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.
Hyacinth is almost pathologically dedicated to improving her social status, 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 of the word reveals her lack of knowledge on the matter.
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 looking 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.
Hyacinth always tries to outdo her neighbours, especially the Barker-Finches living at 23 Blossom Avenue, whom she considers to be bitter rivals for social standing. If she hears that a neighbour has recently acquired a nicer item than her, or has forged a new friendship with someone of high standing, Hyacinth reacts with distaste. Conversely, whenever Hyacinth hears gossip about a neighbour, particularly derogatory rumours, she embarks on a vicious campaign to belittle the neighbour in question.
One of Hyacinth's most obvious examples of snobbery surrounds her name, something of a running joke in the series. Despite being spelled '"Bucket"', Hyacinth demands that her last name be pronounced 'bouquet'. Whenever her name is pronounced correctly ('Bucket'), Hyacinth winces and sharply "corrects" the speaker, demanding that it is pronounced 'Bouquet'. This gag is amplified by Hyacinth's sisters, all of whom are also named after flowers—- Violet, Rose and Daisy.
Despite her constant insistence, almost everyone, regardless of their social stature, continually calls her "Mrs Bucket" behind her back, or more disparagingly, "The Bucket Woman". Richard pronounces his name as "Bucket" whenever possible. Whenever she is in eyesight, sometimes people will say, "Oh, damn! The Bucket woman!" and usually attempt to make a speedy getaway.
Hyacinth's pretensions are vivid when speaking on the telephone. Whenever the phone rings, Hyacinth informs anyone within earshot that the call is "probably someone important", tidies her hair before answering, and finally answers the phone with the same ridiculously pompous greeting: "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking!". 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 even wrote to 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". Hyacinth is unable to 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 going as far as writing to the Postmaster General, demanding that the local Sorting Office attach first-class stamps to her mail.
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 back-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.
[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.
