have always preserved the truths about human nature, inflected differently in varying historical and geographical conditions.
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This seems like a story about the Crawley family's endgame as the monarchical ordering of society disintegrated and class distinctions. The latter included people born to live on a high level, replete with power and influence, and people born to live at a lower level, replete with limited opportunities and unlimited miseries, whose calling was to serve those above them.
Great Britain remembers and replays its long-lost grandeur on this series that fulfills one of the functions of Myth set down by Joseph Campbell: "to carry the individual through the various stages and crises of life -- that is, to help persons grasp the unfolding of life with integrity. This wholeness means that the individual will experience significant events ... as, first, in accord with themselves, and, secondly, with their culture, as well as, thirdly, with the mysterium tremendum beyond themselves and all things."
That is the Myth of "Downton Abbey," a story of people struggling to "grasp the unfolding of life with integrity," and that goes for the seemingly deprived people downstairs as well as the seemingly entitled people upstairs. They are all coping with a massive social transition that, a century later, remains incomplete. Whether they know it consciously or not, the artists who created "Downton Abbey" have provided a Myth that helps its viewers, perhaps only at a pre-conscious level, to understand the lives that they lead in the country and in the times in which they live them.
The Myth speaks to various levels of our own American Catholic consciousness, for we have also been living through a difficult and estranging transition from the monarchical, or hierarchical, ordering of the church to a very different collegial sense of the church as a People of God. Dynastic questions and the preservation of great symbolic structures are involved, as is the notion that there are people called to live at its highest level, replete with power and influence, and people called to live at a lower level, replete with limited opportunities and unlimited miseries. If the Myth of "Downton Abbey" includes the exclusion of women from inheriting the great house, the Myth of transition in Catholicism includes the exclusion of women's aspiring to, much less, inheriting the great house of sacramental authority.
People watch the series, therefore, for reasons they do not fully understand. That is why so many people are busy searching for reasons to watch and/or praise or denounce this Myth about their own lives and experience.
The same issues are found in American life in which politics and policies have class referents, between the middle class and the super-rich, between capital and labor, between the 99 percent Occupiers and the 1 percent they view as their oppressors, between outrageously paid athletes and the ordinary people who pay extraordinary prices to keep the games going.
On many levels, "Downton Abbey" is a Myth about our own experience in the wrenching but incomplete transition from the monarchical or hierarchical ordering of church and state into the order cleaned of the old distinctions by the advent of the Space and Information Age. At some layer inside yourself, whether you are the pope or the lowliest of Catholics, whether you are the queen or a commoner, a billionaire or one of the working poor, you feel the tension of this unnamed but inexorably unfolding change. Without really knowing it, the creators of "Downton Abbey" are trying to name it for you. Forget all the conscious reasons we may raise to justify watching it. Let it fulfill its mythic role to help us grasp the universe in which we live. You don't need any excuse for that.
[Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago.]
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A very insightful article.
A very insightful article. Human beings have always used Myths to grasp the unknowable, and come to terms with the inevitability of change. From the first creation myths, to the elaborate Greek mythology, myths soothe the questioner. Many today declare that we no longer have need for myths, or religion; as we now have science and technology to answer all our questions. But to most people it is becoming increasingly apparent that science is no more reliable than the myths of old, and raises more questions than it answers. So myths of all sort are emerging once more to fill the void. Just look at the resurgent popularity of the vampire and magic mythology. Man will always search for ways to understand and conceptualize his existence.
DA AND CATHOLIC MYTHS
DA AND CATHOLIC MYTHS ......... Thanks, Gene, for your typically thought-provoking analysis.
Joseph Campbell was a Catholic and a devotee of Carl Jung, as you know. Jung, although not a Catholic, thought that Catholic myths were examples of a very efficacious depth psychology. Jung was right, which why is why it is so difficult to change church stuctures, such as the coercive hierarchy.
