The Favourite

The favourite
Movie review
At first glance many may thought that ,,the
favourite’’ is just another historical drama, filled
with royal gowns, tragic love story, and bizzare
costums. But it has way deeper meaning since it
focuses on the shift of the political power during
the 18th century England.The movie mirrors how
the authority changes from traditional divine
monarchy to a system where the power is
influenced by the ambitios elites scuttling through
the castle.
The favourite revolves around Queen Anne, Lady
Sarah, and Abigail.Queen Anne is represented as
an ill,weak,fragily person, which is no coincidence
of course, since it also represents the political
struggles of the monarchy during this period.She is
surrounded by two powerful women:Lady
Sarah,Annes closest advisor and Abigail, a cunning
newcomer.
This movie is about the manipulation of sovereign
power. The Queen may have the formal title or
power but in reality she is influenced by either
Sarah or Abigail. These two engage in a relentless
battle for control over the queen with using lies,
intimidation, flattery, and more. The authority is
no longer within the divine Queen, but within the
one controlling her.
Inventing the people by Edmund S. morgan
expresses this power dynamic really interestingly.
Morgan outlines the invention of sovereignity
during the development of modern democratic
institutions. If before it was the king ruling by the
devine right, now sovereignity has become
something invented by the elites in order to
control and rule in the name of the people.
It is the favourite where we really see this
reinvention in action.Is Queen Anne’s sovereignity
and power real or is it just an illusion? Lets be
honest, everyone paying attention can see that it is
in fact an illusion. Yes,Queen Annie may sit on the
throne,but lady Sarah and Abigail are the ones
truly running the show.That’s when we see that as
the elites scramble for control, the traditional
divine rights of monarchs start to
fade.Instead,authority becomes a collective
construct, relient on manipulation and perception
of others,specifically those within the
court.Whenever Queen Anne is faced with
important decisions, like war or personal alliances,
she never makes a choice without someone
influencing it.Her dependence on Sarah, Abigail or
people in court makes us see that authority is
becoming no longer a birthright but a resource to
be claimed.
We see this idea in the western political thought as
well, where Marsilius of Padua is discussing the
changes of soveregnity. He believes that the authority
does not initially belong to a monarch but is something
that can be build and shaped through different actions
of different people. ,,Marsilius treats the state as a
natural organism, and it exists so that men can live the
sufficient life. Like all natural organisms, the state is
made up of different parts making different
contributions to the life of the whole. The parts of the
state are functionally identified as contributors to the
sufficient life’’. That’s what we read in the western
political thought, which, again underlines the
decentralized political nature of the state in the movie.
But how could this happen? how the Queen who
should has all the power in the world does not really
have any? The answer is simple-she is misperfoming a
fiction, and when a fiction is misperfomed, it
collapses.Insted of commanding respect and order, her
emotional instability and indecisivnes show the failure
to fullfil the expected dute of the monarch, being all-
knowing and all-powerful. One of the finest examples
of her inability to play along the fiction is when she can
not complete her decision in court and attempt to
faint.This moment truly highlities how
fragile,vulnerable and overwhelmed she is by her
responsibilities,reinforcing the idea,again, that she
does not really have any power, and even if she has
any, it’s only symbolic.
As I have pointed out before, Queen Anne’s mental and
physical weaknesses are not just weaknesses. I believe
that they serve as the methapors, to show us the
failure of th monarchy.Throught a movie, we can see
that Anne’s health situation gets worse and worse
overtime,which could also underline that the more
dependent she is on others the less actual control and
authority she has over everything.
The decline and failure of Anne’s authority in The
favourite parallels significant historical changes since
after her death, the act of settlement marked a turning
point towards a constitutional monarchy in England.
This diminished the monarchy’s divine, God-given
power, reinforced parliamentary power and created a
system where the crown became more symbolic and
fictional than ever.This evolution shows how personal
realtions and political games can ultimetly reshape
institutions, much like Queen Anne’s vulurable and
insecure position illustrated the larger impactful
transitions of her time. It also has to be mentioned that
the movie ends with a lot of mixed feelings.It is like we
can actually feel the tension between Abigail and
Queen Anne.I belive that is because in the end Anne
truly realized the true nature,intentions and influence
Abigail had.That’s when she realized that even if she
was queen on paper,she had actually been a pawn in
real life.But it was too late,since it always is so much
easier to broke something than to fix it and once the
fiction was broken, it could not have been fixed.
In conclusion,The favourite is really a compelling
exploration of power shift in the 18th century England.I
think this exploration not only reflects the historical
contexts of monarchy,that we should believe was left
in the past,but it also offers valuable insights into the
ongoing challenges and struggles for power,influence
and authority in our fictional world.

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