Dowton Abbey: Its Social Structures and How they Function

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Downton Abbey is an idealized example of a social structure that no longer exists. Many bad things can be said about this social order, but I will focus on the show's ideal of how it all "should be".

There are similarities in the functional roles of Lord Robert and Mr. Carson the butler they are the heads of their spheres of influence. Robert upstairs and Carson downstairs. The butlers dress in a similar manner to the Lord of the house, in white tie and tails, in a way to convey their status in the servant structure

People had a pride in service and there was dignity and status, they didn't feel the need to be unnecessarily deferential. Being in service was not considered lowly. There was pride in these jobs and they were for life. A person worked until retirement, when they hoped to be allowed a cottage to live out their life, and be taken care of. This is a world before social services.

Society changed after a whole generation was wiped out in WWI. But before that Downton Abbey was indicative the the whole society structure of the great houses of the day and the country at large. Estates had their own machinery and provided employment to the countryside. It was a structure where the parts depended on each other. People in the houses needed those on the estate to be in good health to provide labor. Both sides needed to treat the other with respect or it would all collapse. It was a world of its own, running on its own rules. For a great house consisting of one family provided full employment for hundreds people including household staff, ground keepers, and farm laborers.

In Downton we often see a hectic rush of activity behind the scenes in order for the upperclass lifestyle to appear effortless (it's described as duck's feet kicking furiously below the surface, while above water everything just glides). Throughout the day, whenever they leave a room, maids come in and plump the pillows to make sure that it is always perfect. The areas of the house that guests saw were very stylishly decorated, but the servant area was utilitarian with bare surfaces, because no-one would ever have any reason to see them.

The way Lord Grantham sees it is that he doesn't own Downton so much as it is his responsibility that he must preserve for the future and hand down to the heir, who ever it may be. Each generation is a custodian to the next, and woe betide the one who has it all go wrong on their watch. Economically and socially it is like a house of cards and could collapse. Several times it was on the verge of falling apart, such as when Robert had to marry American Heiress Cora Levinson. Primogeniture would have the eldest male heir inherit everything and the entailment excluded females, but it didn't matter, because it was survival of the estate the line, and the tradition that was important not the individual members of a family, and by extension the whole community that supports it.

The servants reflect the pride of the aristocrats who live in the house, they feel that the dignity of the house is reflected in their behavior as well as the behavior of those upstairs. It is in their best interests as well to maintain the status quo, as this is the only life they know as well. And as many staff don't marry, their career in service is their life (outside workers like grounds people and chauffeurs were different, but in house staff often had to wait until they left service to marry).

And upstairs is utterly dependent on them, they would have no idea how to do anything if left to themselves. People changed clothes 4-6 times a day because they had nothing else to do. Violet Crawley the Dowager Countess is shocked at Matthew working and doesn't know what a weekend is. Like a benign dictatorship, the house goes on with the downstairs running the upstairs lives of a bunch of people who wouldn't even know where the spoons were kept much less how to make themselves breakfast.

There is a level of trust because the servants are always around. They hear all of the secrets they know who spends time where. They handle all a persons possessions, medications, etc. they just have to trust that these secrets will be kept.

This is a world that is coming to an end. In the next few years everything will change: a generation dies in the First World War, the economy is changing, tax structures adapt, and very heavy death duties began to be imposed on these great houses. It was often cheaper to tear down the house than pay the death duties, so a generation of architecture was also lost.

The rules the servants lived by were ones of strict decorum, with every move dictated while they performed, how they stood, what they served, how much room was kept between them, where they looked with their eyes, their expressions etc. the upper classes also had their rules. At dinner, if the lady of the house turned to the right to speak then all the ladies turned to the right to speak for the first two courses and would then turn to the left for coffee and dessert.

Hugh Bonneville talks of the fact that in England there is a tendency to apologize to others for putting them to effort and to do things for yourself, being reticent to let others do things for you. He recalls having to shed yourself of that. As Lord Grantham says to Matthew it's the way this system functions. Matthew doesn't think that they need butlers and servants. Lord Robert says that Matthew gets enjoyment and fulfillment as a lawyer and his mother as a nurse. How dare he think that the butler doesn't get fulfillment and satisfaction in his own job. And they need their jobs as much as the upper class need them. It is a system designed for the perpetuation of the status quo.

Highclere Castle
Come down the drive see the magnificent facade revealed through the trees.