Some 1,500 years after Constantine, Catholics have absorbed the myth of clerical coercive inevitability into their cerebral DNA. This is especially amazing, since the coercive structure is clearly counter to Jesus' clear Gospel mandate. This may be why popes suppressed Bible reading for so many centuries.
The power of the papal myth remains regnant, as was evident recently in the initial blind support of some many otherwise intelligent Catholics for the pope and US bishops' ploy to implement coercively through US governmental regulation the widely rejected anti-contraception "dogma", even against non-Catholics.
For more on this papal "anti- contraception crusade", please read the cross-links and comment, "Papal Ploy Planned in 2009", readily accessible by clicking on at:
http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/gops-b-team
I don't understand the
I don't understand the attitude of some that this show "celebrates income inequality, snottiness and noblesse oblige."
I see Downton Abbey as providing employment for people who choose to work there because it is better than any alternatives they have had. I see some people leave Downton Abbey when they find better opportunities. I see NO class system in terms of morality...with those upstairs and downstairs being equally human. Obama has done everything he can to fan the flames of class envy. But it is GOVERNMENT (whether in Britain or the US) that harms the peaceful commerce of everyday market exchanges (in the case of Downton Abbey it is laws governing property rights...limiting who can inherit).
I think you had better watch
I think you had better watch the series more carefully. It is my understanding from previous episodes of Season One that it is not the British government that is dictating that Downton Abbey be passed to the male heir with the money of the family remaining attached. It is Lord Crowley's father who entered into a tightly worded private contract that bound his future heirs and limited their free exercise of establishing their own wishes of inheritance. The family has consulted with various lawyers to see if a loophole can be found, but the contract was very explicit as to its wording and terms.
Yes, the British government does have laws regulating the inheritance of a hereditary title, but the financial restrictions were freely entered into by a deceased member of the Crawley family with the awareness and presumably the consent of the current Lord and Lady.
Perhaps your political views are coloring your ability to see the series accurately? Perhaps your political views are coloring your ability to see what is happening in this country as well?
Rules of primogeniture in the
Rules of primogeniture in the British Empire dictated that the title and estate had to pass to the nearest male kin to the reigning Lord. What that means for Downton is that the house and the Title of Earl of Grantham would pass to Matthew Crowley with no possibility of Mary or her sisters to inherit. The issue for Mary became that her grandfather had written an entail when Lord and Lady Grantham were married that guaranteed that Lady Grantham's fortune would stay tied to the estate. Thus since Mary could not inherit the title or estate, she could not inherit her mother's money. It was the late Lord Grantham's way of preserving Downton Abbey as a viable estate able to support itself indefinitely into the future.
I am so sorry that you have
I am so sorry that you have lost your (in)sight, making it impossible for you to understand any of what Dr. Kennedy carefully helps us recognize in ourselves. But, of course, your own agenda of racism and bigotry is revealed in your pulling the content of the essay into your hatred for the President, and your anti-government rhetoric. And yes, watch the program again, with an open mind (?), to learn about what every 11th grader knows from their social science class about discrimination and inequality.
" But it is GOVERNMENT ---
" But it is GOVERNMENT --- that harms the peaceful commerce of everyday market exchanges."
Oh, I agree. Let's dump the EPA, FDA, FLSA, ERISA and all of the intrusions in the "peaceful commerce of everyday market exchanges" and we'll see how much better off society will be.
Can we keep police and fire services? Huh? Please, daddy?
Society was so much better
Society was so much better off under monarchical and hierarchical rule. Every person knew their place, and there was a natural order to everything. People knew what to expect of each other and of society. Everything and everyone fit neatly into their proper places. The monarch reigned, uniting the nation behind a single person, separate from and in some ways superior to, government and party politics. The aristocracy supported the monarch in his role and provided examples for others to emulate. The middle class owned businesses and industries and sought to become aristocrats themselves. The lower classes served the others, contributing much to the society in which they lived by their quiet and unobtrusive service, and they took pride in that service well delivered.
