The Prime of Dame Maggie Smith

"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969) is a cultural time capsule of life at an all-girls school in Scotland in the 1930s. Its performances, notably Smith, in her "prime" are exceptional.

Sep 28, 2024

Two decades before Robin Williams’ empathetic take as an unconventional English teacher who takes a hands-on approach to his students’ lives at a prep school in the 50s in Dead Poet’s Society, there was Maggie Smith’s portrayal of the History teacher and titular “Miss Jean Brodie” gracing screens, exerting a profound influence on her students' lives.

But First, It’s Violet

Dame Maggie Smith's passing this week marks the end of an era in acting. Her illustrious career spanned decades and left an indelible mark on both stage and screen. In recent years, many came to know and love her as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey.

As Violet, Smith embodied the quintessential aristocratic matriarch, representing traditional values and old-world wisdom. Her sharp wit and acerbic comments provided both humor and insight, often serving as a counterpoint to the more progressive attitudes of modern characters like her granddaughter, the equally as headstrong and opinionated, Lady Mary.

Smith's portrayal of Violet was so impactful that most of us desired a Violet-like figure in our own lives - someone to dispense unvarnished truths and sage advice with a dash of humor. While the dates don't align, one could imagine Violet as a spiritual successor to another of Smith's iconic roles - that of Miss Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Both characters share a certain strength of personality and unwavering confidence in their own beliefs and values, if sometimes misguided.

Mary Crawley stands tall next to her grandmother, Violet

The Prime of a Woman’s Life

In many ways, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie served as a primer for the cultural awakening and coming-of-age for girls of a certain age, myself included. I wasn’t yet born when this film was made and yet when I discovered it in the 1990s, much like I’ve written about my connection to L.M Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, I felt instantly connected to it.

Smith’s Miss Brodie is a modern women of the 1930s - She’s educated, cultured and by her own admission “goodness, truth and beauty come first.” Imagine the allure of this for young, moldable girls, but more so the seductive nature of allowing young girls to be seen, and by an authority whom they look up to - like a teacher.

Never mind the effects of Brodie’s romanticizing of Fascism as espoused in her impassioned speeches about Mussolini and Franco or her weird grooming of her beautiful pupil, Jenny to take her place as the art teacher, Mr. Lloyd’s muse and lover. Because if you think about these actions for a while, you will realize they point to the fallibility of humans and the role our psyche and ego play in our actions.

Growing Up Brodie

In my teen years, when I first saw the film, I overlooked Miss Brodie’s responsibilities as a teacher to uphold certain principles and duties to her students. Miss Brodie was glorious and fiery. She never withheld an opinion and was the epitome of “growth mindset.” She believed in her girls and wanted the best for them in shaping their fertile minds. Who didn’t want to be apart of “Brodie’s Set” and a disciple of her teachings? Ok, don’t answer that…

A Brodie-ism, I’ve long remembered:

Staying the same leads to petrification.

So when Miss Brodie’s eventual dismissal from the conservative school she taught at finally arrived (her comeuppance), I saw her as a victim of the evil Sandy’s machinations. I hated Sandy for what she did, and especially her affair with the married teacher Mr. Lloyd who was clearly still in love with Miss Brodie, as Miss Brodie was with him. I didn’t see Mr. Lloyd’s culpability or honor his responsibility in his actions.

But ultimately Miss Brodie’s dismissal from the Marcia Blaine School wasn’t related to the affair, but rather the culmination of her controversial teaching methods and political views. Sandy's final confrontation with Miss Brodie reveals the deeper issues at play. She calls out Miss Brodie for her manipulation of students, particularly in the case of Mary MacGregor, a timid girl with a stutter. Mary, influenced by Miss Brodie's political rhetoric regarding fascism, left school to join what she thought was her brother fighting for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Tragically, she was killed shortly after crossing the border when her train was attacked. This left a mark on Sandy.

Jenny, Sandy, Miss Brodie, Monica, and Mary looking at art on one of many Brodie cultural field trips

As an adult, I know that Sandy was a precocious 12-year-old girl at the start of her tutelage under Miss Brodie. And Miss Brodie abused certain privileges in her candor and her indiscretions with the art teacher, Mr. Lloyd, who coincidentally was the real-life husband of Smith’s at the time, which explains their smoldering chemistry:

Maggie Smith and her art teacher IRL husband, Robert Stephens, once lauded as the next Laurence Olivier

For all of Miss Brodie's insistence that she's not about to let her prime be wasted on petrification and that she's all for progress, the great irony is that her story and place in history actually point to the exact opposite. This film doesn't pull any punches in delivering a complex and searing tale that tackles some heavy themes - youth, culture, the role of education in shaping modern female identity, sexuality, and the consequences of unchecked power in the hands of flawed authority figures.

For that, it will always hold a special place in my heart as a primer. Dame Maggie Smith will as well. Rest in peace.

Let’s Discuss
What’s your favorite Maggie Smith performance?
Have you seen this film? If so, what are your thoughts?
Do you miss Downton Abbey as much as I do? I loved that show!