LY #88 An Unfortunate Intrusion of Reality at Downton

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa as Nellie Melba

This blog entry contains 4th season spoilers for Downton Abbey.

I watch Downton Abbey for the costumes, the soap operatics, and to have the imperial past cleaned up, as Maureen Dowd has noted, and reconstructed before my eyes.  I do not watch it to have my own PTSD triggered.  Sadly, last night's episode did just that.

The cleaning of history was discontinued last night in an ugly and unfortunate manner.  While the oppression of women is certainly historically accurate, the intrusion of real-life ugliness into the fantasy of Downton was not welcome.  The climactic scene echoed other classics of crosscutting, like the christening and gang-war blood bath in The Godfather, discussed here by Oliver Gayken as an example of parallel editing.  In Downton, a house concert by the famous (and nonfictional) opera singer Nellie Melba (played by real life opera star Kiri Te Kanawa) is cross cut with the violent rape downstairs of ladies maid Anna.  The happy or bored faces of the house guests and staff, all upstairs, is contrasted with the horror of the actions taken by Lord Gillingham’s charming valet, Mr. Green.

I was very disturbed by this scene as were many others.  When the episode was broadcast in Britain in the fall, it created an uproar, dividing many fans.  The Mirror ran a collection of tweets and posts, including this one from a viewer named Zoe: “Having a rape on Downton is like having a murder on Teletubbies”"   The Express also reported the Abbey fandom's attacks on Julian Fellowes.  The Telegraph's Glenda Cooper wrote, "So when the scene finally occurred - the rape of lady’s maid Anna Bates by a visiting valet - it came out of nowhere. I sat up, and gasped in horror.  No - not Anna! Not one of the best-loved characters (and genuine acting talent) treated this way? And - surely not using rape as Sunday night entertainment in order to spice up a flagging franchise and eclipse the return of Homeland?"


All these responses occurred last fall while I was teaching and not thinking about Downton after my summer of catching up to the show.  Then, after last night's stateside broadcast, there was more outrage.   June Thomas, at Slate.com, noted that the rape is just one more sadistic act against a female character on a show that depends on the suffering of women for its drama.  Tom McCarthy, at The Guardian, said  "What befalls Anna is more brutal, as presented, than anything the series has yet seen, and that includes literal trench warfare."  (Mr. McCarthy also recognized the Coppola-esque cross cutting)

A story in today's New York Times quotes Katherine Hull, a spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network,  saying, “Because this crime can be so isolating, for many viewers who may have a strong attachment to a character, to see them go through an experience that they’ve been through is incredibly powerful.”

Yeah, it was powerful for me in an unfortunate way.  Although my own rape occurred over 40 years ago, it still has some inner psychological potency, it's panic and fear revived at times when I see scenes of rape or even simple scene of women in jeopardy.   The story line of Anna being slugged and battered brought back memories of the two men who kidnapped me for a few hours one night in 1972, took me into the hills above Pocatello, and did what they did while threatening me with death.   After a week of shock (during which I pretty much drifted through my life and flunked all my midterms) I recovered, eventually coming to understand that I if I ever found out who my attackers were I would have the will to kill them.  Fortunately, sometime in my late forties, my mind and heart went the other direction and I realized that if I ever found out who my attackers were I would have the will to forgive them.

I thought about all that last night as I was not sleeping after the violent episode.  So, in an attempt to calm myself as I've been writing this post I've looked into the future by looking at the past.  I've just read the re-cap of the season 4 finale of Downton and found out that Mr. Green perishes (off stage) "in the street" in London and there's talk that Bates pushed him (though some believe that Anna herself did the deed, an ending I would prefer).  So, I may continue watching.