Short Weeks example essay topic

The Diana Phenomenon The sudden death of Diana Princess of Wales at the end of August 1997 sparked off a massive display of emotion in the world, especially in Britain. The event provided the opportunity for the expression of what appeared to be a short-term and superficial, but undoubtedly sincere, manner by a large number of people. "An emotion felt throughout the countryside was that many people saw themselves in some way connected to this public figure and able to grieve for her as if she were an acquaintance". (Lambert 54) However, there remained clear borderlines between what the public, who thought they knew her, and the immediate family who did. The Princess's funeral brought together a gathering of the powerful (English royalty) and the beautiful (Hollywood's finest), and the poor. More than a million mourners crowded the streets of London to toss flowers upon her casket.

Even as it was happening before their eyes, no one could believe it was real. In the days and weeks that followed her death, everyone was trying to figure out what she had meant and why the world was responding to her death with such grief. Was it her flaws, her failures, her struggles with her weight and her self-esteem, and her refusal to be inhibited by them? Was it her good works and the way she touched the common people, the handicapped, drug addicts, and lepers. Could it have been the way she broke away from her failing marriage and reinvented herself as a single mother but still the "Queen of people's hearts", her courage, standing up to the queen, going public with her troubles.

Or was it just the fact that she died so young? " 'We don't know" mourners said. "Our grief has surprised us, too. We didn't know how much we loved her. ' " (Lambert 50) Long ago, in 1981 to be exact, Diana Spencer retired her role as kindergarten teacher to become the future queen of England. It was like a Cinderella story right out of the book.

But this Cinderella's skirts were plaid, and her hair was chopped short. She had a nervous giggle, and was the tiniest bit plump. She was normal, she was regular, and everyone loved her for it. By the time she was 27 years old, she had been married for eight years and had two beautiful sons. The fairy tale appeared to still be there, but what the press, who hounded her day and night, failed to catch was that her life was in a downward spiral even after the short weeks she was married. She had been bulimic for years, she had tried to kill herself, and she and Charles were living separate lives.

"In her telling, the marriage broke up because she'd had the impudence to demand a real relationship... in fairness to Charles, he must have felt the fairy tale got all mixed up: He kissed the princess and became a frog". (Gaines 98) "Diana's enduring allure surprised everyone, including the princess herself. The public's obsession with the smallest details of her smart clothes, her hair and her sons made royal family life far more compelling and exploitable than any TV saga". (London) She loved to pick up babies, whether or not they had AIDS. When she visited the hospitals, she ignored the doctors and held hands with the patients. If she visited a center for the aged during ballroom-dancing class, she would find an elderly partner and dance.

Diana was seen as an idol in several ways. First, she became a saint for victims: the sick, discriminated against, and homeless. Then, mostly through her suffering with the royal family, and partly through her manipulation of the press, Diana projected an image of herself as a victim. Women in failing marriages identified with her; so did outsiders.

Like many idols, she was openly abused and ridiculed but oddly, in her case, by the same press that promoted her public worship. Diana's suicide attempts were often dismissed as halfhearted, but the truth is she tried to kill herself at least four times: slashing her body, hurling herself down stairs. Taken with her magnitude of celebrity, it should have made her someone people were worried about losing. But when the news came that she had died, everyone was stunned.

"How could someone who is larger than life not be larger than death, too?" (Lambert 64) People saw her as close to immortal as it gets; but she was in a car wreck, just like an ordinary person who stands in line at the grocery store. She was one of us, and she proved it by dying a common death.

Bibliography

Lambert, Pam. "Lost Princess" People Weekly. 9/22/97. Gaines, James R. "The Way She Was" People Weekly. 9/22/97. Glick / London, Elizabeth. "Can Anyone Replace Diana?" TIME 9/7/98. Time Archives. web 0, 10987, 989033, 00. htmlBuruma, Ian. "The Princess" Time 6/14/99. Time Archives web.