Crabby Abby -- HBO's Strange Abigail Adams

rileysfarm.com ^ | March 23, 2008 | James Riley

[stand_your_ground]

HBO's Crabby Abby

"..My Wife who had always encouraged and animated me, in all antecedent dangers and perplexities, did not fail me on this Occasion..."

-- John Adams, Autobiography, on the news of his leaving for France.

Memo to Laura Linney, HBO: Abigail Adams was smart, well-read, loving, devout, and certainly forthright.

She was not, however, a peevish, brooding feminist bore.

America's Second First Lady, at the outset, is quite capable of speaking for herself; you can read everything she ever wrote here, but somehow you get the feeling Ms. Linney's shooting schedule didn't allow for a reading light in the makeup trailer. As John Adams is being called off to a perilous ocean voyage in the middle of winter, Linney interprets Abigail Adams as a petulant shrew nearly unwilling to give her husband a goodbye kiss. In an earlier scene, she flatly orders her husband to take John Quincy, their 10 year old son, along with him on the journey to France. Both of these scenes reek of a flinty, self-congratulatory feminism that would have appeared wench-like in a Congregationalist home of the 18th century, and downright surreal in the home of John and Abigail.

Here's a letter Abigail wrote to John, shortly after John's departure:

Tis a little more than 3 weeks since the dearest of Friends and tenderest of Husbands left his solitary partner, and quitted all the fond endearments of domestic felicity for the dangers of the Sea, exposed perhaps to the attack of a Hostile foe, and o good Heaven can I add to the dark assassin, to the secret Murderer and the Bloody Emissary of as cruel a Tyrant as God in his Righteous judgments ever sufferd to Disgrace the Throne of Britain...

This doesn't sound like a woman angry with her husband for answering the call of duty. It sounds like a loving wife, whose anger is directed, properly, at the tyrant king who caused the division in the first place. But heah, that just makes her look political, not feminist, so let's take the approved rant, as opposed to the historic reality.

All married men, throughout history, know that a wife's blessing can either make or break a business, make or break a family plan, and make or break a man's sense of obligation. If a wife makes it difficult for a man to follow where duty calls him, duty very well may not be answered.

We are very fortunate, in other words, that Abigail Adams had very little in common with HBO's Laura Linney. If John Adams had been forced to put up with a petulant nag like Laura Linney's Abigail, we would all be eating greasy fish, enduring socialized medicine, and risking our lives if the wrong side lost at a soccer match.

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Postscript: I got to thinking about the kind of contemporary women who are hired to play history's heroines, and there's a kind of systemic problem. If you look at Laura Linney's filmography, you can see, she's been a busy girl, making appearances on everything from "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee," to "Frasier," to "The Squid and the Whale." Her parents were divorced when she was an infant, and Laura herself was married in 1995, then divorced in 2000, and now she's reported to be engaged again.

How exactly would someone who seems to embody the sort of atomistic disconnection, and career-centric obsession of modern life, play a woman who gave birth to five children and had the rooted experience of running a family farm? You almost get the sense that Laura Linney prepares for every Braintree gardening scene by visualizing her evil boyfriend asking her to weed his Manhatten rooftop garden while he does a stint on broadway.

Make no mistake, Laura has the depth of craft to portray an accurate Abigail Adams, but it starts with a basic understanding of the culture and spirituality of the times. The intellectual and spiritual life of the 18th century is just too deep for Tom Hanks and HBO.

[relictele]

peevish, brooding feminist bore.

Redundant.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

It's hard to dispute that Abigail was a proto-feminist when she wrote things like this:

"...remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation."

[stand_your_ground]

Keep reading. When you read how John Adams responded, you’ll see how clear the context was: she was joking, but joking, is of course lost on most feminists.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Certainly Adams laughed it off, and Abigail's threat to rebel is hyperbole, but there are more statements than that one from her making the case for more equitable treatment of women. Here are some more quotes from her:

"Patriotism in the female sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. Excluded from honors and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the State or Government from having held a place of eminence. Even in the freest countries our property is subject to the control and disposal of our partners, to whom the laws have given a sovereign authority. Deprived of a voice in legislation, obliged to submit to those laws which are imposed upon us, is it not sufficient to make us indifferent to the public welfare? Yet all history and every age exhibit instances of patriotic virtue in the female sex; which considering our situation equals the most heroic of yours."

"Whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken — and notwithstanding all your wise laws and maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our masters, and without violence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet."

"It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to... Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates."

[stand_your_ground]

making the case for more equitable treatment of women.

"Making the case for more equitable treatment" is a far cry from the sort of shrill feminism you see in HBO's Abigail, and given the coy back and forth that goes on between Abigail and John, it's not clear that Abigail isn't joshing in your references either. The record of her personal devotion to John's leadership, and her God's, is clear:

Mr. Cranch desires me to thank you for your kind attention to his Son. I hope some arrival will soon bring us good News from ours. We see so little Way before us, that I think it best to submit all futurity into the hands of the great Disposer of Events, who has directed us not to be anxious over much. "To enjoy is to obey." I will therefore with gratitude reflect upon the large portion of comfort and happiness which has fallen to my lot, without repining at that which is denyd me.

The same New Testament God that commands obedience to the Divine commands wives to obey their husbands, and subjects to obey even their kings, so long as the holder of each office doesn't violate some higher law.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Have you watched the show? Or are you relying on this review?

As for religion, you know that they were Unitarians, and that Abigail said ""There is not any reasoning which can convince me, contrary to my senses, that three is one, and one three," right? Orthodox Christian she wasn't.

[stand_your_ground]

Not only have I watched the show, I’ve been a student of the Adams and 18th century New England for many years. There is room for interpretation, of course, when bringing letters to life, but the shrill termigant side of this performance is not something I see in Abigail’s letters. You could choose coy, funny, witty, maybe even tearfully hurt, but the cold femmy-bitch just doesn’t seem to be there in the primary material.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

I've watched the show, too, and I'm just not seeing "shrill termigant" or "cold femmy-bitch."

You could choose coy, funny, witty, maybe even tearfully hurt

None of which convey the fact that she was a remarkable, intelligent woman with her own opinions on things and a keen sense of injustice. Your description makes her sound like an amusing person at a dinner party and no more.

[stand_your_ground]

I've watched the show, too, and I'm just not seeing "shrill termigant" or "cold femmy-bitch."

Let's see. John Adams is called to France and Abigail Adams orders him, petulantly, to take their eldest along. John Adams leaves for a treacherous winter Atlantic crossing and she bitterly refuses to embrace him. Femmy-bitch? Narcissistic? Very pleasing to the mustache-and-mascara set? Likely.

None of which convey the fact that she was a remarkable, intelligent woman with her own opinions on things and a keen sense of injustice. Your description makes her sound like an amusing person at a dinner party and no more.

I beg to differ. What part of being an intelligent women is contradicted by being "witty?" I liked the way they chose to portray Abigail's advice to John, when she warns him against too much erudition or encourages him to allow the other delegates to form their own opinions. That seems classic Abigail, but the gratuitous feminist bitchery just isn't, again, in the primary materials.

[RDTF]

did either of you read the book that this miniseries is based on? If so, you’d understand Laura Linney’s Abigail

[Zechariah11]

What is so rich about this miniseries is a deliberate effort to insulate the main characters from modern Hollywood embellishments. Rather than being the clever, heroic feminist, Abigail is reserved, forlorn when she doesn’t hear from her husband; hesitant to intrude on business matters; a bit awkward at love-making; sensibly offended by the sensual familiarity of Paris. This is no Demi Moore in 18th Century costume.

[luckystarmom]

I didn’t get the same impression as you. I think any wife who loves their husband is not happy to see them go away for a long time. It would be strange for her to be happy. I thought it was realistic of the turmoil she must have been feeling.

I think it’s been a very nice portrayal of a husband and wife who love and respect each other. It’s nice to see that on TV these days.