- com 527 - theories of cultural studies
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From New York City High Society to Paté Straight Out of the Can:
A Textual Analysis of Social Class from HBO’s “Grey Gardens”
"Everybody looks and thinks and feels differently as years go by” (Grey Gardens, 2009). - Edith Bouvier Beale (Big Edie)
Many people are inspired by rags-to-riches stories. The thought of beginning with nothing and, through some divine intervention (hard work, sheer luck, or a combination of both), suddenly having the monetary means to experience life in ways once only dreamed of is a constant fantasy for many. In a society that values wealth, these stories are much more common than the opposite – the stories of people who seemingly started with everything and through a myriad of circumstances (poor money management, bad luck, or a combination of both), lost it all. The story of Big and Little Edie of “Grey Gardens” is one such story. Originally a documentary in the mid-1970s, the film showed the day-to-day lives of Edith Bouvier Beale (aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis) and her daughter, Edie. Although the documentary only gives a limited glimpse into the once luxurious lives of these women, the 2009 version of the film by the same name produced by Home Box Office delves into the forty-year transformation that took the women from societal elite to the squalor in which they lived during the filming of the documentary. After giving a rationale for choosing to analyze this film, then examining the signifiers of social class through the film’s two main characters – Big Edie and Little Edie, it becomes apparent that although the women eventually lose most of the material possessions that defined their upper class background, they retained many of the signifiers of their social status.
Rationale
My rationale for analyzing “Grey Gardens” is simple. Upon watching the documentary for the first time a few years ago, I became fascinated with these two women. I was interested in the events that took them from having all of the advantages that wealth and an upstanding family name provided (during the Great Depression, no less) to the situation in which they found themselves during the 1970s. When I heard that HBO was producing a feature film inspired by these women’s lives, I started itching to gain more insight into the downward spiral that led them to their reclusive existence.
While the HBO film is based on fact, the women kept mostly to themselves; thus, some of the content of the film is mere speculation. Although not much is known for sure about the details of the puzzle of their lives, the major pieces have been confirmed by family members and longtime friends of Big and Little Edie. This textual analysis is an attempt to better understand the human side of these women, rather than the characters they ultimately became due to their extraordinary circumstances.
Extrapolating the human element within these characters is paramount. While it is easy to forget that these characters are based on women who breathed, loved, cried, laughed, and hurt, it is important to remember this as I explore the signifiers of their social class throughout this paper. Social class is a major determinant of how we look and think and feel (in reference to Big Edie’s quote at the beginning of this paper), and although their monetary means change dramatically over the forty years portrayed in the film, Big and Little Edie cannot help but to maintain several of the signifiers of their upper class status. In some ways, this paper is a character analysis based on the text – but it has met my goal of bringing at least a little humanity back to the two very real women who were stripped of their own humanity for so many years.
Analysis
Big Edie
Big Edie was born into an affluent family. Because people of high social status (or of any social status, for the most part) rarely marry “beneath” them, she also married into one. Having been raised with the advantages that money provides, Big Edie’s identity as a member of the upper class was solidified well before the money was gone and remained with her throughout her life.
Big Edie’s social status is first seen during a scene in the film before Little Edie’s 1936 presentation to society. Big and Little Edie are getting ready (in their flowing silk gowns and perfectly-coiffed hair) and Big Edie takes out her “wedding jewels.” Made of platinum and diamonds, Big Edie says that this will probably be the last time she wears the necklace and earrings. She tells Little Edie, “Next time, this’ll be dangling from your neck, not mine. And these, these will grace the ears of Mrs. J. Paul Getty” (Grey Gardens, 2009) (in reference to Little Edie’s possible future husband). While all social classes have their traditions, traditions surrounding expensive jewelry is usually reserved for the upper class. In this scene, the jewels represent the old, respected money of the Bouviers and Beales – a tradition that Big Edie hopes will be carried on by Little Edie; thus, the debut presenting Little Edie to the high society of New York City as a young woman (another tradition almost always reserved for the upper class).
In the following scene, Little Edie runs out of the Pierre Hotel (the site of her debut) after experiencing anxiety over the magnitude of the affair. Big Edie follows her and says, “Edith, you’ll never get a man to propose to you if you don’t have a debut. If you don’t get married, how on earth do you plan to take care of yourself?” (Grey Gardens, 2009) While this approach was true for women of all social classes at the time, Big Edie’s upper class background had indicated to her that in order for a woman to maintain her high social class (and maintain proper respect for the family), she must get married to an acceptable, equally wealthy man.
