Grande Dame: Difference between revisions

[[File:GrandeDame.jpg|frame|"You'll take no liberties with ''ME'', my good man."| "Indeed, madame, that is the ''LAST'' thing I should desire!"]]

{{quote|''[[Royal We|We]] are not amused.''|[[Beam Me Up, Scotty|Attributed to]] '''[[Queen Vicky|Queen Victoria]]'''}}

The '''''[[Grande Dame]]''''' is the stately old woman -- usuallywoman—usually of wealth and [[Blue Blood|rank]], though often enough only wishing to appear so -- whoso—who is very often a large woman of [[Gag Boobs|ample physique]], uptight, [[No Sense of Humor|humorless]], and the [[Acceptable Target|butt of jokes]]. The ''Grande Dame'' is usually a spinster or widow, in which case she is likely to become an [[Old Maid]] or an [[Abhorrent Admirer]]; if she ''is'' married, it will usually be to a [[Henpecked Husband]] (very often an [[Uncle Pennybags]]), whom she will drag to operas (where she will doubtless wear [[Opera Gloves]]) and ballets because [[Men Are Uncultured]], though she will more often be a patroness of the arts than [[The Prima Donna]] herself. She will also quite often have some sort of spoilt and pampered (and very often overweight) child or pet, a Persian or a Pomeranian or a parrot, on whom the rest of her dependents must dance attendance. In most cases, any attempt at frivolity will draw from her either a frigid stare of disapproval or [[Completely Missing the Point|sheer, blank incomprehension]]. Nevertheless, she will ''occasionally'' turn out to be a sympathetic character as well -- ''very'' occasionally she will turn out to have a screwball or eccentric streak herself.

As she sinks down toward the cynical end of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism]], she will on uncommon occasions become a [[Deadpan Snarker]], though if she goes too far, she may turn into the [[Rich Bitch]]; as she rises toward the idealistic end, she may become the more friendly [[Maiden Aunt]] -- in—in very rare cases (like [[Gone with the Wind|Ellen O'Hara]]) she may become [[Proper Lady|the saintly "great lady]]". Both extremes are uncommon, however, as in general she preserves the ''status quo'' as a [[Moral Guardian]] -- she may well have started out as an [[Apron Matron]] -- and her watchword is "Respectability." If she loses this and begins to hit the bottle, there is a good chance she will turn into [[Lady Drunk]].

The trope is nearly always a [[Comedy Tropes|Comedy Trope]], associated particularly with the Comedy of Manners; as such, it serves as a useful device for mocking social pretensions, and dates back to the ancient Roman plays of [[Plautus]] and Terence, where the ''Grande Dame'' appeared as the ''Matrona''. She was not used much in the uninhibited [[The Middle Ages|Middle Ages]], but made a comeback as the humorless, self-important ''dueña'' of the 16th and 17th century Spanish theater. The prude and bluestocking of the Restoration (such as [[Moliere|Molière]]'s [[The Misanthrope|Arsinoé]] and his ''Précieuses ridicules'') and Sentimental comedies (for instance, Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan's ''The Rivals'') have some affinities with the type, insofar as they made pretensions to virtue and culture, but it was only with the [[Victorian Britain|Victorian]] age that the great era of the ''Grande Dame'' opened. Here, with her [[Ermine Cape Effect|fur stole]] and her ancestral [[High-Class Glass|lorgnette]] in hand, the ''Grande Dame'' quashed social climbers, sought advantageous marriages for her daughters and repelled impossible matches for her sons, and maintained the natural order of Society with frigid hauteur for a good hundred years and more. In England, she was generally in [[wikipedia:Debrettchr(27)Debrett's|Debrett]] and was called "Lady" something; in America, she was one of the [[wikipedia:Boston Brahmin|Brahmins]] or [[wikipedia:Ward McAllister|the Four Hundred]] or the [[wikipedia:First families of virginia|FFV]] and was called "Mrs. Van" Whoozis or Miss Firstname. She will still turn up occasionally, to preside over banquets and to be aghast at the excesses of [[Straw Feminist|Feminism]] or the [[Teens Are Monsters|Youth movement]] and to wonder why [[Ye Goode Olde Days|no young ladies bother to go to the cotillion any more]].

Her plot function will usually be as an obstruction to the plans of the protagonist, though she will occasionally convert to his side -- moreside—more rarely, she may assist from the first.

[[Grande Dame|Grande Dames]] do not have to be useless of course. A [[Grande Dame]] can be a noblewomennoblewoman or tribal elder and act as a [[Seer]], an [[Iron Lady]], or a [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask|Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask]] stoutly and cunningly defending her domain. Sometimes she's simply an aged [[Proper Lady]].

* A [[Grande Dame]] appears in the "Rhapsody in Blue" section of [[Disney]]'s ''[[Fantasia|Fantasia 2000]]''.

