The Mitford Affair

The Mitford Affair takes place in the mid to late 1930s and the early 1940s and the three central characters’ identities, choices, and experiences are shown to be heavily influenced by social expectations of women at the time, especially for women in the upper class. All three major characters struggle with gender norms: Diana because she is bored by the life allotted to her, Nancy because of the varying extent to which her various abilities intersect with expectations, and Unity because she mistakes objectification for love.

Unity is physically close to the Nazi ideal of the perfect “Aryan” woman. The narrative shows her awareness of this and her efforts to maintain a level of perfection, living up to exacting, misogynistic standards of fascist feminine ideals. The novel creates dramatic irony and tragedy by showing the reader more insight into this reality than Unity has of her situation. She is used by Hitler and the Nazi propaganda machine, which exploit her as they choose, mostly based on the objectification of her person. Much of the pathos is created by the fact that Unity’s initial decisions were driven by a wish to escape the expectations placed on the English debutante, which make her feel anxious and unwanted. Because she mistakes her usefulness to the Nazi Party as their love, she doesn’t see that she has swapped one form of objectification for another, nor that her new position is far more precarious than her previous life in London. Unity’s narrative also touches on the complex rivalry that can exist between women in sexist societies. Unity compared herself unfavorably to her peers in society London and feels a rush when she is admired by other women at Nazi events. The novel shows her failing to appreciate that these women only see her as a model because she is an object of Nazi approval and being used as a proxy by Nazi propaganda, not because of who she is in herself.

Diana has a complex relationship with gender norms. Her urge to step away from the norms of gender (her first husband and their idyllic wealthy life and family) suggests that she wishes for something other in her life and chafes against the roles which have been laid out for her and which she apparently fills so well. This inner conflict is again shown when she deliberately plays the submissive and supportive partner to Mosley, allowing him to take central stage even in situations that she has herself constructed and made happen. The narrative, however, shows the reader that she is the driving force in their political partnership and that her apparent submission is pragmatic. For example, it’s Mosley who travels to Paris to have a meeting about the German radio broadcasts, even though the whole plan is Diana’s idea. Mosley takes public credit for the rise of the BUF in Britain, even though it’s Diana who helps connect Mosley to financiers that allow the BUF to survive. Diana has her own political motivations because she is a woman of ambition Diana is ruthless, pragmatic, and uses her femininity to get ahead. She knows that Hitler is attracted to her and uses the hint of sexuality to get what she needs from him. The novel shows Diana consciously negotiating the confines of her personal power as a woman and explores the moral dilemma of a (beautiful) woman at the time, who could exert most power by manipulating others.

Nancy rejects aspects of traditional femininity in some areas of her life, acting with direct agency as a writer, thinker, and political activist. Nancy is a well-known published author in a field that is typically dominated by men. She has the respect of powerful men like Winston Churchill without using her sexuality; Churchill appreciates Nancy’s intelligence and sense of patriotism, not her beauty. She volunteers to serve people in need, unusual for a woman of her standing, but Nancy does not reject all of the traditional female role. On the contrary, she displays maternal instincts in her family and wishes deeply for children. Her lack of children makes her question her purpose and in this way the novel explores the burden of female expectations. Nancy not only experiences personal unhappiness but from an internalized sense of deficiency when she is not able to fulfill the role of mother. Her desire to be married, and to maintain her difficult marriage, is presented in the novel as part of her longing for children and the novel therefore subtly explores how fixed social traditions and the ideal of the nuclear family limited the personal freedoms and happiness of individuals, especially women.