Discuss the noble system during 18th century from aristocrats(BBC电视剧富贵浮云).doc

Brief Discussion of the Noble System during 18th Century by BBC series AristocratsAbstract: Famous BBC series named Aristocrats is adapted from the English novel which has the same name and the novel is adapted from the true history. It not only shows us the vicissitudes of life in a big noble family, but also shows the history of England during 18th century. Here in this article, well know the plot of the series. And then we will learn 18th centurys noble system from the series, such as intermarriage, Patriarchy and primogeniture. Also we will mention the conflict between Britain and Ireland. At last, we will try to discuss why it began to decline from different aspects. Key word: noble system; aristocrats; 18th century: declining The introduction of the The BBC series was screened in 1999, telling the true story of the sisters in Richmond family. Second Duke of Richmond, their father, an illustrious nobleman, loved his children very much and gave his girls the chances to study advanced ideas. His daughters were different from the other noble ladies at that time. All of them have their own specific personality and advanced ideas. The eldest daughter Caroline disobeyed her parents demand and eloped with a politician Henry Fox. Its the first time that the big family had a crack. The second daughter Emily learned from her sisters experiences, and finally she married an Irish nobleman with her parents permission. Several years later Caroline and her fathers relationship got better. However Second Duke of Richmond died soon, his wife died with sadness after his death, and their will left ruined the peace of the family. The father let the second daughter take care of the three younger sister and Caroline was angry about that. The third daughter Lousia grew happily in Ireland and married an Irish noble as well. Caroline became more and more unsatisfied. So when Sarah was at the time to marry, she took her and the youngest sister back to London. Sarah won the Princes admiration but at last when the Prince became the King, he married a German Princess because of politic reason. Sarah soon married a very ordinary man who treated her coolly. Its not too hard to understand that she then had an affair. The youngest daughter died with regretting not stopping her sister doing silly thing. The big family was having their hard time. Sarah finally got back home with her daughter and lived with her brother. There she met a military officer and fell in love with him, but she choose to hide her feeling this time. When the war finished, the officer came back and made an offer of marriage. Even though her brother didnt approve, with the support of her sisters she lived a happy life with the officer ever after.Everything seemed perfect and there could be a happy ending, but time flied, death departed the family again. Fox and Caroline died, and soon Emilys husband died as well. Emily made a surprising decision that she married the family teacher. Once again, the sisters disobeyed the old system of noble. In fact, they were so alike in their characteristic. They all grew older, their children grow up. Emilys favorite son Edward came back from American, devoting himself to the revolution of liberation in Ireland. Unfortunately he was caught by the England army and died in prison. After all the vicissitudes of the noble family, the sisters were waiting for their deaths and all the glory and sorrow all went with the wind. The History and Noble System Revealed from the SeriesIn the series you can see the extravagant life the aristocrats lived, the high statues they owned and the strict system they obeyed. Now lets focus on several details of the noble system.1) Intermarriage SystemIn the series, when Caroline decided to marry Henry Fox, her parents objected her beg. And when Emily decided to marry the family teacher, her son who inherited his fathers title of nobility, also showed his disapproval. Its easy to understand that Emily cant gain her sons support for the family teacher was in low statues, but in fact Henry Fox was an excellent politician and was rich himself. Why the Second Duke of Richmond dislike him? It was because at that time the aristocrats follow strictly to the intermarriage system. They insisted on that couples should be matched for marriage. So even though Henry Fox was outstanding, without blue blood he would hardly be accepted by Second Duke of Richmond.This kind of system limited the peerages expanding and maintained the pure blue blood and aristocrats dignity. 2) Patriarchy and primogeniturePatriarchy and primogeniture maybe one the most salient features of the noble system. Males are always prior to females in status. The eldest son of a family was paid more attention to than his brothers and sisters. It was because that most of the fortune and the titles of nobility were left to the eldest sons. The younger brothers were driven to the society to struggle on their own. That may help us understand why Edward and the eldest son of Emily were so different two people. One chose to accept the new thought of democracy while the other just sticked to the old noble honor of the family. Then what about Patriarchy? You may still remember one of the details in the . When Caroline disobeyed her parents demand and eloped with Henry Fox, his father was so angry that he threw all the china to the ground and said that Caroline was no longer his daughter. In fact, before this event, Caroline was his favorite daughter. Why the fathers attitude changed so much? It was because that Caroline not only ignored the rules of nobles, but also ignored the authority of her father who was the head of the family. In a noble family, the wife and the children had to obey the husband and father without any condition. So no matter how the second Duke of Richmond loved his daughter, he could never bear his daughter challenging his authority. 