What Makes a Good Story...
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 11:38PM What is your favorite book?
I have several, and the one that stands out in my mind first and foremost is Les Miserables. It is a masterpiece. It is a tapestry, carefully, thoughtfully, lovingly woven together to create a story that is so gripping and heartbreaking and joyful and treacherous and uplifting that my heart hurts just to think of it. And I want to stay up all night reading it again.
Okay, all night and all day and probably all the next night too.
What is it that makes Les Mis such a good story? (For me, I should add...I know not everyone might love it, but we all have a story that makes us ache, soar, and then cry just because it's over and we wish it never had to end.)
The same question can be asked of the show Downton Abbey. I would venture to say that it is just as good of a story as Les Miserables because of many similar aspects. Why is this show so compelling? Why do so, so, so many people tune in each week to see what happens next in the lives of this British family of nobles in an ever-changing time period in history that is quite removed from the world we live in in a myriad of ways. Why on earth do we care?!?!
And you can be certain that we do. We know (we=those of us who are completely addicted to this show) that the Grantham/Crawley family (I still haven't entirely figured out the name situation...) is fictional, however, we cannot imagine not spending Sunday evening in their company (or Tuesday evening, as it may be). I asked Mike the other night why he liked to watch the show and I loved his answer. I wish I had written it down, but, alas, I did not. But what he said was very much like what I felt in my own heart.
We see ourselves in this family. We see ourselves in the servants. We see ourselves in the insiders and the outsiders. We see family dynamics that are so heartbreakingly familiar, and we see relationships that are reflective of our own relationships with mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, in-laws, grandparents, and those who have service-oriented jobs. There is humor. There is grief. There is love. There is jealousy. There is pride. There is encouragement. Sometimes there is a circumstance that seems so outrageous that it can do nothing other than remind us of just exactly what we felt the other day (even though the situation was completely different...we get it). We know people who have survived war. We know people who have overcome obstacles of infidelity. We know families who have struggled with estrangement or finances or infertility. We have celebrated when those we love marry, or receive good news, or experience a miracle. We are moved because we have felt those losses and those gains.
For a while toward the end of the second season, after Matthew survived The Great War, and Lady Grantham survived the Spanish Flu, and Mary and Matthew finally got together, I thought to myself,"Well. It's a great show; things sure do work out for the family, don't they?" This season has dashed that thought quite swiftly and thoroughly to the ground. There will be no husband for Lady Edith (that we can foresee). There is a chasm developing between Lord and Lady Grantham that will prove very difficult to bridge. The family suffered a terrible loss when Lady Sybil died shortly after giving birth to her baby girl. The truth is that in this life there are moments when we feel like we have narrowly escaped a terrible thing and we are grateful, there are moments when we are afraid that we can't possibly continue along without encountering some major life-changing circumstance, and there are moments when those circumstances come and do, indeed, change everything, whether the events be wonderful or devastating.
This show has made me feel giddy, and it has made me feel frustrated. Downton Abbey has made me feel angry and has made me feel exasperated. I have felt their joys. And their sorrows have made me feel so, so grieved.
And that is what makes it such a good story...it has made me feel.
What I think is really lovely about it, though, is that it has not just made me feel, but it has made me think. How am I different from these people? How am I the same? What can I learn about myself, and can I be a better person because of it? These questions, for me, ultimately need to be answered through the lens of the Bible, but what is the Bible if it is not the grandest story ever told? And in light of some of the issues that are drawn out on the show, it becomes even more clear to me that neither money, nor prestige, a place of position, nor all the things that the world might proclaim to be what we need in order to come out on top, can save a person from the harsh realities that that same world tends to throw at individuals, families, and whatever other relational dynamic or type of person one can think of, no matter if you are a Countess or a Thomas, a Lady Mary or an Ethel.
My favorite line from that wonderful book Les Miserables is,"The pupil dilates in the night, and at last finds day in it, even as the soul dilates in misfortune, and at last finds God in it." It is followed by this one-sentence-paragraph: "To find his way was difficult." There are a handful of Very True Sentences in literature that stand out in my mind, and this is at the top of the list. I hope that the characters in Downton see some daylight soon; it will be very difficult for that day to break through the stormy clouds. And I hope even more that as I watch, I am reminded all the time of my soul's great need for God.
Don't we all love a happy ending? We long for it! I have no idea how this show will eventually end, but for the other story...the ending has been written. And it is the happiest one of all.
Reader Comments (2)
What a lovely post. Even though I had to start skimming in fear of spoilers! Also, I've never read Les Mis. How have I let that happen?
I just saw Les Mis at the movies two weeks ago. Have you seen it onscreen? I found it to be excellent. Excellent! Love. That. Story. Downton Abbey: that's the series Hubs and I have agreed to start from the beginning with this summer.