Responses to 'Upstairs, Downstairs'

1. Is the representation of the chauffeur portrayed from a bias point of view? If so why?
The portrayal of the chauffeur is slightly bias because he was representing someone who followed the "black shirt" as this is a modern day representation of that time, we know the black shirts turned out to be wrong and the follewers gradually disappeared as Hitler began his rein. We see how he upsets his colleagues when he goes to sit at the dinner table in his black shirt uniform. He is presented as a minority as the majority is disagreeing with him, suggesting that his view is wrong. During the riot scene is his also ouot numbered and becomes injured in the protests. Also, he has a fling with his employee which could also been seen as wrong because in those days, this wasn't done.

2. In what ways could you say the upstairs family and downstairs staff are clinging to tradition in a changing world?
The rest of the staff think it is inappropriate that the eldest lady's servant is allowed to eat upstairs, they think that they should all eat together downstairs which is a tradition. he represents the changing world as in a normal circumstance all of the servants would have to eat together beneath the rich family. At the end of the episode the chauffeur stands up to his employee (the rich man) whilst he is being told off for his behaviour, this is not traditional behaviour as he is going against his morals and standing up for what he believes in to his employee, this means he is not clinging to to tradition compared to the other staff members. The rich family clings to traditions more than the servants do, for example, they are always having to look there best and show up to balls and posh parties. The ring the bell for the servants when they need them which is very traditional. The youngest daughter in the family is not a traditional rich English girl as she has a fling with the chauffeur and goes to the black coat protest with him, she ends up also getting hurt.

3. Why do you think Lady Persephone wants to join the black shirts?
She wants to break away from the norms of her life as she is probably getting bored with just sitting around all day, so she wanted to do something interesting for once. So it wasn't that she was really into the black coats, she just wanted to do something exciting. Also, because there was a male involved, this added to the excitement as she has someone to mess about with and share their common beliefs.

4. Can you find similarities between Lady Persephone and Jenny from An Education?
One similarity is that they both rebel their normal life for something that is more interesting and exciting, however Jenny is more intelligent and when it is all over, she realizes that she needs to go back to school and carry on with her normal life, whereas Lady Persephone still wants to be involved even when she gets into trouble and her family totally disagrees with her choice. Both of the girls have inappropriate relationships, and these relationships are what lead to there troubles and the bad situations that they get into. They both smoke.

5. Whose British identity do you think is the strongest and why?
The upstairs family has the strongest British identity because they try to carry on with traditions and they have the traditional British home, servants, accents and way of life. Also, their values are those of the most of Britain, so they are a stereotype higher class British family. If one of the family member were to break the collective identity, there would be major consequences and maybe even rejection. For example, if the family were to find out about Lady Persephone's affair with the chauffeur, she would have to face serious repercussions and she would also probably been sent away, rejected, or sent out on to the street.