Big Edie’s troubled marriage is also hinted at during this scene. Because a failed marriage might be harmful to the family’s reputation, Big Edie contends throughout her life that she had a “perfectly marvelous marriage” to Phelan Beale (Grey Gardens, 2009). Although they never divorce (that would have spelled disaster among high society at the time), Beale eventually leaves Big Edie, with only the occasional contact when issues with Little Edie or unpaid bills arose.
Taking care of her summer home, Grey Gardens, was no small chore. To accomplish this, Big Edie had a staff of several people during the 1930s. In one scene of the film, the staff works frantically to finish preparations for the Beale family’s return to Grey Gardens for the summer (during the Great Depression, many people could not afford one small home – the Beales kept a Manhattan apartment as well as Grey Gardens, automatically placing them among the upper class). Sheets are removed from the furniture, floors have been polished, and a formal portrait of Big Edie hangs above the fireplace mantle. Although Big Edie did not work and would have had plenty of time to ready the mansion (to a degree) upon her arrival, this scene signifies that house work is for the lower classes. Big Edie’s time was better served hosting cocktail parties in the mansion – another sign of her social class. When confronted by her husband about the expenses of keeping the staff, Big Edie replies, “It takes many, many hands to run this house properly” (Grey Gardens, 2009). For Big Edie, a household staff was not a luxury, but a necessity. Big Edie finally agrees to cut her staff to a housekeeper and a music teacher, after all, Big Edie says, “You can’t deprive the children of their music lessons. That would be cruel” (Grey Gardens, 2009). Big Edie was intent on keeping the music teacher, Max Gould, mostly out of selfish reasons. Through the years, Big Edie and Gould formed a close friendship that Big Edie had never known with anyone else, including her own husband. For her, the music lessons were as much about the camaraderie that they provided with Gould as they served to allow her to practice her love of music.
Throughout the film, Big Edie’s love of the arts – especially singing and dancing – is highlighted. Nearing the end of her life, Big Edie said, “I was happier singing than anything I’ve ever done since I was born. I liked it better than anything I ever did” (Grey Gardens, 2009). While her social status afforded her the time to sing, it also served as a bone of contention between her and her husband. During one of her cocktail parties at Grey Gardens, Phelan returns to the home from a week tending to his law firm in Manhattan to find Big Edie singing and dancing for her guests. Enraged, Phelan orders everyone out of the house then tells Big Edie, in reference to her impromptu show, “It used to be charming, now it’s just sad. You’re the mother of my children, not a showgirl” (Grey Gardens, 2009). Among the upper class, entertainers were generally not respected – Phelan saw Big Edie parading around singing and dancing (even in her own home) as a mockery to their social status and to her responsibilities as a woman of the upper class.
In another scene, Gould is going over the monthly bills as Big Edie is feeding a cat a small portion of paté off of a silver butter knife from Limoges china (this scene especially poignant when comparing it to a scene later in the film in which Big Edie is eating paté out of the can with a plastic utensil). Big Edie refuses to believe that her funds are running low and therefore the extravagant fees for a membership to an exclusive East Hampton social club should be cancelled. Furthermore, the bill for the heat, which was sent to Phelan for payment, was returned. Big Edie is faced with the very real threat to her quality of life that she had always known – and ignores it.
Eventually, Big Edie cannot afford to continue to pay Gould and he moves to Paris, leaving her alone with the house and her cats. This is a turning point for Big Edie – first her husband left, now her best friend. Alone and heartbroken, Big Edie makes arrangements for Little Edie to return to Grey Gardens from Manhattan where she had been living for several years. A woman who once had everything at her fingertips, Big Edie had lost almost everything over the course of several years – her husband to his secretary, her best friend to Paris, both of her sons to marriage, and most of her money to excessive spending (though it did not seem excessive to her at the time – that was just what people among the upper class spent). She only had the house, her cats, and Little Edie left.
Little Edie
Despite what those in her social class considered respectable, Little Edie always dreamt of becoming a professional actress. In one way she was the black sheep of the Beale family – preferring working to become an actress over following her upper class expectation of finding an acceptable man to marry.
