Making Sense of Society: Princess Diana's Sociological Imagination

This essay delves into the life of Princess Diana, utilizing the sociological imagination to analyze her experiences within the context of gender, sexuality, and family dynamics. The introduction provides a biographical overview, highlighting Diana's significance as an international icon and the public scrutiny she faced. The essay explores her family history, including key figures like her father, mother, siblings, and sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. It then examines Diana's personal experiences with gender and family, discussing how societal expectations and personal circumstances shaped her life. The analysis covers her struggles with divorce, her role as a mother, and her resistance to royal protocols. The essay concludes by summarizing the key insights gained from applying a sociological perspective to Princess Diana's life, drawing upon the provided references to support the analysis. This assignment offers valuable insights into understanding Diana's experiences and their broader sociological implications.

Making sense of society:
The sociological imagination

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Family history of a significant public person (Princess Diana)...................................................3
Princess Diana’s experience of Gender and/or Sexuality and Family.........................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Diana Frances Spencer also known as Princess Diana was the first wife of the Prince Charles, the
Prince of Wales. She gave birth to Prince Harry as well as Prince William. Princess Diana was
renowned as an international icon owing to her glamour as well as pro-activism. During her
whole life, she earned immense popularity as well as an unprecedented public scrutiny,
exacerbated by her tumultuous private life (Epis, 2020). She was known to be extremely talented
in fields like sports, music and dance. Within the year 1978, Princess Diana got shifted to
London whereby she lived with her flat mates as well as did a number of low paying jobs.
Family history of a significant public person (Princess Diana)
The family history of royal families and significant public persons like Princess Diana are looked
upon by people with respect and regards (Aldriani, 2019). Many people even tend to take
inspiration from the work done by the members of royal families. In this relation, the family
history of Princess Diana is presented as underneath:-
John Spencer, Diana's Father
Princess Diana’s father used to be referred to as Viscount Althorp till the time he was
awarded with the title of 8th Earl Spencer after the death of his father during the year 1975.
Diana’s father was also acknowledged to be the member of House of Lords. After divorcing
Frances, he got married again to Raine who was the Countess of Dartmouth during the year
1876. John Spencer died at the age of 87 during the Oct of 2016.
Frances Shand Kydd, Diana's mother
The name given at birth to Diana’s mother was Frances Ruth Roche. She was born to Maurice
Roche who was the 4th Baron Fermoy and also a very close peer of King George VI. Post
divorcing her husband during the year 1969, she got married again to Peter Shand Kydd late in
that year only (Aldriani, 2019). She spent the last some year of her life executing the charity
work of Roman Catholic.
Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Diana's eldest sister
Sarah is the eldest child of Frances and John Spencer. She was Diana’s eldest sister who was
acknowledged to be dating Prince Charles prior to Princess Diana. However, she later got
married to Neil Edmund McCorquodale (Roberts, 2020). They gave birth to 3 kids who are
namely George Edmund, Emily Jane and Celia Rose McCorquodale.

Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes, Diana's older sister
The birth name of the older sister of Princess Diana was Cynthia Jane Spencer. Having born on
11th of February in 1957, she was also recognised as being the god mother of Princess
Charlotte. She got married to Robert Fellows during the year 1978 (Siswanto, 2019). Together,
they gave birth to 3 kids named The Honourable Alexander Robert Fellowes, The Honourable
Laura Jane Fellowes and The Honourable Eleanor Ruth Fellowes.
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, Diana's younger brother
He was one of the better acknowledged members pertaining to the Spencer family who was
known to have played an important part in keeping alive the legacy of Princess Diana. He gave a
scornful speech while taking an effective aim at the royal family upon the funeral of Princess
Diana. He was an author, noble man and also a journalist (Maclaran and Otnes, 2020). Queen
Elizabeth II is referred to as godmother by Charles. He got married thrice and the names of his
wives are accordingly Caroline Freud, Victoria Lockwood, and Karen Villeneuve. As a result of
this, he has a quite a big family. With his 3 wives, he gave birth to a total of 7 kids.
Prince William, Diana's eldest son
Born as William Arthur Philip Louis, he is the eldest son of Princess Diana and also the second
in line for the throne post Prince Charles, his father. He had also given his services in armed
force and got married during 2011 to Kate Middleton (Foltyn, 2019). Post his marriage to her, he
was awarded with the titles named Earl of Strathearn, Duke of Cambridge and Baron
Carrickfergus. He gave birth to 3 kids with Catherine named Princess Charlotte, Prince George
and Prince Louis.
Prince Harry, Diana's second son
The actual name of the second or the youngest son of Princess Diana is Henry Charles
Albert David. At present, he is 6th in the line to throne. He had given his services in the Blues and
Royals & Army Air Corps. Further, he introduced the Invictus Games during the year 2014. He
got married to Meghan Markle. Post his marriage with Meghan, he was awarded with the titles
named Earl of Dumbarton, Duke of Sussex and Baron Kilkeel.
Princess Diana’s experience of Gender and/or Sexuality and Family
Princess Diana was a significant public person who had avid experiences in terms of
gender, family and many more. Her account of experiences in terms of gender and family are
given as underneath:-

