The duchess and the role of the women in the 18th century

The Duchess is a 2008 British drama film based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. She was married with William Cavendish, a man much older than her. Despite the Duke's blatant infidelities, Georgiana becomes a fashion icon, a doting mother, a shrewd political operator, and darling of the common people. Her husband had an affair with her best friend Lady Bess Foster and Georgiana takes on her own lover, the future prime minister Earl Grey. The film ends with the breakdown between Georgiana and Earl but her husband continues with his relationship with his wife’s best friend.

In the 18^th century, the women continued to be governed by moral laws and classified according to their marital status marriages continued to be a parental choice and convenience. A single woman was frowned upon at that time; however, widowhood was the state that earned more respect. During the eighteenth century, married women’s lives revolved to a large extent around managing the household, a role which in many cases included partnership in running farms or home businesses. While the essential role of most women continued to be managing all aspects of their households, doing so took on political overtones: the commitment of the women was critical to maintaining the tea boycott and the decision to boycott British goods caused home manufacturing to become both a statement of defiance and a necessity. Over 20,000 women followed one army or another and transformed camps into small towns. In some ways, women were an important element because they carried out tasks such as laundering and nursing (both of which were paid) which men were unwilling to do and without which the army would have been even more seriously depleted by disease. In addition, women performed duties as cooks, food foragers, spies and water carriers (all unpaid). However, the number of women generally exceeded that which would have been required and often represented a nuisance to commanding officers: women and accompanying children used scarce rations and slowed the movement of the army.

Duchess of Devonshire was well-known for her intelligence in a society that was empty and almost exclusively preoccupied with her status. Georgiana gives up his life for the sake of his daughters, following the sham of her marriage and the farce of being constantly in the spotlight.

A curiosity is that Princess Georgiana is ancestor of Princess Lady Di. After seeing the film they have things in common. There are similarities between the two lives. Both became fashion icons, were charismatic, popular and they have been through very similar suffering. When I watched the film, I found parallelism between these two lives.