Costume Drama

A costume drama is a period piece in which elaborate costumes, sets and properties are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular era. The most common type of costume drama is the historical costume drama, both on stage and in movies. This category includes Barry Lyndon, Braveheart, From Hell, and Robin Hood. Films that are set in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Last Man Standing, may also be placed in this category. Other examples include Marie Antoinette, Middlemarch, and Pride and Prejudice. Pride and prejudice is a good example of a costume drama, focusing on a group of young wealthy women. We first notice that the characters are all wearing very high class clothes and the home in which they live appears to suggest this. This suggests that the characters are going to be wealthy as there was such a large difference between rich and poor. They live in a stately home surrounded by rolling hills and English countryside. This symbolises that they are truly british and patriotic. Their elaborate clothing strongly suggests wealth as they are wearing silky, expensive materials typical of a wealthy family in victorian times.