Gender
Princess Diana was seen as a strong international icon by many persons across the globe. The
experiences she went through in her life shaped her as a strong woman. Since childhood, she had
bitter experiences starting from the divorce of her parents when she was just the age of 7 years.
Her mother could not get her custody which implies that her custody lied in the hands of her
father. As a result of this, Princess Diana had to undergo several adverse experiences. This
shaped her personality from the very beginning and laid down the foundation of instilling
strength within her. Further, she always wanted to be a good wife. Contrary to her imagination
and desire, she underwent divorce with Prince Charles (Dolby, 2019). This severely impacted
upon her mindset and moulded her into a person who had lost her vulnerability from quite an
early stage of her life. Opposed to her experiences, as a mother, she was quite strong and did not
want her two children to go through such kind of hardships themselves. Further, she wanted
them to encounter the different experiences of life as this would shape the children to become
matured individuals. Princess Diana was often seen to be resisting royal protocol when it came
down to her children. She was severely devoted to her children and taught them to give respect to
diversity and experiences that life throw at them. She was always ready to fight for her sons at
any scale so as to ensure that they as humans reach their true potential and become strong
personalities.
Family
Princess Diana belongs to the royal family of United Kingdom. Her father name was Edward
Spencer and her mother was Frances Viscountess Althorp. It has been seen that parents of this
beautiful princess got divorced when she was very young. Also, the custody of Diana was given
to his father where she grew up with the parental family at home at Park House. Also, it has been
seen that the lady was married to Charles, Prince of Wales. The overall wedding of Diana and
Charles was like fairy tale which was appreciated all the surrounding people (Bame and et. al.,
2020). While emphasising on the personal family of Diana that is her married life, the respective
princes was having two kids with Charles. The lady was highly devoted towards her sons as she
wanted her children get experience of life without taking any leverage of royal circle. However,
Princes Diana has also restricted many of the royal protocols for her children during their
growing age. Apart from this, Princess got divorced with Charles in the year 1992. According to
Diana reason behind her divorce was affair of the Charles with another lady named Lady Camila

Parker-Bowles which got started soon after her marriage with Diana. In an interview, Diana itself
has revealed that after knowing about affair of husband, she has also started indulging into many
extra martial affairs including Captain Hewitt which was adored by her (Siswanto, 2019).
CONCLUSION
Princess Diana’s family named the Spencers has been a renowned royal family. Diana
Frances Spencer was the Princess of Wales. She was married to Prince Charles during the year
1981 when she was already a significant public person owing to being one of the members of
Spencer family. She has a long family history which is looked upon by people to take inspiration
from. She has herself been a strong personality all throughout her life as she withstood a number
of difficulties since childhood like the separation of her parents while she was a child.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Siswanto, S.F., 2019. Heroism Aspects Of Princess Diana In Patty Jenkin’s Wonder
Woman (Doctoral dissertation, Diponegoro University).
Aldriani, Y., 2019. EUPHEMISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF THE LATE PRINCESS LADY
DIANA MARRIAGE LIFE ON THE ONLINE NEWSPAPER. IdeBahasa, 1(1), pp.19-
30.
Epis, M., 2020. Click: Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Princess Diana. Big Issue Australia, (605),
p.46.
Aldriani, Y., 2019. EUPHEMISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF THE LATE PRINCESS LADY
DIANA MARRIAGE LIFE ON THE ONLINE NEWSPAPER. IdeBahasa, 1(1), pp.19-
30.
Roberts, A., 2020. The one and only Diana Dors: Britain’s ‘bad blonde’. In Idols of the Odeons.
Manchester University Press.
Maclaran, P. and Otnes, C.C., 2020. “We’ll Never be Royals”–or Will We? Exploring Meghan
Markle’s Impact on the British Royal Family Brand. Realms of Royalty: New Directions
in Researching Contemporary European Monarchies, 52, p.29.
Bame, M., Fewster, M., Simmons, O., Wilkie, S. and Woods, A., 2020. IB Alpha Chi
Collaboration--The People’s Princess, Gone Too Soon.
Dolby, K., 2019. The Wicked Wit of the Royal Family (Vol. 11). Michael O'Mara Books.
Foltyn, J.L., 2019. Sustainable Kate? Wear-Again Anne?: The Recycled Fashions of the Duchess
of Cambridge and the Princess Royal. In Engaging with Fashion (pp. 271-293). Brill
Rodopi.