"MRS. MINIVER."
Sir,-It is objected that Mrs, Miniver is not typical of England, What is meant by "typical"? If you want something typical of all England you will have to produce a crowded serial, which won’t be one quafter as effective as this entertainment of two hours and a bit. Art is selective, and the artist is restricted by his medium, It is true that Mrs. Miniver doesn’t portray the cotton operative, the Cockney shopkeeper, the Durham miner, the Grimsby trawler hand, or the Cotswold farm labourer, but it does show us a section of English society, and it is reasonable to regard this section as fairly representative, True, the "gentry" predominate, but there are others. The station-master and the grocer are just as typical of England as the Minivers themselves. Objection is also raised to the Miniver’s way of life. But that is an essential part of the story. It was the purpose of the authors to show the impact of war on a carefree society, so why blame them for showing us the Minivers in their comfortable surroundings? Their "sumptuous" home and their service were not out of the way in pre-war England. According to those standards the Minivers wouldn’t have been considered wealthy at all; they were simply fairly well-to-do middle class. There were large numbers of such folk in England, and like the other class they have turned
up trumps in the test of war. The makers of a screen picture have a perfect right to choose them as a frame for a story. I am least happy about the Lady of the Manor; to me she is rather a stage type than real life. But I was talking about her the other day to a woman who knows English life pretty well, and she said she had met a number of such ruling women. We shouldn't judge Mrs, Miniver by an England as it ought to be, but by England as it is, or was in 1939,
NEW ZEALANDER
(Wellington)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19430226.2.8.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 192, 26 February 1943, Page 3
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335"MRS. MINIVER." New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 192, 26 February 1943, Page 3
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