3) The contradiction between Britain and Ireland When you watch the series, you might find that its very strange when the noble from Ireland, lord Kedar went to ask for marriage, the mother of Emily felt very angry and showed her hate just because the man was an Irish. It reflects the contradiction between Britain and Ireland.The contradiction had a long history. It first began because of the religious conflict. And when it came to 18th century, it was more about the independence of Ireland. In the series, Lord Kedar was a noble man himself and in fact all the aristocrats in Ireland were from England. But the aristocrats in England never considered Irish noble as same as themselves. They looked down upon the Irish noble. It explains Emilys mothers hate toward Kedar. And of course the aristocrats in Ireland were unsatisfied with it. Lord Kedar devoted his life to gain the rights and interests of Ireland in economy, military and other parts. He was just like the leader of Ireland, man there admired him. Even though with the help of Fox what he did didnt have much achievement because the king of Britain didnt think high of his bill. It was the true history. Soon in the late 18th century when the American Revolution and the great French revolution exploded, people in Ireland were deeply influenced. The situation in Ireland became terrible. Many people who accepted the new theory from American including some aristocrats such as Edward in the series organized the movement for liberation. However it ended in failure. The contradiction became more and more fierce.Why the noble system declinedIn the book The Age of Aristocrats, the writer considered the time from 1688 to 1830 to be the century of aristocrats. Many scholars say that the form of Britains government in early modern period was mixed constitution. It consisted of monarchy, oligarchy and democracy. And during the time of the series, maybe its the climax of the oligarchy. The aristocrats used have such a glorious time, but why it is declining now? The common explanation is that because of the bourgeoisies speed development in 19th century, the aristocrats had to go down the stage of the history. I agree with that, and during 18th century, you can find some omens to explain the declining of the noble system.1） The number of aristocratsIn the second part of this article, we have mentioned the primogeniture already. Only the eldest son had the right to inherit the title of the noble. When the noble family had no sons, then the title came to an end. Thats one reason why the number of aristocrats was so small. Another reason was to maintain the dignity of aristocrats and also to prevent the king to give the noble title casually. Whats more, the king usually only gave the noble title to the member of royal family, brass hats, partys backbones, and always considered the blue blood first. To some extent, it was a good thing. The limit of the number of aristocrats made the English noble different from other European countries noble. They were the elites of the country. But even though, the small number limited their ability. After 1832, the number of eupatrids was never able to outnumber several hundred. This fact decided that their total force was also limited, and could not to compare the bourgeoisie. 2) The luxurious lifestyle To make themselves different from the other classes, the aristocrats used the luxurious lifestyle to emphasize their social status. In the series, even though it didnt deliberately show the complicated and extravagant ceremonies or something like that, it did reflect their lifestyle. When you see the royal family holding the big party, the aristocrats gambling in France, the manors they lived, you can easily know what kind of life they lived. The main forms for them to flaunt included grand wedding and funeral, fantastic party, buying all kinds of luxury, decorate their houses, and owning lots of servants. For example, Henry Fox and Carolines son was one who loved to gamble very much, and always in debt, but for himself he considered it nothing much. And when Emily married Lord Kedar, the first time she went to Ireland, she spent a lot of her time to decorate the house, and never consider how much she spent. Lord Kedar didnt care money as well. Every time he went to London, he bought many luxuries to please Emily, his beautiful and wasteful wife. They were so accustomed to the wasteful lifestyle that they never thought it any wrong. Though aristocrats sometimes did some philanthropy, it can not offset peoples accumulated rancour. And once time changed, they can hardly to change their lifestyle and people especially the member of labor party always repelled them. Without large income, the continued luxurious lifestyle became a heavy burden to the nobles. 3) The aristocrats economic life In order to explain why the aristocrats economic life was one reason for their declining, here we have to know the concept of large estates. Large estates were the foundation of aristocrats life. After the Glorious Revolution, the noble possessed a large part of the farmland in the country and had more income than any other classes.Traditionally, the main ways to operate the land were agriculture and forestry. During the 18th century, the two ways were still important parts of aristocrats economic life. When Industrial Revolution came, the aristocrats also invested in the mine industry, transportation industry and some business despite their prejudice to it. They did really well in these fields and made big contribution to the country. And in 18th century they were still the richest class. However, it didnt change the tradition of treating the land as their main income. So it confined their investment in manufacture. When industry became more and more important, they were not able to master the largest wealth any more, And therere other two reasons why the aristocrats couldnt be as rich as they were before. First, many noble family began their industry well but ended it badly. The fathers maybe hardworking, but their sons were hedonists. Another reason is impersonality. Many nobles lived in London all the time, and some had to devote themselves to military, politics and diplomacy. They had no more energy to operate the industry all the time. So its easy to understand, when the industry age came along, they had already fell behind. 4) The revolution shock In the second part, when introducing the conflict between Ireland and Britain, we have mentioned the two big revolutions during 18th century. The first one is the American Revolution and the other is the Great French Revolution. I think this part I