Eleanor Bramwell: I detest you!
I started off really liking this show and rooting for the character of Eleanor Bramwell. However, as the series progressed, I started seeing the horrible nature of this main character seeping out with each episode and along the way I grew to detest her. The one episode where she was excluded as they focused on Nurse Carr is now my favourite since Eleanor was not in it.
This woman, a so-called doctor, was directly responsible for much suffering, because she had a tendency to ruin everything she touched. She was always sorry yet life went on for her as she destroyed the life of that girl with the large head; the man who was hiding during the war and was later exposed by her to win points with that officer she was lusting after, just to be beaten to death; and let's not forget that innocent child who was perfectly safe with her mother -- yet Eleanor handed her over to a total stranger [a ruthless madam] just to have the child lose her life and suffer through untold horrors before her death. The child begged not to go with the woman yet Eleanor asked no questions and just shoved her off to the devil itself. Even when she showed initial concern, she went skating first with her officer boyfriend.
What she did to that poor child is beyond disgusting, She never even apologised to the child's mother for what she did. The so-called sadness from her was her own self-pity because once again she was wrong. When she told on that Dutch fellow and he was beaten to death, she still kept carrying on with her officer boyfriend even though she pretended to be so outraged. And look how she treated Dr. Marsham in the end, as though he had no feelings at all. Then the writers tried justifying Eleanor's actions by making the doctor the bad one who frequented brothels and so Eleanor had all right to cheat on him and marry someone else. This woman was never held accountable for her wrong deeds, not even in the end as her happy ending came along.
This show started out with such a good premise but along the way turned into a major disappointment in characterisation. The main character should be likable and not someone the viewer grows to dislike. I personally grew to detest the character of Eleanor Bramwell and found her nature to be seriously flawed, to the detriment of others. Her ego, stubbornness, selfishness, and misguided impulsive mind-set wound up undermining much of the good she professed to do and destroyed many lives in the process.