#HyacinthToo

Lech as farce

As we have established, nobody likes Hyacinth. Nobody, that is, except for posh men. They adore her. Periodically, from Season 1 through the fifth and final, Hyacinth gets chased around by one upscale gent or another. It’s typically presented in that farcical, Bugs Bunny chase-scene way that attempted assault not infrequently was in the days before… women were allowed into rooms with television sets in them, or something, I don’t know, it’s not as if times have overall improved since the 1990s. (“Keeping Up Appearances,” 1990-1995).

My question here is not, why is/was misogyny a thing. Rather, it’s why does the show have these upper-class men lunging at Hyacinth Bucket?

The Major, Britbox unless otherwise specified, “Keeping Up Appearances” S1E1, Rated G?

I have thought about this without realizing I was doing so for years, years!, so here are some theories. Five, one for each season of the show:

Theory 1: It’s a cruel joke, the point is that she’s the epitome of frumpy undesirability. The sitcom equivalent of when the football quarterback pretends to be asking the nerdy girl to prom but it was actually a dare.

The lord of the manor at the country estate auction, whose next move is to slam the house door in poor Richard’s face.

Theory 2: These are fairly ordinary (if posh) men, and they find, in Hyacinth, someone starstruck by them, in a way they wouldn’t normally. She is so impressed by anyone who has, say, a moderately successful local business. (“He’s a Proctor’s Pickles.”) They’re flattered, and confuse her swooning for their status for something more intimate. Men—people—like positive attention.

Theory 3: Hyacinth’s ultimately a petty bourgeois, not a liaison-having aristocrat, and her ultimately revolted reaction to these men’s come-ons, where she’s torn between snobbery and propriety, shows that the most she’ll ever reach is middle class.

Violet’s country-gentry neighbor.

Theory 4: It’s actually all about Richard, and painting him as a cuckold or as the youth say, cuck.

Theory 5: It’s social commentary about the noblemen themselves, pointing out that whereas Hyacinth thinks the upper classes are admirable, they are in fact grotesque.