Title: 3. The Diana Phenomenon: Reaction in the East Midlands
Abstract: The sudden death of Diana Princess of Wales at the end of August 1997 sparked off a massive display of emotion in Britain. The event provided the opportunity for the expression of what appeared to be communal feelings in a short-term and superficial, but undoubtedly sincere, manner by a large number of people. It also led to those not wishing to take part keeping silence rather than voicing dissent. One feature throughout the country was that many people saw themselves as in some way connected to this public figure and able to grieve for her as if she were an acquaintance. However, there remained clear borderlines between what the public, who thought they knew her, and the immediate family, could or should do. Public grief was by and large decorous, not only in the nature of the ritual on display but in the manner in which those who were unmoved accepted the expression of emotion by others. There were apparent ironies surrounding the life of the princess, the manner of her death and the procedure at her funeral, some of which were noted in the serious press but few, if any, of which had an effect on the wider public. The princess, whose relations with the press were often stormy, was on the whole given the traditional treatment and was spoken well of in death. Contradictions were by and large ignored. A young woman not known for personal maturity died before she reached mid-life, a period at which convention assumes that a woman becomes wise. An individual who had been criticised in her lifetime for fecklessness and a love of glamour was in death venerated for the time she spent with those on society's margins. Someone who declared a wish to be queen of people's hearts in a television interview she also used to comment on her young sons' private emotions, was acclaimed queen of hearts and a good mother. A woman who attracted both praise and opprobium for her involvement with the Red Cross campaign against the use landmines had her coffin carried on a gun carriage. An individual to whom were attributed the feminine values of spontaneity and tactility had her cortege followed on foot by her menfolk while the women waited at church. Her undoubted skills at fleeting but valued conversations with people from a wide variety of backgrounds contrasted with her poor relationships with her family of marriage. In addition, she died in a car crash, while not wearing a seatbelt, at the hands of a speeding, drunken driver in the company of his demanding employer. Perhaps the fact that, while the role of the attendant freelance press photographers remained at best ambiguous, other passersby stopped at the scene of the crash and assisted, led to the notable lack of public anger at her death at the hands of foreigners. The rituals observed in the wake of her death included evidence of a change in popular attitudes. Her divorced husband's role in accompanying the body home and taking a prominent part in the burial was accepted; while the attendance of young boys at a funeral passed without comment. In addition, Britain's Royal Family were required, whatever their personal inclinations, to show evidence of bereavement. The reaction in the part of the English Midlands where I live was much the same as that of other parts of the country--a public opportunity to express emotion for a woman met briefly or known only through the press, or possibly to grieve for private losses or for one's own mortality. The pattern of events was informed by enormous coverage in the media, yet there was unorchestrated sympathy which found its expression during the week. One striking aspect was the simplicity of the ritual. Though both church and state had the ability to stage a traditional formal ritual, both tailored their approach to the popular mood. The simplicity of the ritual does not appear to have been intended, and indeed it failed to satisfy many, who felt obliged to invent their own more satisfying forms. …
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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