Review

The Duchess:

Incurable predicament of privilege

by Dilshan Boange

The pomp and grandeur of England of yore is something that is richly relived in films that chart aspects of British history. The Duchess is a beguiling film set in the late 18th century portraying the life of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire who is played by Keira Knightely.

Reputed for her beauty she gains fame for her resplendent fashion sense as well.

In spite of the blatant infidelities of her husband, the cold and much older William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire played by Ralph Finnes, Georgiana thrives, becoming a doting mother, fashion icon, shrewd political operator, and darling of the common people.

Her life takes a significant turn when she befriends Lady Bess Foster while on holiday in the province of Bath. The duchess Georgiana is later terribly devastated when Bess and her husband begin an affair. Despite Georgiana’s anger, the Duke wants Bess to remain living with them.

Bess later explains to Georgiana that the reason she began the affair with the Duke was so that she could get her children back since her estranged husband has complete custody over them and the Duke is at the time the most powerful peer in England.

Response

In response to the betrayal she experiences at home, Georgiana allows herself to develop feelings for Charles Grey a dashing young politician of the Labour Party and rising star in the political arena.

However, when she asks the Duke permission to have him as a lover, the Duke is enraged and in a fit of violence, rapes Georgiana. The rape leads to a pregnancy and a son, the male heir the Duke was desperate for.

After producing a son, Georgiana begins a love affair with Charles Grey, which leads to another pregnancy. The Duke threatens to end Charles’ political career and also to forbid Georgiana from seeing her children again if she does not end the relationship. For the sake of her children, Georgiana reluctantly stops seeing Charles.

She is then sent to the countryside where she secretly gives birth to their illegitimate daughter, Eliza Courtney. However, she is forced to give the child over to Charles’ family, the Greys.

Marriage

The narrative tells us that for most of her married life, Georgiana, the Duke, and Bess lived together. The viewers are also told that towards the end of her life, the Duchess gives her blessing to the marriage of her husband and her best friend, who marry after Georgiana’s death.

At the end of the film, we are told that Georgiana frequently visited her daughter Eliza, who was raised by the parents of Charles Grey. Eliza named her own daughter Georgiana.

Later, Charles Grey became Prime Minister. At the end of the film it is strongly suggested that in consistently choosing the lesser of two evils in a situation she could not escape, Georgiana was able to rise above her circumstances to do the right thing for a higher cause.

A story of female fortitude in exceptional circumstances, where prestige and privilege could also mean entrapment.

The Duchess portrays thus a facet of English history from the point of a female vista unlike any other.