Importance Of Mastery In Society

Individuality and mastery in a society governed by norms and traditions
In every situation we face, we are more often than not a slave to both our abilities and experiences. Although how we react is ultimately a decision made by ourselves, even our initial response may very well be influenced by everything from our parent’s beliefs to our current social circle. Today, the idea of being in charge of your own future and the power of the individual is heavily romanticized, but the British society in the 20th century was far more focused on social class. Therefore, control over situations was largely dependent on which position you held in society. However, even the people who held high positions in society were largely governed by the British

However, mastery of life is not always equivalent with independence from how your life ought to be according to society. Actually, in a system so strongly built upon tradition as Britain’s, independence only brings mastery of yourself, but a lack of mastery when considering maneuvering and controlling the world around you. Mastery over your life is, especially if you care about social position, dependent on how well you adhere to the world around you. Just look at the Archbishop, George the fifth and the long list of knighted doctors Albert attended before seeing Lionel. Although they are slaves to the system and its way of thinking, they all command, within this system, a great deal of respect and had therefore influence on society. However, even though you could easily interpret this to mean that mastery over yourself, such as Lionel, requires one to step outside of society, and mastery over society requires one to become a part of it, the truth is a lot more nuanced. The most prominent example being Albert’s older brother, David, who does not at all care about the social etiquette. Of course his reputation as a womanizer and playboy is due to his own personality, but he is nonetheless not the master of the decision about whether he will remain king or marry Wallis Simpson. And surely one could argue that his decision to marry Wallis stem from his own love and preference for leaving responsibilities at the door, but Wallis certainly has her own mastery over him. She even shapes his worldview, an example of which being when he proclaimed to Albert that their father “was dying to separate me and Wallis”, and he believed it simply because Wallis told him. This clearly demonstrates that the characters in “The King’s Speech” all show different versions of what control might look