How Accurate is Downton Abbey? Show vs. Real Life Difference
What "Downton Abbey" Gets Right (and Wrong) About 20th Century England
Watch out! This post contains spoilers.
5
Watch out! This post contains spoilers.
Another instance of modern values being dropped into a past century is the show's attitude towards servants getting married. In particular, women generally did not work after marriage; as some of the maids in the earlier seasons note, they would be expected to leave service and become a housewife once they got married. In many cases, male servants would leave service upon marriage too, especially in the days when servants lived in the same house as their employers rather than "commuting" to work.
On "Downton," however, the need to keep popular characters on-screen meant they had to bend the rules a bit. The show had to create very specific circumstances to keep Daisy and Anna in their jobs after they got married (the death of one's husband and imprisonment of the other's). Senior servants, like Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes would have spent their lives unmarried in order to advance professionally, and again, it would have been highly unusual for them to stay in service after getting married.