Though I did not live through this wonderful age, I value its lessons highly and implement them in my own life, to the extend I am able. I am aware, for example of my familial history, of the fact that my ancestors in England were indeed part of the aristocracy (Viscounts to be specific), and my ancestors in Germany were as well (part of the Barony there). I am aware of the fact that my family helped to build the town I presently live in, and at one point were the largest landowners in the county. As such, I am aware of my obligations as a descendant of nobility and landed American gentry, and so take seriously efforts to preserve the town's history, to aid the county in opening itself to business and development, and also setting a personal example for others to emulate (or at least I try to).
How I long for the days of order, class and hierarchy to return. My fervent prayer is that they do.
Are you also aware that the
Are you also aware that the English oppressed and starved the Irish people during the great famine and tore down their homes and stole their land? Of what is there to be proud? Are you a real person or have I taken the bait? I hope the latter...
thank you Mercy for this
thank you Mercy for this voice of truth and historicity
series such as these are fictional
Right, Mercy. And let's not
Right, Mercy. And let's not forget what the English did to the people's of India and what they tried to do in the American colonies; and also what happened with the Catholic Church under Henry VIII and the results through the centuries. Our frind may feel the need to live-out his/her aristocratic heritage, but it is not at all in keeping with the instructions Christ gave us. So pray for your aristocracy to return, but you should be quite concerned also about what will happen to you when Christ returns!
May I address you as Lord
May I address you as Lord Anonymous? Yours is a most unusual geneology, in that very few viscounts and barons ever emigrated -- they already had it made in the old country.
Annonymous - It is absolutely
Annonymous -
It is absolutely baffling how you can refer to the "order" depicted in DA s "natural." It reflects nothing of nature. It is absolutley artificial and hierarchical.
OK, OK, Anonymous, which
OK, OK, Anonymous, which bishop are you?
LOL. I'm guessing it is all
LOL. I'm guessing it is all of them.
Society was so much better
Society was so much better off under monarchical and hierarchical rule. Every person knew their place, and there was a natural order to everything.
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Sounds as if you're singing from Benny16's hymnbook. Dream on and do try to enjoy your life in the theater and in films. About the only place your dream will ever come true, thank God.
You are exactly right. I had
You are exactly right. I had an suspicion that this somehow paralleled our experience in the church (ie, I love the fancy dresses, but not what they stand for) but couldn't articulate a full argument. You have done it for me!
I'm not sure I buy the
I'm not sure I buy the premise that this is all about capturing a Myth, as much as it is a compelling melodrama of diverse people watching their world— and their place in the world— change forever. It's an engaging drama not because it reinforces structure of class, wealth, and power, but because we get to watch those structures crumble in the face of the modern world with its technology and war.
It's essentially the same premise the make the Walking Dead compelling drama. Hint: it's not about the zombies.
It's an engaging drama not
It's an engaging drama not because it reinforces structure of class, wealth, and power, but because we get to watch those structures crumble in the face of the modern world with its technology and war.
It's essentially the same premise the make the Walking Dead compelling drama. Hint: it's not about the zombies.
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Fr. Larry, Speaking of the "Walking Dead", that is what makes the Vatican and their admirers amongst the clergy and laity so fascinating. In this case, it most decidedly is "about the zombies" and their efforts to return us to the 10th century.
What's frightening is it isn't simply a television drama.
Bravo! Wonderful article!
Bravo! Wonderful article! Thank you!
For anyone to be angry at
For anyone to be angry at this series for what it depicts is like being angry at the Bible because King David and King Solomon did some bad things. The story is the story and Eugene Kennedy rightly invites us to pay attention to the story for its own sake and then maybe notice how we respond, or to notice what the story might be saying about ourselves. All good novels, movies, plays can be like mirrors held up to our own faces: What do we see of ourselves in them, for better or for worse?
