Practice question: Downton Abbey

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representation of gender

The extract begins with a wide shot of the Abbey itself, this is an establishing shot, and immediately the iconic shot of the Abbey signifies the indexical meanings of ideas such as ‘power’, ‘money’ and ‘elegance’ therefore as a contrast to this, the editing then cuts to the Butlers of the abbey; under stairs where workers, maids, butlers and cooks are found. First we see a young maid, Daisy, walking down the hallway, waking other maids up. Throughout the extract (especially the first half) the narrative seems to follow Daisy. We get the idea that she is first out of bed and waking everyone up because she is of lower status, even below other maids.

Daisy’s status in the household is further constructed as we delve deeper into the extract. The following shot, takes us into the kitchens and daisy is moving about quickly and madly. An older maid strides through the kitchen calmly and cleans dirt off of the cooker, whilst firing instructions and questions at Daisy, all of which are answered snappily with a rushed out of breath voice. As she collects her previsions needed to tend to the fires. In this small clip, we get an idea that age is a large factor of status, certainly in this microcosm, but assumingly in the macrocosm.

When Daisy leaves the kitchen and climbs the stairs into the main house, some fast tempoed, non- diagetic music fades in; this builds on the stressful atmosphere that the audience are about to be exposed to. From the moment Daisy is on the ground floor there is one large continuous shot moving around the lower floor of the house. The first half of the shot mostly follows Daisy, through the house, showing all the maids rushing around, going about their individual jobs. All the time the camera moves smoothly, showing that although stressful, everything is smooth and precise. Once Daisy leaves the shot, the camera continues forwards and follows a butler who emerges from a door on the right. As this happens, there is a slight change in the music; it still remains fast tempoed, however the violins play a different more graceful melody, fitting with the well dressed butlers graceful stride through house. There is some small dialogue throughout the sequence. In which we hear the well spoken tone of the butler.

After the long sequence, the camera cuts to a shot of a young girl in a bedroom upstairs. We assume that the girl is part of the family that own the household because she is lazily just getting up from her four poster bed. Also the non-diagetic music gets softer again, demonstrating this. To confirm these assumptions, the girl rings a bell carelessly as if to say ‘where is my servant’ the bell signifies again the indexical meanings of power.

In contrast to the careless ringing of the bell, down in the kitchens, lots of bells start ringing in the kitchen, making the atmosphere again pick up from the relaxed of that in the bedroom, to that of the stressful one the maids and butlers are in.

The First main close up shot we see, is a shot of a ring of keys, being carried down a corridor. The close up shot triggers the keys to signify other meanings to the consumers. The keys are iconic of literal keys that open doors, due to a large number of them on the ring this is symbolic of a large house, meaning indexically, that the bearer of the keys must be of high authority and important. The camera then cuts to a high angle mid shot of daisy on her knees in the fireplace scrubbing it clean. This high angle indicating that we are looking down on her, because of her low status. This is cleverly done, because the bearer of the keys, Mrs Hughes, then walks into the room; although the camera is a high angle to daisy, it is a fairly low angle to Mrs. Hughes. Everyone in the room corrects their posture and make themselves look even busier as she entered. With all of this happening, it makes her seem powerful to an extent where the audience look up to her literally, in the low angle shot. This fully portrays her power.

Towards the end of the extract, we finally meet the lord of the house. The camera pans elegantly across the top of the stairs then pans up to a well dressed gentleman, walking at his leisure, down the stairs. Maids scuttle away quickly and butlers bow before him. To fit and emphasise the meaning, graceful, almost triumphant but elegant, music is played as he is in shot and walking down stairs. There are a large number of low angle shots used; e.g. waist height at the top of the stairs and then from downstairs looking up at him descend, again to emphasise power. He is up early and sits at the head of the table for breakfast with his children.

In contrast, the lady of the house is shown in bed, being served by a maid. It seems she has no need to get up. Therefore in answer to the question with use of camera, sound and signifiers especially, the director has portrayed a complicated representation of gender that is gradually unfolded throughout the extract. Resulting in a portrayed image that although men have higher status, in terms of names and work, e.g. butlers in formal clothes serving the family, where as maids are in work worn clothing, working behind the scenes on such tasks as cleaning and cooking., the women have overall importance, as shown in the kitchens where the maids are giving the butlers instructions. Also the lady of the house receives breakfast in bed and is not expected to get up. So in summary, you could say that a loose stereotypical is used, where outcomes are less harsh.