Downton’s Secrets

By Deborah Cohen

Downton Abbey—it’s often been remarked—has scored a greater success among guileless Americans than class-savvy Brits, who know to object to its nostalgia for a world of monkish servility for the many and unfettered plenty for the few. That’s certainly true,so far as the critical reception goes. Where American critics lavished giddy praise (and six Emmies and a Golden Globe) on the show, British reviewers have responded far more stingily. This season even the reliably conservative Daily Telegraph described Lord Grantham as an “anachronistic nitwit.”

Downton’s viewing numbers, though, tell a different story. In the UK, the third season averaged an audience of nine-plus million, or 36% of the country’s viewers.PBS pulled down just over half that number in America,and given that the population of the United States is nearly five times as large as Great Britain’s, it’s not just Americans who are succumbing to a fantasy land of benevolent country grandees and Edwardian millinery.

And so, however righteous Simon Schama’s salvo against the “unassuageable American craving for the British country house” may have been, the charge must also be turned back—fair is fair—to the native audience.Leaving aside the class angle, let us chew over another aspect of the show that’s hardly provoked any comment. Above all else, Downton Abbey is about a family. Given the triumph of other family-related shows on TV (Modern Family at the head of the pack),Downton’s account of the emotional dynamics of the aristocratic Crawleys is arguably as central to its success as the period frills and furbelows.

Percolating through the first and second seasons of Downton Abbey, and motoring much of the plot,is a Crawley family secret. The Turkish diplomat,Kemal Pamuk, has died in fragrante delicto after romancing his way into Lady Mary Crawley’s bed.A panicked Lady Mary calls in first her loyal maid,Anna, then her mother. At Anna’s suggestion, they decide to move Pamuk’s body back to his own room.

《唐頓莊園》已是時下的熱門話題，該劇在美國比在英國更受追捧。從目前該劇受到的評論來看，這一點(diǎn)絕對屬實(shí)。與厚道的美國觀眾相比，深諳階級之道的英國人懂得抑制這種懷舊情緒，因?yàn)樵谀莻€時代，大多數(shù)人都過著苦行僧般的奴隸生活，能無拘無束縱情享受的只是極少數(shù)。美國人把這部劇夸得天花亂墜（該劇在美國拿下六項(xiàng)艾米獎和一項(xiàng)金球獎），相比之下，英國的影評人士則吝嗇得多。就連一向可靠保守的英國報紙《每日電訊報》都將本季中的格蘭瑟姆伯爵形容為“不合時宜的傻瓜”。

然而《唐頓莊園》的收視指數(shù)卻得出了不同結(jié)論。在英國，該劇第三季平均有900多萬觀眾收看，這一數(shù)字占到全英國觀眾總數(shù)的36%。而在美國，該劇通過PBS（美國公共廣播公司）放映，收看人數(shù)僅為英國的一半多一點(diǎn)?？紤]到美國人口幾乎是英國的五倍，我敢說被仁慈的王公貴族以及愛德華時代的婦女頭飾所吸引的，可絕不僅僅是美國人。

另外，一身正氣的西蒙·沙瑪抨擊道“貪得無厭的美國人覬覦著英國的鄉(xiāng)間建筑”。就算這話有幾分道理，但公平來講，他的炮口也不得不掉轉(zhuǎn)過來：還是對著英國本土的觀眾開火吧。

階級觀念先放到一邊，讓我們從另一個角度、一個很少受到評論關(guān)注的角度來談一談這部劇。說到底，《唐頓莊園》講述的是一個家庭故事。與另一部家庭題材的收視冠軍劇集（《摩登家庭》）相比，《唐頓莊園》之所以能成功依靠的絕不僅僅是華麗的古典服飾，對貴族克勞利一家的感情刻畫同樣功不可沒。）

克勞利一家的家族秘密貫穿了前兩季《唐頓莊園》，并且推動了絕大部分劇情的發(fā)展。劇中的土耳其外交官凱末爾·帕慕克潛入瑪麗·克勞利小姐的閨房與她私通，卻在云雨之時一命嗚呼。驚慌的瑪麗先是叫來忠心耿耿的女仆安娜，然后又叫來了她的母親。在安娜的建議下，她們決定把帕慕克的尸體搬回他自己的房間。

Little does the trio of plotters realize, however,that their stealthy progress down the corridor has been observed by the scullery-maid Daisy, who eventually tells Mary’s rivalrous sister, Edith, who tells the Turkish Ambassador, who in turn feeds the rumor mill of London Society. Eventually the news comes to Mrs. Bates, the estranged wife of a Downton valet, who threatens to expose the entire incident in the tabloids, forcing Mary (almost)into a marriage of serious inconvenience with the loathsome press baron, Sir Richard Carlisle.

So just how plausible is this story-line?

