THE CLASH BETWEEN PRIDE AND JOY, FORM AND ECSTACY IN THE CROWN: APOLLONIAN ELIZABETH AND DIONYSIAN MARGARET

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Albayrak G.

THE JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND HISTORY-GEOGRAPHY OF ANKARA UNIVERSITY, cilt.65, sa.2, ss.1407-1440, 2025 (TRDizin)

Özet

This article offers a Nietzschean interpretation of Netflix's historical drama The Crown,

focusing on the dialectical tension between Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret as

dramatised in the show's first two seasons. Drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of the

Apollonian and Dionysian principles from The Birth of Tragedy, it argues that Elizabeth

and Margaret function as symbolic embodiments of two opposing yet interdependent

forces: the Apollonian drive for order, restraint, and institutional continuity, and the

Dionysian impulse toward passion, rebellion, and ecstatic self-expression. While

Elizabeth's Apollonian temperament sustains the dignity and discipline of the monarchy,

Margaret's Dionysian vitality introduces the emotional complexity and subversive energy

that threaten its decorous façade. Through detailed close readings of key episodes, the

article traces how The Crown stages this philosophical and aesthetic clash as both a

personal sibling rivalry and a broader ideological struggle between tradition and

transformation within a postwar constitutional monarchy. The article situates this

dynamic within the broader cultural and symbolic economy of royal representation,

demonstrating how the series employs mythic archetypes to interrogate the psychic and

political costs of sovereignty, gendered authority, and national symbolism. It also engages

with existing scholarship on The Crown's visual politics, gender dynamics, and

historiographical approach, while extending the conversation by introducing a classical

philosophical framework that has been largely absent from critical analyses of the series.

Ultimately, this study proposes that The Crown not only reflects contemporary anxieties

surrounding monarchy and modernity but also enacts a televisual tragedy in Nietzschean

terms: a sustained dramatisation of the fragile equilibrium between form and chaos,

discipline and desire. By reading Elizabeth and Margaret through the Apollonian and

Dionysian lens, the article offers a fresh contribution to media studies, cultural theory, and

modern receptions of classical philosophy.