The myth of the Queens - myth and heroes LVA

MYTH AND HEROES

        The notion I am going to deal with is myth and heroes. I will start by giving the definition of a myth and of a heroe. An heroe is someone who accomplishes an heroic act, such as sacrificing their life in order to save others, or it can be something simplier like giving money to charity, helping people in need or fighting for a cause. A myth is a story passed on from generation to generation, and there is no proof that the person really existed. Some famous myths are for example Robin Hood, King Arthur and the knights of the round table, or the Loch Ness Monster. Some heroes become myths because people create stories about them. To explain this notion we will mostly talk about Queen Elizabeth the First, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth the Second. We will questioned ourselves about the statues of the Queens and if they can be considered myths or heroes. We will first talk about how they achieved the status of myth, and then we will talk about how being considered as such had an impact on their life.

        Queen Elizabeth the Second was not supposed to become queen, her little brother Edward was supposed to be king, but he didn't stay king very long since he died when he was 15 years old. So Elizabeth's big sister Mary became queen, until her death a few years later. Elizabeth shouldn't have become queen, but the death of her siblings changed her destiny. She was a normal little girl, even though she was part of the upper class, she was supposed to stay a princess and assumed her duties of woman which were considered to have children and be a pious wife. As we saw in the text of fiction “Might I be Queen?“ from the book The Lady Elizabeth written by Alison Weir in 2008, Elizabeth is shown as a normal little girl, even though she seems mature, she is happy for her brother's birth because she will finally have a playmate, since she spends all of her time studying. Like every little girl she wants to do what she is not able to do, which is to be on the throne. She is dissapointed to learn that she is not going to ever be on the throne, so her governess, Lady Bryan explains to her that “women do not rule kingdoms, or men”. Elizabeth has no more hope of becoming queen, she has been evinced from the throne by her brother. Back then, only a man could rule, so the kingdom of England was waiting for a male heir, which is why Edward's birth was considered a miracle. Which leads to the princess being forgotten, and all the attention going to the future king. However she became Queen despite all the trouble she had to overcome. Her reign is often reffered as the Golden Age of England because she maintained peace in her country and helped the flourishing of arts, and the kingdom of England was at it biggest, as the saying goes “the sun nevers sets on the British Empire”. Elizabeth the First became a myth because she became queen despite all the odds, and brought her country to greatness, which was continued by Queen Victoria.

        Being a queen is a hard task, you have to respect the decorum, you always have to keep your distance from the commoner in order to keep your status of royalty intact. This duty probably weights a lot on just one person and make them feel lonely and isolated. Which is what Queen Victoria felt before she met Abdul Karim, an Indian man who was gifted to her to become her servant, but he became her confident and was considered as part of the Royal Household by the Queen herself. Their relationship caused a lot of jealousy from the members of the Household who didn't understand why the Queen had taken such a liking to the man. They were from different social class, but Abdul became the Queen's friend and her teacher. He teached her about his culture and how to speak Urdu. The Royal Household felt like it was dangerous for the Queen to be close to a commoner, especially a servant. They wanted her to preserve her image, but she was impervious to what people thought, she refused to accept the prejudices surrounding Abdul. The Queen had finally found someone who understand her, but the Royal Household wanted to separate them. Even though the Queen provided for him in her last will and testament, the Royal Household got rid of him as soon as the Queen died, they only granted her wish to let him walk with the principal mourners during her burial. Afterwards he was forced to go back to India and all traces of his correspondence with the Queen was destroyed, so he would not go down in history as Victoria had planned. All traces of Abdul were erased, the Household had always feared that he would influence the Queen about Indian independence, and that he was taking advantages of her. They were jealous of him for becoming so close to the Queen even though their social class were different. We could say that Queen Victoria was an heroine for going against her Household and what they expected of her, she went against them even though it could have had serious consequences for her, but she stayed loyal to her friend. In a way, she tried to break down the wall between Royalty and the Common people by being friend with Abdul, she could have risked her place of figurehead of England and her status. But she stayed brave and standed up to the Royal Household, making her an heroine for doing so. Things changed when Elizabeth the Second became queen, she became closer to her people, compared to Elizabeth the First who wanted to be seen an intouchable monarch. The Queens could be considered heroines just for dealing with their duty for so long, even though as time went by the Queen had less and less power.

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