Analysis Of The TV Show Reign

Everyday we watch tv shows and pay less attention to the inequality, power and social class issues in play than the love triangles and action scenes. I chose to watch the tv show Reign because even before this class, I had noticed the social justice issues in play and although it is a historical show, it has a certain modern element to it. The show is about Queen Mary of Scotland, set in the 16th century. Queen Mary had been set to marry Prince Francis of France since she was only a few weeks old, the marriage was used as an alliance between Scotland and France. Mary, set on helping her country through this alliance, arrives at court with her lady’s in waiting. It is clear from the beginning of the show, as Mary befriends her future husband

Some examples would be when, after some events, Lola gets pregnant with King Francis’ child and she plans on running away, refusing to become a ‘puppet’ of court or even the king’s mistress, knowing the King would have full power over her if he found out. She hates the thought of her son becoming the ‘bastard’ of the castle so through help from Queen Mary, she finds someone suitable who agrees to marry her despite having lost her virtue, as discussed in Ferguson’s chapter 5 at the time; it was highly unlikely for a girl to be married off if she had lost her virtue which is something that still occurs in some cultures, to secure a life for her child. Her husband soon dies and Lola sets out to stop her dowry from returning to her father, something that was inevitable at the time; a woman’s money and status depended on her husband or father, to have some money of her own but fails. She’s quoted as talking about how she refuses to let her money always be owned by the men in her life, how ridiculous she finds it that a woman can’t build a life of their own and how she is “no one’s property.”. Although exaggerated, the way women are expected to have children, to take care of their husbands problems and behave ‘ladylike’ like are matters evident in our everyday lives.

People use religion to gain power and take advantage of it, which is something that has occurred throughout history and to this day occurs in many countries. As written in Zubery’s chapter in Ferguson’s book, religion is used to justify slavery and many other things. Men and women are beheaded for their beliefs, exclusively in the show: for being Protestants instead of Catholics. They are judged by it, as people are today, and are tortured to death because of it. One of Queen Mary’s other lady’s in waiting, Greer, marries a Protestant without the knowledge of her husbands faith and once she converts, her relationships with everyone around her become strained. To gain power, the nobles go as far as forcing their own king into signing a deal which would force all the people to publicly declare their faith and if they weren’t Catholic, it would result in their torture, enslavement or death. This causes an ongoing war between the Protestants and Catholics which threatens the French court and the king. Despite all of this, people are still killed and tortured because of their beliefs and the king and nobles all justify the blood spilled through religion and god. To me, this aspect of history, seems quite ridiculous. Even today, in other countries, people are killed and discriminated against because of their beliefs so the show does reflect, to some extend, the reality of our society. I believe religion and faith should be