Hyacinth Bucket
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Hyacinth Bucket is the main character in the successful BBC sitcom, Keeping Up Appearances (1990 to 1995) played by Patricia Routledge.
Hyacinth's main characteristics include outstanding snobbery (particularly towards her neighbours), often-ludicrous attempts to pass herself off as a member (or affiliated friend) of the aristocracy, and a tendency to look down on others. Hyacinth always behaves in the way she imagines aristocrats to behave, usually to a comical effect, especially given her fairly average social standing. Her main criterion is judging people, and she is most impressed by material wealth and a high social status. To a lesser extent, 'celebrity status' also influences her readily. Hyacinth is fiercely patriotic and is obsessed with her own material possessions. Hyacinth also shows herself off as being incomparably better than most people, including most of her own family, of whom she is openly ashamed and extremely disparaging.
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[edit] Hyacinth's commitment to her social ascendancy
Hyacinth is almost pathologically dedicated to improving her social standing, ingratiating herself (frequently in a completely shameless manner) with those she considers her social equals / betters, such as the local vicar, local notables, and aristocrats. In an early episode, while visiting a stately home, Hyacinth goes to extraordinary lengths in an attempt to convince other visitors that she is a friend of the noble family living there, and throughout the series, Hyacinth is often seen masquerading as a member, or friend of a member, of the aristocracy. This extreme desire to associate herself with the upper classes even prompts Hyacinth to rent a tiny, cramped apartment in a Tudor mansion, allowing her to boast about being "the owner" of a country estate. Her immense pretensions of having aristocratic lineage very occasionally prompt her to publicly lay claim to Huguenot ancestry; her mispronunciation (she says "Huguenicks") of the word reveals her lack of knowledge on the matter.
[edit] Hyancinth's "Candlelight Suppers"
Hyacinth's main device for enhancing her social circle, and by extension her own personal status, is to invite people to extraordinarily complex, pretentious, and lavish "candlelight suppers", the success of which is all-important to Hyacinth. However, unbeknownst to Hyacinth, her suppers are torturous occasions for her guests, who are known to go to surprising lengths to avoid them.
In keeping with her snobbery, Hyacinth has a tendency to look down her nose upon those she considers to be social inferiors, particularly her real, working class family. The joke, however, is all too frequently on her. Her efforts to improve her social status are nearly always scuttled by her immense self-superiority and the increasingly absurd lengths she will go to improve her social standing -- and in any case, she is regarded by both high and low as an extremely irritating presence.
She is unbelievably oblivious to those people who do not want to be around her. If they hang up, she blames the phone disconnect on a faulty line, She never listens to her long-suffering neighbour Elizabeth, but cannot understand why so many people (excepting the Major, whose smooth moves she completely misses) fail to covet invitations to her parties.
Hyacinth always tries to outdo her neighbours, especially the Barker-Finches of 23 Blossom Avenue, whom she considers her bitter social rivals. If she hears that a neighbour has recently acquired an item nicer than hers, or has forged a new friendship with someone of high standing, Hyacinth recoils. Conversely, whenever Hyacinth hears gossip about a neighbour, particularly derogatory rumours, she embarks on a vicious campaign to belittle the neighbour in question. Hyacinth cannot talk about her three-piece suite without mentioning that is is "an exact replica of one in Sandringham House". She frequently berates the local postman for delivering letters with second-class stamps on them, even resorting to writing to the Postmaster General, to demand that the local Sorting Office attach first-class stamps to her mail.
[edit] Hyacinth's name
One of the most obvious examples of Hyacinth's snobbery involves her last name. According to her husband Richard, Bucket is pronounced as it is spelled. However, for Hyacinth, it may be spelled "Bucket" but is most properly pronouced "Bouquet," à la française. Despite her insistence on the more elegant French pronunciation, almost everyone calls her "Mrs Bucket" or, more disparagingly "The Bucket Woman," behind her back. Neighbour Emmett's gag line: "Oh, damn! The Bucket woman!" Then he usually attempts a speedy getaway.
Hyacinth's three sisters amplify the floral theme: Violet, Daisy, and Rose. Violet, who appears on screen in very few episodes, has made the most "successful" match. Her husband Bruce has provided her with a "large estate with a 'Mercedes, sauna and room for a pony'" He, however, seems to have an unfortunate habit of cross-dressing and hiding in trees. Hyacinth tries to protect the family name by covering up his odd behavior. Daisy, whose singular lack of pretension serves as a foil to Hyacinth's snobbery, communicates genuine compassion. Rose, the fading beauty, craves men's attention but repeatedly fails to recognize when they use her.
