In the
series of Downton Abbey it gives the audience an insight into the lives of the
aristocracy and its staff on the Downton Estate in Yorkshire. The first episode
is set in 1912 as it announced the sinking of The Titanic. There is a strong representation
of the hierarchy within the Crawley Family as well as within the members of the
workforce. The Family are led by His Lordship Robert
Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and the staff are led by Mr
Carson (Jim Carter) the Butler in charge of the wine cellar, the pantry and the
dining room and the male members of staff report to him; the female staff are
led by the Housekeeper Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan).
Near the
beginning of the opening scene as the day starts Daisy Mason (Sophie McShera) the
kitchen maid wakes two lady’s maids in an upper floor bedroom at 6am. Anna
Smith (Joanne Froggatt) comments that, “For once in my life I’d like to sleep
till I woke up natural” inferring that she was ruled by her position and she
had no freedom regarding her option for getting up at a more reasonable hour. The
room is bare and plain with just the necessities needed for the maids. The room
is well lit by the early morning daylight through the sky lights that are without
curtains and the window with unlined curtains lets the light through. Mrs
Patmore (Lesley Nicol) the cook in charge of the kitchen and its staff reminded
poor Daisy of the whole list of jobs that she was expected to do.
Even though
they are all servants to the same household they have different roles within
their employment. The kitchen maid must be on duty before the lady’s maids as
she must lay the servants hall breakfast, blacken the stove, light the bedroom
fires, clean and lay the fires on the ground floor before the Family wakes up.
Mrs Hughes expects Daisy to be finished and back down to the kitchens before
anyone sees her as she is ‘unsightly’ to the Family as her job is regarded as inferior
to the other members of staff. In the above screengrab Daisy is wearing a dull striped
salmon-pink long dress with a long apron tied at the waist with her hair secured
back in a simple bun as she is on her knees in the grate attending to the fire;
Mrs Hughes has a long black dress on which makes her stand out from the rest of
the females in an authoritative fashion and her hair is tied back in a neat bun
at the base of her head. The lady’s maids have long grey dresses on, a long
full-length white apron and a white hat positioned over their tidy hair bun.
The First
Footman Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) walks through the ground floor rooms observing
that everywhere looks presentable for when the ‘family’ come down for their
breakfast. He has neatly combed and parted dark hair and he is wearing a black
jacket, waistcoat and trousers; a white studded shirt and standing collar with a
bow tie which gives him a rank above the men below him such as William Mason
(Thomas Howes) the Second Footman who lays the tablecloths and irons the
morning newspapers to dry the ink which stops his Lordship from getting ink on
his hands. This demonstrates the lengths that they had to go to for the upper
classes indicating that it was unheard of for the gentry to soil their hands on
such a mundane object as a newspaper. The camera focuses on this bizarre task in a close-up shot.
When Lady
Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) a daughter of Robert Crawley woke up in the
morning, she summoned the staff downstairs by pulling a lever to ring a servant’s
bell to communicate with them that she required their presence to bring her tea
tray to her bedroom. Her bedroom has long heavy drapes at the tall windows,
high quality wooden furniture, a four-poster bed, red and cream patterned
wallpaper and a silver candlestick on her bedside table which represents wealth. Downstairs, the entire
staff are seated at the long servant’s hall breakfast table in order of
importance with Mr Carson at the head of the table and the least important
members of staff furthest away from him.
When Crawley
himself descends the staircase, he displays excellent deportment with a straight
back and perfect posture. He is in a smart, high-quality dark brown three-piece
suit with white shirt and brown tie. In the Dining Room he displays some air of
snobbery as he converses with Carson regarding the morning’s headlines about
the sinking of The Titanic, expecting the survivors to include the ‘ladies in first
class.’ He then sounds a little more compassionate yet condescending by saying,
“God help the poor devils below decks…on their way to a better life.” Carson
stands near the wall between the sideboard and the window as if standing to
attention awaiting instructions as His Lordship selects his breakfast then
reads the newspaper; his back is straight and he positions his arms behind his
back. He is also wearing a dark suit, but it would be of a lower-class material
than his superiors.
At
this time in history the upper classes were quite snooty concerning the class
of people believing themselves to be of far more importance than the lower
classes even to the concepts of them having more privileges to being saved on a
sinking ship above the rights of those inferior to them.
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