Clash of Social Classes
The diversity of the characters in the show is no coincidence; it is the means by which the writers created, through the dynamics between the protagonists, a believable atmosphere of antagonism and cruelty as far social interactions are concerned.
Three distinct social categories can be identified:
> At the top of the 'ladder', General Melchett holds all the power in his hands and his insanity allows him to use that power of life and death with no qualms.
>Captain Darling and Captain Blackadder are middle-class characters whose personalities are quite modern but also they do seem to represent the middle-class portion of the British people.
>Pvt Baldrick is by far and without a shadow doubt the epitome of the working class population. He never ceases to challenge the rules of the war and of the pyramid of classes with such candidness that the viewers are compelled to feel a deep empathy.
Baldrick
"I've been supping the milk of freedom. Already our Russian comrades are poised on the brink of revolution and here too, sir, the huddled wossnames, such as myself are ready to throw of the hated oppressors like you and the lieutenant... present company excepted, sir."
Blackadder
"Go and clean out the latrines."
Baldrick
"Yes, sir, right away, sir."
To better illustrate my point, here is a passage from the third series which I think is quite representative of the whole idea.
Three distinct social categories can be identified:
> At the top of the 'ladder', General Melchett holds all the power in his hands and his insanity allows him to use that power of life and death with no qualms.
>Captain Darling and Captain Blackadder are middle-class characters whose personalities are quite modern but also they do seem to represent the middle-class portion of the British people.
>Pvt Baldrick is by far and without a shadow doubt the epitome of the working class population. He never ceases to challenge the rules of the war and of the pyramid of classes with such candidness that the viewers are compelled to feel a deep empathy.
"I've been supping the milk of freedom. Already our Russian comrades are poised on the brink of revolution and here too, sir, the huddled wossnames, such as myself are ready to throw of the hated oppressors like you and the lieutenant... present company excepted, sir."
Blackadder
"Go and clean out the latrines."
Baldrick
"Yes, sir, right away, sir."
To better illustrate my point, here is a passage from the third series which I think is quite representative of the whole idea.
Excellent post and great idea to have included an excerpt which I found both funny (poor cat) and telling. The series offers a useful reflection on the hierarchy between social classes, a characteristic element of British society. Of course, the more you go back in time, the wider the gap between classes was, as illustrated by the excerpt from the 17th century. In the early 20th century, the social gap was still wide. Officers indeed were all members of the upper classes, at least upper middle class or above, while soldiers were working class. But things were changing, as the reference to the Bolshevik revolution shows (even if the answer to the tirade on liberty is to go and clean the latrine). In Britain the government of Lloyd George had begun a series of welfare reforms; then the Labour Party formed its first government in 1924…Excellent post and great idea to have included an excerpt which I found both funny and telling. The series then offers a reflexion on this
RépondreSupprimer