The Duchess
(don't read this if you haven't seen the movie and are still planning to see it. I talk a lot about the plot)

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and have thought about it a lot since then. That shows a good movie, if it's still got me thinking about/analyzing the plot weeks later!

This is based on the true story of the Duchess Georgiana of Devonshire. I haven't looked into how much of the story is actual truth, but it's on my list of things to look up. Whether it's all true or not, I really enjoyed the movie.

Now, as I said with The Other Boleyn Girl, this isn't a movie I would recommend letting young people watch. It has a bit of nudity (bare backside), and some of the elements of the movie are quite deep and dramatic (marital rape being one that was hard for me to swallow). So that's my preface.

Now about the actual story: it's the story of a very young girl who marries the Duke of Devonshire. From the beginning, he sees the marriage as an arrangement to produce an heir. She, however, saw the marriage as this man being in love with her and wanting to be with her above any other woman. She spends a good part of her life being unhappy because she's with a man who really doesn't love her in the way she needs/wants to be loved. He sleeps with other women often and she is forced to just accept it. He says at one point that the only two things he expects from her are an heir and loyalty (while he is not obligated to adhere to either of those things). The duchess then finds someone who does make her happy. She tries to get approval from her unfaithful husband to be unfaithful to him as well, after she has produced an heir. Of course it's not allowed, but she does anyway.

Now comes the part of the movie I loved.

She has run off to Bath to be with this other man that makes her happy (I don't love that part, but it leads into what I love). The Duke comes to Bath and tells her that she has to end things or he will destroy this other man's career and life and will never let her see her children again. The movie made it very clear that she loves her 3 daughters and son very much. At first, however, she wants to be with this man and refuses to give him up. She tells the Duke to leave and figures she'll just work things out. However, the Duke leaves some letters from her daughters that she reads. *Good part* She changes her mind for the sake of her children and returns to her husband.

There is a point earlier in the movie where Georgiana's friend Bess explains to G why she agreed to sleep with the Duke (great friend huh?). Bess said the Duke promised he would get her children back (they had been taken away from her by her husband). She said "A woman would sacrifice anything for her children." That's the point in the movie I quit liking Bess. Now, I'm only sort of a mother, so you might say I don't understand the amount of love possible for your children and what you'll do for them. I'm sorry, but there are limits and adultery is one of those limits.

In contrast, Georgiana gives up her "happiness" [read: affair] for her children. She makes the kind of sacrifice a person should make for her children. While she may not have had much of a choice in who she married, she was married and she returned to that man to make things work, for the sake of her children (please don't think that my saying this means I think people should always try to make things work in a marriage for the sake of the children, but I definitely think there should be more of an effort than people seem to make these days).

Even further on that note, she gave up one of her children - a daughter born of that affair - which must have been very difficult. I can't imagine having to give away one of my children, but she understood that it was necessary for the baby's happiness as well as her family's.
Now, I have to say that I'm very grateful I live in a time with the freedoms and the technology we have. It was unfortunate for G that she lived in a time when she didn't really have the freedom to make the choices she wanted to. She was basically forced to marry the Duke and while at the time she was happy with the choice that had been made for her, at least nowadays she would have had the option to choose who she wanted. That way, when it came to problems in her marriage, it would have been HER mistake and she would have had to deal with those consequences (though she had to deal with them either way). Also, it annoys me that all the blame got placed on the women when they couldn't produce a son. I really wish they had known back then that it was mostly the man's fault. :)

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I typically see movies in the light I want to see them in, which may not be the way Hollywood intended them to be seen. I saw this movie as having a happy ending. She stayed with the man she married and he made more of an effort to make her happy. She raised her children and the other man got to be happy in his life as well. I'm glad it showed all of that as being the way it should have been, rather than making it seem like she ended up being miserable her whole life.