Far-fetched as the diplomat-in-the-bed incident might seem, Julian Fellowes, Downton’s creator,has claimed that he borrowed it from real-life. In the diary of a great-aunt of a friend of his wife’s is told the tale of a corpse, dead in the act, smuggled down the dim halls of a country house.

That the Countess of Grantham, furious as she might be, would keep her daughter’s secret as her own is entirely believable. That Lady Mary’s father would be left in the dark is not improbable,as women (especially mothers) often managed family secrets, with or without their husbands’knowledge. That the young housemaid would blurt out the news was, or so the Victorians believed, a dangerous likelihood. “Remember this, husbands, and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters,” the novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon warned her readers, “Your servants enjoy the fun.”

然而密謀好的三人均未發(fā)現(xiàn)，她們輕手輕腳地穿過走廊時已經(jīng)被幫廚女傭黛西看在眼里。黛西把這件事告訴了瑪麗的死對頭，她的妹妹伊迪絲；伊迪絲又告訴了土耳其大使；土耳其大使又把這件事傳得沸沸揚(yáng)揚(yáng)，鬧得整個倫敦社會滿城風(fēng)雨。最終流言傳到了貝茨夫人耳中，她是唐頓家男仆貝茨的太太，但兩人關(guān)系卻已經(jīng)疏遠(yuǎn)。貝茨夫人威脅要讓整件事見報，迫使瑪麗（幾乎）陷入了一樁極為麻煩的婚姻中：她差點(diǎn)嫁給了令人厭惡的報業(yè)巨頭，理查德·卡萊爾爵士。

故事劇情合理嗎？

《唐頓莊園》的編劇朱利安·范羅士稱，雖然外交官猝死石榴裙下看起來十分牽強(qiáng)，但劇情卻是取材于現(xiàn)實(shí)生活。在他妻子的一位朋友的伯祖母的日記里，有一段關(guān)于某人尸體的記述。此人正是死于歡好之時，而后被悄悄從一間郊區(qū)別墅的樓上挪到了昏暗的大廳里。

格蘭瑟姆伯爵夫人雖然怒不可遏，卻把女兒的秘密視為自己的秘密，這一點(diǎn)也是非常合理可信的。而瑪麗小姐的父親被蒙在鼓里也并非全無可能。不管丈夫知不知情，一個家庭中的秘密通常都是由女人（尤其是母親）處理的。年輕的女傭要戳穿謊言這一情節(jié)，至少在維多利亞時代的人看來是很危險、卻完全有可能的事。所以，“丈夫們、妻子們、父親和兒子們、母親和女兒們、兄弟姐妹們，記好這一點(diǎn)，”小說家瑪麗·伊麗莎白·布雷登告誡她的讀者說：“你們的仆從喜歡干這種事?！?/p>

But would Lady Edith have exposed her sister?Here the plot falls down. The shame of the one sister would have been felt by the other. More often than not,familial solidarity, especially in matters of morality, was steadfastly maintained, even by siblings who despised each other. However poor Edith’s marriage prospects were, they would have been still worse had her sister’s reputation been ruined. When the of ficial snoopers of the Victorian-era Divorce Court sought to uncover the secrets that petitioners had hidden, they at first imagined that family members would furnish the best evidence. But rare, it would turn out, were the parents or siblings who willingly sent a black sheep to slaughter.

When it comes to the subject of familial dynamics,then, Downton is pure mid-twentieth century melodrama. It caters to our present-day inclinations rather than the historical realities. The closely-guarded skeleton in the closet is nowadays as rare an item of household furnishing as the antimacassar. But for the Crawleys, even the vengeful ones, there was little about the truth that could set them free.

但是伊迪絲夫人真的會告發(fā)自己的姐妹嗎？這里的情節(jié)就有點(diǎn)不合常理了。一個姐妹的不光彩通常也會影響到其他人。大多數(shù)情況下，尤其是涉及到道德問題時，家庭成員都會堅(jiān)定地團(tuán)結(jié)在一起，即便是互相看不順眼的兄弟姐妹也是如此。如果姐妹的聲譽(yù)被毀，可憐的伊迪絲自己的婚姻前景也會越來越糟。在維多利亞時代，離婚法庭的官方調(diào)查員要想找出申訴人隱藏的秘密，第一反應(yīng)總是認(rèn)為申訴人的家庭成員可以提供最好的佐證。但結(jié)果往往是，很少有父母或兄弟姐妹愿意出賣親人，即便此人是家中的害群之馬。

談到家庭活動，《唐頓莊園》純粹是一部20世紀(jì)中葉的情節(jié)劇。該劇的劇情更偏向于現(xiàn)代人的喜好，而非貼近史實(shí)?，F(xiàn)代家庭中恐怕沒有人會把一架骷髏放在壁櫥里小心看管，就像沒有人再使用椅套了一樣。但是對克勞利一家來說，包括那些報復(fù)心很重的成員，真相也無法讓他們獲得自由。