Perhaps what might be lost on
Perhaps what might be lost on us at this time and at the same time evoking such diversity of opinion is that "Downton Abbey"may be a metaphor for the Catholic denomination today and perhaps others as well--- fighting to maintain the autocratic, traditional, and monarchical past without seeing that the past is just that and that there is a new light on the horizon. Oddly enough the current Roman denominational monarchs are striving vehemently to turn the hands of time back and dilute, if not obliterate, the gains and freedom ushered in by apVatican II. The faithful remain superficially connected with the old traditions while actually accepting that which has been traditionally rejected by the monarchical Roman episcopacy. We know what has become of the British Royal Monarchy--a shadow of itself, a figurehead. Might that be what the future holds for the autocratic, manipulative and coercive monarchy of religion.
Maybe the end of the series may give us a presage of things to come! At least we can hope!.
"If the Myth of "Downton
"If the Myth of "Downton Abbey" includes the exclusion of women from inheriting the great house, the Myth of transition in Catholicism includes the exclusion of women's aspiring to, much less, inheriting the great house of sacramental authority."
That's right Gene. For Catholics like ourselves this isn't a mythic world. It is our reality. Indeed, even if the women of Downton Abbey can not inherit the estate, they still have more influence in how it runs than the women of the Catholic Church.
I was getting a little
I was getting a little worried about my reactions the Downton Abbey series after so many critics began to find fault with it and, by extension, those like me who do find it worthwhile. Therefore, I almost did not finish your article. However, I am so glad I kept reading. I see I can safely go on enjoying DA -- and keep asking myself about the many parallels I've noticed. Not that I needed permission! LOL
Gee, maybe it is just good
Gee, maybe it is just good entertainment. That's why I like it and nothing deeper is required.
Analyze. Analyze. If you like
Analyze. Analyze. If you like it, watch it. If not, don't.
To CCB: You are right! I've
To CCB: You are right! I've never analyzed the show, I just have fun watching the situations people get themselves into and the way they get out of them. It is a very well written, superbly acted show. Just watch it for entertainment's sake and don't pick it to death. Sometimes a good show is just a good show.
For a modern equivalen in the
For a modern equivalen in the US, just whatch "Citizen Kane", by Orson Wells, based on the life of media mogul William Randolph Hearst: what a glorious death, in an empty mansion...
The pecking order in the U.K.
The pecking order in the U.K. is alive and well. I recommend Julian Fellowes's "Snobs" for a more up-to-date glimpse into Britain's upper and would-be upper classes.
I watch Downton Abbey for the
I watch Downton Abbey for the sheer entertainment it offers on a Sunday night! (I'm cramming in season one from Netflix...sorry I missed it initially).
I say, chill out, watch if you like it, shut it off if you don't....I experience and feel my own values in some of the show's situations and remind myself to "enjoy the ride." Besides, we should all be comforted in knowing the Church issues are all under control by the hierarchy (snicker, snicker) and the politics of USA , well, they provide a wild ride of their own!
Very wealthy oligarchy, elite
Very wealthy oligarchy, elite few have the money, law on their side, the power and the palaces and many have very little and are exploited to help the very rich stay rich. Catholic church is based on this model too.
I agree that the series Downton Abby shows the disintegration of the strict class society and the progression of change to our modern world. The characters are nuanced and well developed. The lord of the manor, Crawley, treats his servants with compassion and empathy, has integrity. The situations are quite realistic and compelling to watch. It is a brilliant recreation along the lines of a previous great series, Upstairs, Downstairs. Equally well done and enjoyable.
Thanks Eugene Kennedy and commentators for your great observations about this miniseries.
Joseph Campbell's writings on
Joseph Campbell's writings on myth are brilliant. Hero With a Thousand Faces, I think is the title of one of his books. A PBS series was made interviewing Campbell and also showed fantastic paintings,illustrations, artifacts to illustrate his ideas. Wish they could repeat that series and show it again.