[edit] Hyacinth on the telephone
Hyacinth's telephone manners vividly exemplify her pretensions. Hyacinth informs anyone within earshot of a ringing telephone that the call is "probably someone important." Tidying her hair before answering, she shrilly answers the phone, "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking!" One famous gag that took place in Keeping Up Appearances was when Hyacinth rushed off to answer the telephone after showing Elizabeth some holiday brochures. Instead of answering in the usual "The Bouquet residence", she says, "The Brochure residence", much to the amusement of the audience.
A constant irk to Hyacinth is that her phone number is constantly being confused with the local Chinese takeaway as it is one digit different. As a consequence, Hyacinth's pompous greeting is often followed by her frustrated refusals to send round chips or "a portion of 32", with an accompanying affirmation that her phone "has no Oriental connections whatsoever". She refuses to change her phone number, instead writing to British Telecom demanding that they change the takeaway's number, and made her husband Richard telephone the Chinese ambassador, but to no avail. Her telephone is only one of many household items to which Hyacinth attaches immense social prowess, and she is rarely capable of describing her possessions without adding often-ludicrous qualifiers. She describes her telephone as a "pearl-white slimline push-button telephone with last number redial" and is constantly mentioning her "very expensive Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles" and also worries about 'Sheridan's pearl-button collection' falling into the hands of the lower-class type burglar that robbed her neighbors at No. 23 (in the episode "Hyacinth is Alarmed"). A running gag is when the caller is someone she considers important, and she feels the need to walk backwards with the receiver in her hand, stretching out the extra-long wire, and tell Elizabeth or anyone else in the living-room all about it, with the 'phone looking in serious danger of falling off its shelf. Another running gag is when speaking to either Daisy or Rose on the telephone, she asks them to tell Onslow to put a shirt on because it makes her nervous if she is talking when Onslow is not suitably dressed. Another occasion that makes her nervous is if she is talking to Rose who would be wearing a mini-skirt, something Hyacinth finds obscene.
[edit] Richard Bucket
Hyacinth's relationship with her husband Richard can be somewhat strained. Usually, Richard acts as a hen-pecked husband, who has been turned into a subservient partner through his marriage to Hyacinth, and he generally indulges Hyacinth's whims. These include opening and closing the car door for Hyacinth in a chauffeur-esque manner, putting up with Hyacinth's extremely irritating passenger-seat driving, and grudgingly participating in Hyacinth's contrived schemes for enhanced social status. When Richard has the courage to stand up to Hyacinth, his resistance usually takes the form of whining, and he is unable to stand up to Hyacinth most of the time.
It is implied that Hyacinth's obsession with appearing socially advantaged and/or enhancing her social status are to compensate for her own insecurities, possibly stemming from her coming from a family she considers common.
[edit] Sheridan
One of the most successful running jokes is Hyacinth's receiving phone calls from her son Sheridan, who is away at university with his roommate Tarquin. It is implied by the subject matter of these phone calls that Sheridan is gay, but Hyacinth just sees him as "mummy's boy". Although Sheridan is never seen on camera, she dotes on him in the form of compliments, such as "How very thoughtful of you to ring mummy, dear", and believes that she and Sheridan share a psychic bond. Sheridan is almost always phoning to ask for money, as Hyacinth's husband Richard realises — "What does he want?" Richard most likely has an idea that Sheridan is gay (in one episode he asks Hyacinth if she doesn't think it strange that Sheridan is not interested in girls, or that he is making curtains with Tarquin) but doesn't seem to be very able or willing to share this thought with Hyacinth. Like everything else in her life, Hyacinth uses Sheridan as a tool to enhance her social standing, often commenting on her son's university career (which, in fact, is merely a polytechnic, which Hyacinth hurriedly passes off as "university standard"). In addition, Hyacinth is constantly trying to persuade Sheridan to pursue an executive career, and has aspirations of him becoming a quantity surveyor. She constantly comments on his perceived artistic and intellectual abilities, although in truth, Sheridan seems to have neither.
[edit] "Daddy": Hyacinth's father
Hyacinth's senile father who is never named and referred to only as "Daddy" is possibly the only member of her nuclear family she has any affection for. He lives with Onslow, Daisy and Rose and is sometimes seen with his helmet and gasmask due to the fact that he fought in the Second World War (one of the reasons Hyacinth likes him and something she often brings up in conversation) and is convinced that the war is still going on, often resulting in humiliating and outragous circumstances.
