MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Mary Poppins and British society Bachelor Thesis Brno 2012 Author: Supervisor: Pavlína Matoušková Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Declaration Hereby I declare that I have compiled this thesis on my own and all the sources of information used in the diploma thesis are listed in the references. Brno, 9 December 2012 ……………………….. Pavlína Matoušková Acknowledgement I would like to express my thanks to my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for her kind advice and valuable feedback. Content Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5 Life of P.L. Travers with emphasis on resemblance with Mary Poppins ........................... 6 The film version of Mary Poppins .......................................................................................... 8 Historical background ............................................................................................................. 9 The class differences ............................................................................................................... 12 Education .............................................................................................................................. 16 Work ..................................................................................................................................... 17 Housing ................................................................................................................................ 19 Entertainment ....................................................................................................................... 21 The position of women in the British society ....................................................................... 23 The suffrage movement ........................................................................................................ 25 The upbringing ....................................................................................................................... 28 Toys ...................................................................................................................................... 32 Punishment ........................................................................................................................... 33 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................. 35 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 37 Introduction The Edwardian era took just a short period of British history, but nevertheless had an enormous impact on many aspects of life. This thesis sets out to show the era as a transitional time when some Victorian values carried on but other values underwent major changes. These changes were not only in fashion, leisure and technology, but also in more important topics of class differences, women‟s rights, and upbringing. The society was transformed in all these areas immensely. It was an era of nannies and governesses and for that reason the theses displays the changes that took place on the background of the story of one of the most famous nannies of all times, Mary Poppins. The story of this fictional character gives us opportunity to look not only at working conditions, social reforms and suffrage movement but also at state of mind of people involved. The story also unfolds the impact different attitude has during life difficulties on people‟s lives and how different ways of upbringing shape a personality. The thesis begins with the details of life of P.L. Travers, an author of the narrative, since it played an important part in her writing and as such deserves a short chapter at the beginning of this work. Historical background of the era follows in the successive chapter to introduce the situation in England in 1910, when the story takes place. Main focus of the work will be given to three chapters analyzing the society from the point of view of class differences, the position of women in the society and British childhood and upbringing as reflected in the book. As the main source the film is used but as there are different versions of the story the books are used as a complementary source where certain aspects of society are more distinct. 5 Life of P.L. Travers with emphasis on resemblance with Mary Poppins Helen Lyndon Goff was born in Australia in 1899 to a family of Travers Robert Goff, who worked as a bank manager. Being a heavy drinker, he died when Lyndon was only seven years old. Lyndon moved to her aunt Ellie, who lived in Bowral, together with her mother Margaret Morehead Goff and two younger sisters. A shocking experience came when Lyndon was ten years old. Her mother decided to commit suicide and before she left she put Pamela in charge of two of her younger sisters. Pamela, herself only a child, tried to consolidate her siblings during her absence by making up stories. Although her mother failed to kill herself and returned home unharmed Pamela felt both her parents abandoned her. The abandonment Lyndon felt when her father died and her mother tried to commit suicide affected her opinion on family life. The topic of children neglected by their parents is one of the main themes of the story about Mary Poppins (Bayliss). In her eyes there was no reliable adult person in her proximity other than Aunt Ellie, whose strict behavior masked her kindness. As a result she made her the chief character of Mary Poppins, who could very similarly seem strict with the children, lets them experience scary things to make them behave, but at the same time looks after them to make them return safely from the journey. Other characters are created on the basis of her childhood acquaintances and relatives. While still in Sydney she changed her name to Pamela Lyndon Travers, joined a traveling Shakespeare company and contributed to several newspapers and magazines. In 1924 she traveled to England where she hoped to pursue her career as a writer. While in London she wrote some poems to the Irish statement. The journal‟s editor, George Russell was later the person who suggested that Pamela should write about a witch. The idea appealed to her and the first story about Mary Poppins and the Match man was written in 1926. When she was ill in 1933 and was confined to bed she extended the story about an unusual English nanny and by 1988 there were eight books written about the very same character (Hazel). The books were so well written that Walt Disney became interested in making a film based on them. Although he tried hard to convince Pamela to sell him the rights she wasn‟t willing to do so and it took him fifteen years to convince her. One of the conditions under which she agreed was a co-operation on the script. 6 When the film was released in 1964 the premier at Grauman‟s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood Walt Disney made a spectacular show out of it. Famous film stars arrived in luxury dresses and Walt Disney himself arrived in a stretch limousine greeted by the Disney characters in a grand style (Flanagen). P.L. Travers was not invited. She had to ask for an invitation. While everybody seemed happy, she was heartbroken. She felt the plot was changed into a completely different story with changes in characters that she didn‟t approve of and an animated scene was included although she told Walt Disney she didn‟t want it there. As a result of her disappointment she sold her theatrical rights to Cameron Mackintosh in 1994 hoping he would make a different version of the story about Mary Poppins. The first musical was seen at the Prince Edward Theatre in London‟s West End production in 2004 and it varied again from both previous adaptations. There are songs from the Walt Disney film used as well as new songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. (Program městského divadla Brno). 7 The film version of Mary Poppins “Wind's in the east, mist comin' in. Like something is brewin' about to begin Can't put me finger on what lies in store But I feel what's to happen, all happened before.” (Mary Poppins) The Banks family lives in Nr. 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Their lives are rather ordinary and there is nothing special going on in their household. Mr. Banks goes to work every day leaving the household and children to Mrs. Banks who is helped by several servants. Their children, Michael and Jane, spend most of their time with nannies and try to gain their parents‟ attention by tormenting each and every one of them. A change comes when yet another nanny leaves and an advertisement for her successor is formulated by the desperate parents. The kids present their own version asking for a nanny with difference. In no time Mary Poppins arrives from the sky with the help of her parrot-head umbrella. She takes charge of the children straight away helping them with cleaning the room and taking them to a park. The following day they go to meet Mary‟s old friend Bert and together they jump in one of his chalk drawings to find themselves in an animated world in which Mary Poppins wins a derby. Another adventure takes them to pay visit to Mary‟s Uncle Albert who floats at the ceiling in a fit of laughter. When they recount their happenings to their father he gets angry and tries to tell Mary Poppins off. Instead of letting herself being fired she hustles Mr. Banks into believing he came