Myths are necessary. I remember showing Big Bird Goes to Japan to my children. Sesame Street film. In it is repeated the myth of the Bamboo Princess, powerful, compelling myth. I was trying to figure out why the writer and producer decided to wisely include this myth in the film. And why I was so moved by it so profoundly.
Days later I finally realized it showed a myth to soften the horror of a dreadful reality for so many of the world's poor. Infant femicide. Poor peasant mothers forced to abandon their unwanted baby daughters in the bamboo forest. So a myth to deal with such harsh reality is invented. The abandond girl baby becomes the Daugher of the Moon, the Princess of the Heavens, instead of dying of exposure, animal predation or taken to be made a slave or concubine. Myths 'explain' events, help psychologically deal with such disasters such as floods, famines, disease and human caused miseries which as made the need for the myth of the Bamboo Princess to deal with that horror inflicted on poor mothers.
There are modern myths too and we must be on guard to recognize false ideas, some of which are pushed at us by conspiracy theorists, or Tea Party elites, or climate change deniers or RC clerics who push ideas of women's inadequacies and 'reasons' to demean and deny rights and vocations to many of the world's peoples. Vatican and the bishops must face the changes needed in the RC church, and reform itself out of its present corruption, hypocrisy, clerical class system and abuses of its laity and their children and women.
One doesn't have to go to or
One doesn't have to go to or read about Britain to learn about "upper and would-be upper classes."
Just look around you and read the US newspapers, or what passes for newspapers these days.
Watch all of our trash "reality TV" and absorb your daily dose of class envy.
Holy Mother of Pearl, I just
Holy Mother of Pearl, I just realized the Queen of Heaven Virgin Mary, alone of all her sex, the one special woman, is a myth probably created to cope with the actual harsh reality and genuine exploitation of most women throughout the world.
A university sociology prof was asked why women get beaten up and abused so much, underpaid compared to men, in many institutions, countries, denied jobs, rights, or decision making authority. The reason given, because men get to beat up women, and muscle mass can mean power and domination goes on. Subordination myths and rationalizations are developed and maintained to keep women in their place.
Course, I watch miniseries to enjoy them. Usually don't connect any dots, or analyze too much.
Me too, Paulette.
Me too, Paulette.
HIGHCLERE CASTLE and
HIGHCLERE CASTLE and environs, ( http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/ )
the scene of the actual exterior shots of DA, is not without its own NON-MYTHICAL intrigues, as evidenced by a few of my favorite lines from the current Countess of Carnarvon's biographical research into the real-life Lady Almina, upon whom the character of Lady Cora Crawley is loosely based:
"Almina went into St. Margaret's the illegitimate daughter of a Jewish banker and his French kept woman, but she emerged, to the strains of Wagner's bridal march from Lohengrin, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Her transformation was complete. But her ascent up the social ladder had not been entirely trouble-free."
cf. LADY ALMINA and the REAL DOWNTON ABBEY, page 6.
So ART really does imitate LIFE?
Was that Carnarvon the Lord
Was that Carnarvon the Lord who bankrolled the King Tut excavations in Egypt of the 1920's? Carter was the egyptologist archeologist. I think it was Lord Carnarvon. Got to look at that. Thanks Craig B. McKee for showing that the non fiction mirrors or inspires such a great fictional story. When you write Lady Almina had trouble being accepted by the noblesse reminds me of how they treated unsinkable Molly Brown, another nouveau riche lady.
What do they say, reality is far more outrageous than any fiction that can be thought up. You can't/can "make this stuff up"! Myths, if you want to call it that, usually do have some basis in realiy. Same case here. Thanks Craig.
Edwardian era ? Isn't the
Edwardian era ? Isn't the setting near or during The World War ( WWI ) 1914-1918 ? King Edward VII died in May 1910; George V was on the throne until the year of three kings: 1936.
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