Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
1:07 pm
November 16, 2010
Offline
Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII's 2nd wife, wed in 1533, but after three turbulent years of marriage she was found 'guilty' of 22 seperate charges of treason, adultery and incest (designed to humiliate her and her 'fallen' family), and she was beheaded by an expert French swordsman in 1536.
Various screen and literary adaptations of this famous noble woman and queen- as well as historical record- have painted this character as over-ambitious vixen or feisty victim.
Mary Boleyn is a distant ancestor of many notables including Winston Churchill, P G Wodehouse, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (The Queen mother), Diana Princess of Wales, Sarah Duchess of York, and Charles Darwin.
Perhaps the greatest and most electrifying portrayals for me have been two of these such contrasts;-
Anne of the Thousand Days(1969)- French Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold played an incredibly feisty but doomed 'victim' queen to Richard Burton's vindictive and snarling Henry- especially the last fiery sequence between the two.
The Other Boleyn Girl (2003)- An atmospheric UKTV production of superior quality which gives a different and shocking slant on the story. Johdi May plays a relentlessly ambitious Anne to Natascha MsElhone's religious and demure Mary Boleyn. The more recent film version – starring the beautiful and perfectly-cast Natalie Portman- was also excellent, if a little inaccurate.
Both leave the audience with an interesting but distasteful flavour of a woman's lot in days past.
5:16 pm
August 3, 2010
Offline
One word: victim. Okay, three: victim, not schemer.
Which move strikes yourself as more real? To me, the first one by a landslide. I don't think Anne was the typical meek Tudor woman–not a victim in that sense–and I also believe she wanted to marry Henry at first because, well, he was the King after all. That being said, Natalie Portman's Anne (though she was perfectly cast, I agree) was monstrous, and she was a terrible portrayal of the amazing woman Anne was. So I think Anne was about 75-25, victim-schemer. Schemer more in a good way–ambitious. I think after a little while her ambition either developed into true love for Henry, or she was spurred on by her incredibly ambitious family and did not have much choice to continue after that. Any way you look at it, she was a victim: she did not die because of her schemes, did she? I think she was a victim of her family, a victim of Henry, and–this sounds cheesy, I know–a victim of love and revenge, because I think she first went after Henry and tried to topple Wolsey because of her denied love for Henry Percy.
"Grumble all you like, this is how it's going to be"
7:45 am
September 22, 2010
Offline
I fear I have to say both…I mean,she wasn't as scheming as the Tudors or the TOBG show her(planning everything ahead and being cruel at times),but definately she had a scheming side to her…In fact almost every woman then who held an ounce of power was a schemer…And even through we know nothing of her real motives,it is easy to guess that the rise from the King's favourite to Queen needed some scheming from her part.After all,Anne's fall had to do mostly with power fight at court and factions,so Anne must have been involved at plans and strategies.So calling her a victim doesn't apply much,it makes her seem pathetic.While watching the Tudors,the execution of K.Howard, my mother made a comment that I think applies here:”The main difference of those women is that Anne in the end managed to have even death at her side…She died as a warrior,head up and full of pride.And people admired her for that,no one pitied her and everyone believed her…”.Anne,even at her worst times managed to come across as a fighter,never surrending.
Anne was not a scheming monster or the creation of her family.She had a great mind and enough sense and ambition to take what was offered to her and seek for more.In the end she was only victim to the cruelty of fortune…
1:11 am
March 9, 2011
Offline
I think Anne was both. Anne had lived most of her life at one court or another. Being a courtier was her “career” and scheming was a big part of one's success.
But Anne was definitely a victim, too. Her quick fall from grace, bogus trial, and execution all atest to how little real power she wielded under Henry's rule.
