Hysteria
A romantic comedy about oppression and hypocrisy in 19th century England.
It starts with our male protagonist Mortimer Granville working as a doctor at a hospital. He gets fired for believing in silly new fads such as germ theory, the idea that doctors should wash their hands before surgery, that soiled bandages should be replaced and the idea that diseases and infections are caused by tiny invisible monsters that are not spiritual in nature.
As he finds a new job at a clinic for hysterical women, he quickly run into a woman who is just as crazy as he is: she actually believes in equal rights, or at least rights at all, regardless of class and gender, stirring up all kinds of trouble with outlandish demands such as the ideas that women ought to be allowed to vote and that even poor people should get education and healthcare.
Oh, and the whole thing is kinda based on a true story. Kinda. It's also about the invention of a medical tool that is still very popular, although all claims about its medical usefulness has long since been debunked: the vibrator.
- Activist Fundamentalist Antics: Invoked a few times by characters trying to portray the female protagonist in this light.
- Arranged Marriage: With zero chemistry and zero potential for happiness. The woman knows this from square one, but goes along with it anyway because her father told her to.
- The Immodest Orgasm
- No Mere Windmill: germs do exist, and giving women the right to vote is actually a good idea. Neither claim is ever proven within the actual movie, the narrative counts on the audience possessing basic education. See also Windmill Political below.
- Only Sane Man: both protagonists.
- Queen Victoria: Who apparently has also set out for a Jolly Molly.[context?]
- Science Marches On
- Society Marches On
- Straw Feminist: In-universe audience reaction to the female protagonist. The real life audience is not encouraged to agree.
- Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Dr Dalrymple - father of the female protagonist, and a firm believer in the inferiority of women... along with sciences such as phrenology.
- Unproblematic Prostitution: While uneducated and rater crude, Molly is portrayed as an okay person with an okay life. The audience isn't given any exuses to pity her or otherwise look down on her.
- Windmill Political: The concept of "Hysteria".
- However, the cure for hysteria turns out to be No Mere Windmill: While it doesn't cure any medical condition per se, it still turn out to be jolly good.