{{quote| ''Bond:'' I always thought M was a randomly assigned initial; I had no idea it stood for--<br />

* The faded actress Miss Luther in ''[[Stage Door]]'' -- and—and, indeed, most parts played by Constance Collier.

* The Comtesse de Tournay in ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (novel)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'' (and in the [[The Scarlet Pimpernel (film)|film]] of it, too) is a stiffly dignified old lady, implacably opposed to Marguerite -- butMarguerite—but forced by the Prince Regent to acknowledge her nonetheless.

* William Makepeace Thackeray displayed a number of haughty, humorless old ladies in ''[[Vanity Fair]]'' -- for—for instance, Miss Pinkerton, Lady Bareacres, and Lady Southdown.

* [[Vorkosigan Saga|Lady Alys Vorpatril]] is an example of the heroic [[Grande Dame]]. As chief social mover and shaker of the planet Barrayar, '''very''' insistent on Things Being Done Properly and a stickler for Protocol, but definitely on the side of the good guys.

* Lady Bracknell in [[Oscar Wilde]]'s ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'' is one of the grandest -- andgrandest—and one of the ''dame''-dest.

{{quote| '''Lady Bracknell:''' But I do not approve of mercenary marriages. When I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way.}}

* Baba the Turk in ''The Rake's Progress'' is one of the few [[Grande Dame|Grande Dames]] with a beard.

* The "Lady Smith" splicers in ''[[BioshockBioShock (series)]]'' invoke this trope: part Elizabeth Taylor in ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]'', part [[Katharine Hepburn]]. There is a remarkable synergy with the horror setting. It is a credit to the voice actress that the trope is palpable even when the splicers can't be seen.

{{quote| '''Queen Elizabeth II:''' We are ''not'' amused.<br />

* Lady Richington from ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'', whose [[Catch Phrase]] is "[[Other Stock Phrases|Well, I never...!]]" is a [[Grande Dame]].

{{quote| (paraphrased) '''Krusty''': So, a Wealthy Dowager shows up, the party's over, right? Wrong! Hit her in the face with a pie!<br />

* One appeared in an episode of [[Tiny Toon Adventures]] where she was tasked to assess the performance and good behavior of students in the Acme Looniversity to determine whether or not Yosemite Sam will be promoted to Vice Principle. Babs, Buster, and Plucky try everything they can to mess up the [[Grande Dame]]'s examinations beneath Yosemite Same's notice, often leading to [[Amusing Injuries]] for the unwitting mustached man. The abuses continue up until they [[Body Swap]] her with a potato, breaking her composure and causing Sam to lose the promotion he so desired.

{{quote| '''Zoidberg''': Where's the exploding?<br />

{{quote| '''Bessie Braddock:''' Winston, you are drunk, and what's more, you are disgustingly drunk.<br />

* The actresses [http://im.in.com/connect/images/profile/oct2009/Florence_Bates_300.jpg Florence Bates]{{Dead link}}, [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20150808110245/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f5/Symona.jpg/200px-Symona.jpg Symona Boniface], [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Constance_Collier_in_Rope_trailer.jpg Constance Collier], [https://web.archive.org/web/20110930221722/http://www.cyranos.ch/spcoope.jpg Gladys Cooper], [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rs53-MPsJaI/SYaDVKEx3cI/AAAAAAAALa8/ym6z6ubrNOw/s400/dinner-at-8-marie-dressler.jpg Marie Dressler], [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_madyzqmHA2o/SPStIQ2NAyI/AAAAAAAAB2E/gW4Q4ZhcxQo/s400/Margaret+Dumont.jpg Margaret Dumont], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMbIu8lRlWw Edith Evans], [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2893514748_20e51238b3.jpg?v=0 Hermione Gingold], [https://web.archive.org/web/20131013113718/http://www.myprideandprejudice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Lady-Catherine-de-Bourgh-played-by-Edna-May-Oliver-in-Pride-and-Prejudice-1940.jpg Edna May Oliver], and [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Helen_Westley_in_Roberta_(1935)_trailer.jpg Helen Westley] specialized in this sort of rôle, but in most cases the actresses themselves were noted for having a keen sense of humor.

* [[Queen Vicky|Queen Victoria]] is generally portrayed this way. The page quote is said (on rather slim evidence) to have been provoked by the Hon. Alexander Grantham ("Alick") Yorke, one of her grooms-in-waiting, who had a reputation as a funny man among the Queen's retainers, and, when commanded by Her Majesty to demonstrate, either told a risqué anecdote or performed an imitation of Victoria herself. Queens [[The Virgin Queen|Elizabeth I]] and [[Elizabeth II]], and other queens such as [[Catherine the Great]], are also occasionally depicted in this manner, with rather less justification.

** Incidentally, there are more photographs of Queen Victoria laughing than there are of all nine of her children laughing ''combined''. She could however be a [[Grande Dame]] when necessary; her genius was knowing when that was.