As those who follow me
know, I’ve been claiming for over a year now that Thomas Barrow is the Iago of
Downton Abbey, Iago of course being the Machiavellian villain of Shakespeare’s Othello. Today, another, related allusion
just popped out at me, after simmering in my subconscious for who knows how
long.
So….I’m thinking of
another famous work of literature which, like Downton Abbey, has all of the following elements:
A “king” with three
daughters and no son
A good man named “Tom” who
is an outsider and yet very loyal to the patriarch
A young tormented man who
constantly causes chaos in the kingdom
An idealistic daughter who
falls in love with “Tom”
A selfish daughter who is indifferent
to her sister’s suffering
A loyal subject of the
“king” who gets “pilloried”
An ancient kingdom in
jeopardy of getting split up.
Which is it? I am sure
everyone reading this with even a passing acquaintance with literature already
guessed the answer after the first two clues---of course, it’s Shakespeare’s King Lear! Yes, Downton Abbey fans, the very clever Julian Fellowes has managed to
sneak yet another clever literary allusion into his so-called faux-artistic “soap
opera”, and to elude detection by nearly all of its multitude of fans for
nearly 5 years.
Here’s my quick summary of
these parallel characters, I hope some of you will jump in and help me sharpen
this summary still further, and spot other parallels—I bet there must be
several sly allusions to King Lear scattered through the first five seasons,
and at least one of them will (I predict) have been uttered by Violet Crawley!:
Robert Crawley as King
Lear---he is arrogant, finds it difficult to adjust to his loss of control over
a domain his forefathers ruled without opposition for generations.
Tom Branson as Edgar (aka
Poor Tom), who is an outsider at court, and who is cast out of favor but who
remains intensely loyal to the king.
Thomas Barrow as Edmund,
the bitter talented young man who wants revenge on all those who have treated
him as less than human because of his status, and who operates by turning
others into his puppets to do his mischief for him.
Sybil Crawley as Cordelia,
the idealistic daughter who courageously flouts her father’s authority, and
then tragically dies—but recall Nahum Tate’s 18th Century Bowdlerization of
Shakespeare’s play, in which Cordelia actually survives and marries “Tom”.
Mary Crawley as Regan, the
selfish daughter who is indifferent and even contemptuous of one of her
sisters.
Bates as Gloucester, the
faithful courtier to the king, who is blunt spoken and fearless, and who is
publicly punished for crimes he did not commit, but remains loyal.
And finally we have a “kingdom”
that is danger of being split up into pieces, as the “king” listens to “Tom’s”
plans for subdividing the ancestral realm.
My parting question is, “Who
is the Fool of Downton Abbey?”—(that’s not a trick question, I really can’t
think of who it is).
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
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