Susan's Line About Mrs. MacReady

monsterofmud

monsterofmud

New member
One line of dialogue has always stumped me in this film: When Mrs. MacReady comes stomping up the stairs, Susan yells to the others, "The MacReady!". Has anyone else found this odd? Why does she say 'The', rather than 'Mrs.'?

Is this Susan slipping up in her speech, or am I missing some nuance of British condescension towards an authority figure, wherein you label them as an objectified last name rather then using a formal prefix?

Thanks,

-monsterofmud
 
In the book they called her "the Macready" -- I think it was just a little kid joke about how she wasn't a person but a creature, you know ... like "the bogeyman."
 
Yeah, in the book she was more like the housekeeper every kid would dread. She saw the kids as pests and more of an annoyance rather than human beings who should be treated decently. She had tons of rules and she wanted the kids to be out of the way and seen rather than heard. She deserved to be called "The Macready."
 
Thanks.

I've read the book 4 times and never remembered her! I have genuinely been under the impression the past few years that she was an invented character for the film. I think it's because I saw the animated one before I started reading the books (which coloured my future reading perceptions of it), and all those times I read LWW was in a span of four years or so.

I guess that makes more sense now that Susan was referring to her as an "it"!
 
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LOL. Well, in the book when the 4 kids were going to enter Narnia they weren't running toward the wardrobe or the room that it was in because they'd broken a window with a cricket ball, they were running because the Macready regularly gave tours of the house and had told them they were not to be seen during those tours and they were trying to get out of the way so as not to be yelled at again. I liked it better with the book's version rather than the movie version since it showed more noble character for the kids to get away in order to not be put upon by someone unkind rather than running from a consequence for something they'd actually done wrong.
 
Aha! That's right, it's all coming back now. And I agree, the novel's version is much better.

I've edited my above post by now, but I realize I hadn't specified why seeing the animated version before reading the book made any difference! It's strange how you block things that are different if you're used to seeing them a different way.
 
monsterofmud said:
Aha! That's right, it's all coming back now. And I agree, the novel's version is much better.

I've edited my above post by now, but I realize I hadn't specified why seeing the animated version before reading the book made any difference! It's strange how you block things that are different if you're used to seeing them a different way.
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It does, doesn't it. Macready was only in the first book though so she's a bit easier to miss. Have you read all the Narnia books?

By the way, welcome to TDL! Glad you're here! Feel free if you haven't already to go to the Introduction Thread in the Tea With Mr Tumnus section and introduce yourself! We'd love to get to know you more!!! :D
 
Yes, I've read them all, and am planning to start back through them this fall/winter. Thanks for the tip about the Tea With Tumnus section; I will definitely make an introduction there!
 
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