Research: Representation in Downton Abbey

 In this extract from Downton Abbey, there is a variety of people presented from different social classes. The majority of the opening follows a young girl called Daisy, a maid, as she goes about a large estate completing her given tasks. She comes across the people downstairs in the kitchen who are all in a hurry to get breakfast ready for the Lords and Ladies. These people are dressed in plain, and slightly shabby clothing. Whereas the people working upstairs are all in uniform which looks a lot cleaner and tidier. This shows the audience that there are still levels of responsibility and importance within the lower class. We do not see any of the wealthy inhabitants of Downton Abbey, because they are all still asleep. This shows that the lower class has to work much harder than them and that they have to do a lot of work in order to satisfy their needs. Although the working class is not presented in a glamorous way, the audience still respects them for their hard work and their humble and cheerful attitude.

At the beginning of the extract there are several close up shots to show two middle class people receiving an important message, which will later be revealed as the sinking of the Titanic. The close ups show the emotion of the characters and shows the importance of specific people and items. For the rest of the opening, the camera shots are mostly hand-held. This style of following characters adds a personal level. The audience feels almost as if they are inside the show because there are very few cuts, a lot of movement, and they remain at eye level with the other characters. There is also an establishing shot of Downton Abbey itself. This shot continues for several seconds and pans across in order to give a full view of the estate in all its glory. The establishing shot also gives the audience an idea of the scale of the estate and therefore the multitudes of people that it must take to run it.

In terms of non-diegetic sound, one can hear typical things such as footsteps creaking doors etc. but near the beginning one can hear the tapping of the Morse Code machine. This creates verisimilitude in the story as this was the appropriate form of communication of that time. One can also hear the hustle and bustle of the servants quarters and people working on the ground food, getting it ready for when the owners wake up. This creates an atmosphere in the story, there is a sense of hurry and seriousness of trying to make sure everything is ready and in its place. This serves as an insight as to what it felt like to work in this kind of a place at this time. One can also notice that further on when the Lords and Ladies emerge, all the sound from the servants disappears. As for diegetic sound, there is an orchestral instrumental piece playing in the background. This is played throughout the show and is ultimately the theme song of Downton abbey. It is first played in the shots of the train and in the shots of the servants in the house. This is deliberate because the music alludes to the fact that just like the train, the estate is a well-oiled machine. The music has a classical tone, which gives a sense of drama and glamour, which is ultimately what the show is all about.

The show is obviously set in a large estate with beautiful grounds. The opening starts in the morning, and there is very effective use of natural light. In the underground level, it is slightly dim, the people look pale and tired, all the furniture and utilities are colourless and have no real style to them. As daisy travels up to the ground level, we see the morning light pouring in through pristinely clean windows, lush green plants, mahogany door frames, staircases and bookshelves. There are also chandeliers, fancy paintings and lavish velvet sofas. Daisy enters a whole new world of luxury and comfortability. She almost looks like an intruder in her plain dress, amongst the beautiful decor and neatly dressed maids and butlers. This is another way of showing the distinction between the different classes. They are hardly ever seen together, but there is always evidence of where they have been such as the glasses from the night before picked up and cleared away by one of the manservants. 

No artificial editing effects are used in order to keep the film looking as realistic as possible. There are just plain cuts between footage to create a more seamless flow of footage. Each shot is quite long as well, sometimes containing full conversations of dialogue and rarely changing point of view in order to keep continuity and the personal aspect of the film.

The representation of the lower class is very realistic in terms of what it was like in the early twentieth century. The media today tells the story of these people who worked behind the scenes, and in those days would have remained unnoticed and almost irrelevant to the news, arts and everyday conversation.  Right from the beginning Downton Abbey sets the record straight and shows these people to be the backbone of English society. They run everything from maintaining the grounds, to cooking and cleaning , and waiting for upper class members. They run the estate like a well oiled machine and the story starts off with showing the inner workings of these characters very deliberately in order to show that they ultimately work harder than the people who pay them (or don’t for that matter). In those days this section of society was ignored by the media because they did not have the time or money to be informed but it anyway, this is a drastic difference to today's society, where just about everyone in the western world has access to any information they want within seconds. In Downton Abbey however, word that the heir to the estate has died on the Titanic, travels through the lower ranks merely by word of mouth.

In conclusion, Downton Abbey tells the story of the interaction between all English classes. In the opening scenes of the first episode, we start right from the bottom of the ranks and work up to seeing the Lady of the house call for breakfast. The use of the four elements delicately intertwines practical cinematography with the key messages and representation of characters, creating a realistic and broad perspective of twentieth century life in Southern England.