Sybil Fawlty: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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Line 14: | occupation = [[Hotel]]ier | gender = Female | spouse = {{marriage|[[Basil Fawlty]] | family = Ted (uncle) | nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]] }} '''Sybil Fawlty''' is a fictional character from the [[BBC]] sitcom ''[[Fawlty Towers]]''. == Personality == She is [[Basil Fawlty]]'s wife, and the only regular character in the series who usually refers to him by his first name ([[Major Gowen]] addresses Basil by his first name in "[[Communication Problems]]"). Sybil is a far more effective worker and manager than Basil; she handles crises calmly, picks up the pieces after a nasty confrontation and stays polite to guests. Unlike Basil, who yearns to turn Fawlty Towers into "an establishment of class", catering exclusively to the highborn members of society, Sybil is more realistic and down-to-earth when it comes to clientele, and all that concerns her is the hotel making money rather than the class of guest who stays there. Despite her effectiveness as a worker, she is known to be extremely lazy; during busy check-in sessions or meal Sybil is the strong figure in the marriage, as Basil is completely incapable of handling even the simplest of tasks. In "[[The Germans]]" Sybil is in hospital for less than a whole morning, and in that short period, Basil succeeds in infuriating the guests with an argument over the specific time of a fire drill, setting off a burglar alarm, getting jammed underneath a desk, and Despite this, Basil has attempted to defy Sybil face to face, yet she manages to silence him with one sharp bark of "Basil!", except for one moment in "[[The Psychiatrist (Fawlty Towers)|The Psychiatrist]]", when Basil is driven to his breaking point and angrily lashes out at her, calling her a "rancorous, coiffured old sow" to her face. A few times, Basil has infuriated Sybil to the point of She is characterised by a shrill conversational tone and laugh, which Sybil and Basil never directly express love for one another (in ''The Wedding Party'', they are shown to sleep in separate beds; in ''[[A Touch of Class (Fawlty Towers)|A Touch of Class]]'' Basil kisses her and she tells him not to), and Basil especially never seems to be capable of courtesy towards his wife – in "Gourmet Night", while drunk, Sybil shows Basil affection, only for him to tell her to drink "another vat of wine." In "[[The Hotel Inspectors]]", after Basil is beaten up and knocked to the floor by an angry guest, Sybil casually walks by Basil and cheerfully asks, "you've handled that then, have you Basil?" In "[[The Anniversary (Fawlty Towers)|The Anniversary]]", one of Basil's escapades – making her think he had forgotten their wedding anniversary – brings Sybil to tears Sybil is the [[archetype|archetypal]] [[nagging]] wife, getting in the way of Basil Prunella Scales has said that the reason Sybil married Basil was because his origins were of a higher social class than hers; in "[[Gourmet Night]]", she recounts an anecdote about Basil and Sybil married on 17 April 1964 (though Sybil once joked that they married in 1485) == Reappearance == |