In a scene toward the beginning of the film, Little Edie and her cousin, Jacqueline Bouvier, are returning to Grey Gardens from the beach and pass a group of young men. After one of the men comments on her physical beauty, Little Edie recites a poem:
“Smart and sleek she sits,
Ready with her playful quips.
Wondering who will come her way,
To dine her, to wine her,
Which to snare to stay” (Grey Gardens, 2009).
The men guess that the passage is from a William Blake poem, but Little Edie replies, “Edith Beale; poet, temptress, entertainer” (Grey Gardens, 2009). Instead of using her quick wit to find a man, Little Edie has a different plan. She has no interest in the young men among her social class (a very small pool, indeed, when one is from the top of the chain), whom she refers to as “boring, inconsiderate, pig-headed, stubborn, spoiled mama’s boys” (Grey Gardens, 2009). Little Edie has little interest in maintaining the status quo of her social class – some today might refer to her as a woman ahead of her time.
Upon her parents’ separation, Little Edie is given the opportunity to move back to Manhattan – her father thinks she might have a better chance of finding a man there. Little Edie see it as an opportunity to further explore her acting career. As a young woman of privilege in New York City, Little Edie begins to model for Saks Fifth Avenue. During a luncheon in which she is modeling a fur coat, she sees Max Gordon, a respected producer, in the audience. After leaving the stage, Little Edie approaches Gordon’s table and with the confidence she has gained through her upper class upbringing, introduces herself to him and arranges an audition. At the time, it was rare for a young woman to intrude on a successful man’s lunch, but Little Edie often ignored social norms.
It is at this luncheon that Little Edie also meets Julius Krug, former Secretary of the Interior under President Truman. When Krug asks Little Edie if he can take her to dinner, she says she would rather go dancing. He obliges her and asks her, “How is it that you haven’t been snapped up by some eligible bachelor yet, Edith?,” to which she replies, “Oh, I’ve sworn off bachelors…married men let you have a career if you want one. All I want in life, Mr. Krug, is a dance partner” (Grey Gardens, 2009). This exchange refers to Little Edie’s experience growing up seeing her mother not able to pursue her passions outside of the home (if at all). It was not seen as proper for upper class women to have a career, and Little Edie wanted no part in that societal expectation of a high-status woman. Little Edie begins an affair with Krug (a married man) that lasts several years – to the disgrace of her upper class parents. Little Edie is sent back to Grey Gardens to keep her from bringing possible further disgrace to the family.
Eventually, Krug’s wife discovers the affair and Krug breaks it off with Little Edie. Where Little Edie saw something special between them, Krug says it was “only sex” (Grey Gardens, 2009). Little Edie is heartbroken and loses what little trust she had for men (and possibly the human race). Along with her mother and their ever-growing menagerie of cats, she becomes more reclusive within the walls of their once-splendid mansion. Drew Barrymore, who portrayed Little Edie said about her character, “She has this brilliant fashion sense and these great lines…but when you go deeper than that, what’s there is a truly remarkable injured bird with the most amazing feathers” (Colman, 2009). Little Edie endured a lifetime of injury in many ways supported by her so-called advantages.
Although Little Edie grew up in an affluent family, she never seemed happy (with the exception of when she was following her dream in Manhattan). The expectation from Little Edie placed on her by her social class seems like more than she could bear, and she finally hit her breaking point – by becoming reclusive along with her mother in the once-magnificent summer house called Grey Gardens.
Implications
While they each had their idiosyncrasies, the fact remains that these two characters were very real women. Although I appreciate the documentary, in several ways Big and Little Edie were stripped of their humanity because of the choice to show them each as so one-sided. The HBO version begins to salvage that humanity and give it back to their rightful owners (even though the rightful owners are no longer living). Robert Bianco describes the two women as a “peculiar blend of courage and craziness” (Bianco, 2009), but it is important to remember that they were each so much more than those two descriptions – as human beings always are.
ReferencesBianco, R. (2009, April 17). Two Edies captivate in ‘Grey Gardens.’ USA Today, p. 08d.
Colman, D. (2009). The cult of Grey Gardens. Advocate, 1025, 70-77.
Sucsy, M. (Producer), & Sucsy, M. (Director). (2009). Grey Gardens [Motion Picture]. United States and Canada: Home Box Office.