Papers by Katelyn Billings
Women like me don't have a life. We choose clothes, and pay calls, and work for charity and do th... more Women like me don't have a life. We choose clothes, and pay calls, and work for charity and do the season. But, really, we're stuck in a waiting room, until we marry"-Lady Mary Crawley, Downton Abbey, S1E1 An immediate modern classic, the PBS Masterpiece Theater Series Downton Abbey has captured the hearts, souls, and attentions of viewers all around the world. The series follows the wealthy Crawley family as they struggle to find an heir for their beloved Downton Abbey, a grand manor house. In the pilot episode, the audience is introduced to all of the major characters and family members, and is quickly made aware of the prominent class and gender distinctions of the house and its residents. Upon the tragic sinking of the Titanic, Downton has lost its presumptive heirs, Earl Grantham's cousin James and his son, Patrick. The Earl of Grantham only has three daughters, Mary, Sybil, and Edith, and since the estate must go to a male heir, the family struggles to keep it in their immediate family. Mary and her sisters will lose all of their inheritance, and Robert, the Earl of Grantham, will lose his beloved Downton should Cousin Matthew, the next eligible heir, inherit the estate. Through Downton, audiences are exposed to life within the grand manor houses of English aristocrats, complete with the gender politics, class struggles, and material culture. Mary and Sybil, the eldest and youngest daughters of the Earl of Grantham, provide some of the strongest commentary on women's roles in English society, and how, even in a luxurious home such as Downton, they are still hindered in terms of agency, and equality. While Mary's metaphor of a woman's life being equal to that of a patient in a waiting room is indeed powerful, she still submits to this tradition of courtship, while her sister, Sybil, embraces a more independent lifestyle, eventually
Uploads
Papers by Katelyn Billings