Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty story
Traveling in France, elderly Englishwoman Millicent Bracegirdle accidentally locks herself in the wrong hotel room with a corpse. She eventually manages to escape, and learns that the dead man is an accused murderer who had died of a heart attack. Directed by: Robert Stevens. Story by: Stacy Aumonier, Marian Cockrell.
11 total · 1 choice · 1 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| what if I were in a tight spot | choice | The elderly Englishwoman Mrs. Bracegirdle was dismayed to find that she'd accidentally locked herself in a corpse containing hotel room while traveling in France. She at first took the corpse to be a sleeping man and fretted over what might become of her reputation should she be discovered and news of her being found in the room of another man reach her hometown. After realizing the man was dead, she worried that she might be charged with murder. |
| fear of strangers | major | The parochial-minded, elderly Englishwoman Mrs. Bracegirdle and her two friends harbored prejudiced views about foreigners. |
| brother and sister | minor | Dean Septimus Bracegirdle gave his sister, Mrs. Bracegirdle, some parting advice for how to stay safe in France shortly before she embarked on her journey. |
| Christianity | minor | The devout Mrs. Bracegirdle employed the Christian practice of "praying" to make "God" do her bidding. |
| coping with having a bad reputation | minor | Mrs. Bracegirdle's imagination ran wild with thoughts about what others would think of her had it come to light that she'd been discovered in another man's hotel room. |
| embarrassment | minor | Mrs. Bracegirdle's imagination ran wild with thoughts of how embarrassing it would be to be discovered in hotel room with a foreign man. |
| homesickness | minor | Mrs. Bracegirdle mused aloud about missing home shortly after getting settled in her hotel room in France. |
| murder | minor | It was revealed that the dead man had been wanted for strangling a woman, cutting her heart into pieces, and throwing them into the river. |
| religious occupation | minor | It was made clear that Dean Septimus Bracegirdle was running a parish. |
| xenophobia in society | minor | The parochial-minded, elderly Englishwoman Mrs. Bracegirdle looked upon foreigners with suspicion and was generally mistrustful of them. This attitude, one gathers, was intended to reflect the views of a certain segment of the English population, as her two elderly Englishwoman friends expressed similar misgivings about foreigners. Maude, for instance, spoke in no uncertain terms about not approving of foreigners and thought them untrustworthy. |