Life in“Downton”: The Representation of Edwardian Social Hierarchies in Downton Abbey (2010)

Abstract

—The Edwardian Era (1901–1914) represents a period of extreme socio-economic inequality in Britain. The upper-class invested its financial resources on land and built luxurious estates with large country houses; the lower-class struggled to survive. More than one million people in Edwardian England were compelled by survival needs to work as domestic servants for upper-middle-class and upper-class households. Besides the economic inequity, the period was also characterized by extreme gender inequality. For instance, women could not inherit property and female servants worked at significantly lower wages than male retainers. This study examines the TV series Downton Abbey (2010) to better understand how gender and social inequalities shaped Edwardian society. To this end, the paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the mise-en-scenes , characterization, architecture, and interior design of the English country houses depicted in the series. Thus, selected scenes are used as data and are scrutinized through the strategic concepts of front stage and backstage [1], cinematography and mise-en-scenes [2], and critical visual methodology [3]. The findings of this investigation indicate that Downton Abbey accurately represents the Edwardian social hierarchy by carefully utilizing the three mentioned strategies to portray gender and social inequalities.