Milli mála - 05.07.2016, Side 179

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Milli mála 7/2015

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Charlotte Winner, a minor actress about whom virtually no informa-
tion can be found on the Internet, aside from her role in this TV se-
ries. As is to be expected, the dramatic focus rests on Elizabeth, since
the series covers her entire reign as well as the years before her acces-
sion. Mary Stuart, however, is shown as a very elusive figure in the
background, glimpsed only very rarely in brief shots through the door
to her room in captivity, fondling and kissing her lapdog terrier,
alongside brief voiceovers in a strong French accent of a letter from
Mary to Elizabeth, where Mary denies ever having sought Elizabeth’s
death and reproves her cousin for treating her so cruelly. This very
exclusion from our view makes Mary a very marginal character and as
such seemingly unimportant to Elizabeth and the English court. Yet
she stands at the centre of what is a very real threat to Elizabeth: Ca-
tholic plots against her life. At the same time, the series reiterates,
once again, an interpretation of Mary as a victim, a plaything of (male)
English plots.13 Even the brief shots of Mary serve to demonstrate her
vulnerable, emotional and feminine nature. Significantly, the one per-
son able to persuade Elizabeth to order Mary’s execution, Robert Dud-
ley, Earl of Leicester, does so through outlining Mary’s impulsive,
feminine nature as opposed to Elizabeth’s political astuteness:

You make such a play that as queens you and she are alike. But
is it not in how you discharge that duty where the difference lies?
She has always let her heart rule her head, put passion before
politic need. If you shrink before this duty now, Bess, then in-
deed you risk the accusation that you are alike. As a woman, you
are just not equal to the task. (The Virgin Queen)
Thus Leicester shows Elizabeth “the path of feminine weakness” while
also appealing to her vanity and pride in “threatening comparison
with a woman she considers inferior” (Latham 2011: 233).
Channel 4’s award-winning miniseries Elizabeth I (2005) depicts
the later years of Elizabeth’s reign. Helen Mirren stars as Elizabeth
while Mary Stuart is played by Barbara Flynn. This is a well-acted and
convincing portrayal of Elizabeth, making it “ultimately Mirren’s show”

13 As in Elizabeth: The Golden Age it is Walsingham who is instrumental in Mary’s
downfall here.