‘It’s woman against man. Now and ever has been.’
The BBC’s recent adaptation of Parade’s End pits men against women, restraint against impulsiveness and duty against desire.
Keeping up appearances
Parade’s End is based on a collection of four novels by the ‘literary impressionist’ Ford Madox Ford. The books chart the life of ‘the last decent man in England’, Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch), as he pledges to remain faithful to his mesmerising and manipulative wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall).
Sylvia is cruel and tempestuous, but despite her harsh exterior she is ‘soppy about him’. Her greatest longing is to stir her husband’s affection, or at least provoke a reaction from him through her numerous infidelities. He, however, is wedded to his ideals of restraint and decorum, refusing to become jealous or condemn her behaviour. Sylvia is led by her personal passion; Christopher is a backbone to a society which is always behaving ‘properly’, yet tragically represses all hints of genuine feeling.
The only thing to sway him are his surprising feelings for the young suffragette Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens), which he attempts to ignore and disguise, knowing that he is emotionally and morally unable to be unfaithful to his wife.
A war of two halves
While the characters anticipate and experience the horrors of the First World War, their personal lives become increasingly complex and scandalous. As Christopher himself theorises later, the brutality of the war has two polarising effects: ‘Half the men are twice as reckless because they may be killed, and half are twice as conscientious for the same reason’. He falls into the latter camp, yet ironically Sylvia scolds him for his dependability, arguing that if only he was able to follow his desires — including those for Valentine — their marriage may have a better chance of success.
The name of the Almighty
Christopher displays numerous qualities that are undoubtedly admirable: his loyalty, patience and non-judgmental attitude make him a model of good behaviour. In many ways, his display of love matches up to the famous definition in 1 Corinthians 13. Yet he struggles to express warmth towards his wife. Sylvia is his opposite, overflowing with passion which veers between fervent love and desperate rage. His fidelity is a moral imperative: ‘I stand for monogamy’; hers is a defiant act of self-will: ‘I’m going to live chaste because I want to’.
Where Christopher is slow to anger, Sylvia is rich in love, and this is the reason that, as readers and viewers, we cannot ultimately turn against her. Yet her love is misdirected and perverted, causing her to be perpetually frustrated. During one confrontation she becomes so exasperated that she even proverbially invokes God: ‘In the name of the Almighty, how could any woman live beside you?’
The mention of God is not as incidental as it first seems. Christopher’s morality is inherited from his society rather than stemming directly from any religious beliefs. Yet Ford himself had a complex and much-considered theological stance. He converted to a form of agnostic Catholicism in his late teens, lamenting the lack of any intuitive, emotional, mystical element to the Christian faith. He saw this as something that was being squeezed out of rational, pragmatic Protestantism, which he felt supported the habitual repression of feelings practised by the English.
Our idiot Eden
It is this concern of Ford’s for free emotional expression that we see explored in Parade’s End. Through the characters of Christopher and Sylvia, Ford is reminding us that there is a price to be paid for living in repressive and well-behaved society, just as there is a price to be paid for following our unfettered animalistic passions.
We often feel, like Sylvia, that we are trapped in between these two extremes: ‘Higher than the beasts, lower than the angels, stuck in our idiot Eden’. Indeed, who feels the tension between the weak flesh and the willing spirit more that the Christian? Yet, through relationship with God — the one who is slow to anger and rich in love — we must learn both to embrace and to control our emotions, to express and discipline them, to reconcile Christopher’s self-controlled behaviour and Sylvia’s zealous love.
Parade’s End was aired on BBC One between August 24 and September 21 2012.
Rachel Helen Smith works as an events planner and freelance writer in Cambridge. More of her articles are available at http://www.rachelhelensmith.com
