I didn’t have a good idea of what Westminster Abbey would be. I am very aware of the function of a Catholic Abbey and have seen plenty of those in my life, but add the Church of England, the relationship to the royal family, and the general knowledge of all the famous people buried there, and I was a little unclear with what we were walking into.
The Abbey ended up not being far different than the other abbeys I’ve seen that are still operating. What was vastly different was the grandeur of the chapel itself and the amount of tombs and grave markers throughout. I expected the graves to be more of a catacomb situation of plaques stacked on the wall. Instead we got random stone slabs on the floors, on the walls, some more ornate than others, some more descriptive than others, just scattered around the entirety of the Abbey. They weren’t confined to just 0ne room, they were all over, the hallways are laid with grave markers that hundreds of people walk over every day. Outside of the actual chapel itself they are haphazardly strewn about with no rhyme or reason. I was very happy to see there was at least a little more organization once we got into to the actual chapel as it was starting to overwhelm me a bit.
I was drawn to the writers’ and artists’ corner of the chapel. I had been anticipating this corner as I knew it held a plaque for Jane Austen, my favorite writer. If you will remember from my post about Bath, I was able to visit the Jane Austen Centre there. Jane is not buried in Westminster Abbey, but in Winchester Chapel in Winchester where she died after falling gravely ill. Jane was a novelist, one of the first well known female novelists. She wrote six novels in total; Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Emma. Her works live on today, and most of her novels have been adapted to stage plays. She is most known for writing strong female characters who search for love and meaning to their lives in a society that restricts who they can be.
In the same corner of the chapel, was the memorial to Laurence Olivier. Unlike Jane Austen, Olivier’s cremated remains lie underneath his memorial. Laurence Olivier is an actor and director who rose to prominence in England mid 20th century. His first West End Production was Private Lives which helped catapult him into stardom. One of his most notable roles was Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He was not only a stage actor, but went on to do several films including Wuthering Heights. He was the founding director of the British National Theatre. After his death the West End awards were named the Olivier’s after him.
Another writer of note at the Abbey is William Shakespeare. Like Jane, he is not buried in the Abbey, but in Stratford-upon-Avon at the Holy Trinity Church. Shakespeare wrote 39 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems and pieces of writings in the Elizabethan era. His plays can be split into several categories, the historys, the comedies, and the tragedys. All of his plays are heightened language and written in iambic pentameter. To this day, Shakespeare’s work is highly regarded in the theater and literary communities.
Theatre in London U of A 