Vera Drake

Vera Drake is a mid-aged woman who works as a cleaning lady in a house of a

rich family. She personally has family of her own: her husband, son and
daughter. Vera is a very kind woman. She is respectful and does her job as
well as she can, and whenever she comes home, she always finds time to
clean the house and cheer her family up when they need it. She also visits
disabled people to plump up their pillows and make a cup of tea for them.
Besides, she nurses her elderly mother. Even though the actions take place in
post-War London, Vera always smiles and always tries to help those who need
it. All of these traits show Vera as a caring person and the viewers instantly fall
in love with her.

Apart from all the other work she does, Vera makes abortions. In 1950s
abortions were illegal in England, thus, Vera breaks the law. In the movie the
scenes of her making abortions, however, look the same as other Vera’s
actions, it’s a routine for her, she doesn’t think she’s doing something wrong.
Vera makes abortions only to help the girls in a difficult situation, completely
out of her altruism. Vera doesn’t even charge the girls for that, as most of them
come from poor families. Vera buys some medicals for abortions in a black
market from Lily—another woman who makes abortions for girls. Lily, though,
does charge her visitors for the help. She doesn’t tell Vera about it. This
moment shows us that Vera really is kind and does this only in order to help.
This makes the audience love Vera even more.

The stories of the girls Vera is “helping out” are rather sad. Some of them
already live in big families with a lot of children, who they can barely feed,
some of them are very young, some of them were raped. It’s also important to
understand that after the World War 2 there’re less men and, perhaps, this also
affected the men’s behaviour, while women became even less safe. Some of
the women are also very afraid to tell their parents about their pregnancy and
say they would rather kill themselves than keep a child and tell their family. In
general, the topic of sex is a taboo. It’s a very big problem, because women
cannot speak freely about their experience, about the pregnancy. One of the
stories is the story of Susan—a daughter of the family Vera is cleaning for. She
is raped by her boyfriend and gets pregnant. She goes to the doctor and when
a doctor asks her some questions about how she got pregnant and whether it
was her will or not, Susan feels very shy and eventually, when she admits that

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she didn’t want this, she starts crying. She feels even ashamed, even though
it’s not her fault, and the movie also raises this topic. When Susan tells her
friend about her pregnancy (she only hints and doesn’t even say it directly,
because it was shameful at that time), her friend reacts as if it’s Susan’s fault,
because it was assumed that women need to be careful. This moment shows
how badly society treated women at this time.

With Susan’s story another important topic is also raised: the difference
between rich and poor. When Susan comes to the doctor, he tells her that she
can make an abortion by paying 100 pounds. This was big money that time,
and other girls who didn’t have so much money could only make an illegal
abortion in worse conditions. Vera helps those girls who cannot afford the legal
abortion.

Abortion may be dangerous for a woman’s organism, especially when carried

out not in the medical conditions. One of the girls Vera helped (in this movie
the phrase “helping girls” appears multiple times instead of calling it abortions,
because, again, the topic of sex was a taboo), gets sick and goes to the
hospital. She almost dies, and the doctor realises that the girl had an abortion.
He asks her mother to tell him who carried out an abortion, because it was
illegal, and the mother of the girl tells him eventually, that the abortion was
carried out by Vera Drake. And here begins a bad period in Vera’s life. Police
comes to her house right in the middle of a nice warm evening with relatives
and friends and takes Vera to the police station. There they tell her that she’s
done a crime by making abortions. They don’t call it “help”, but rather insist
that this is dangerous and as an example tell Vera about that girl whom almost
died. Vera is upset, because she doesn’t think she did something bad. She
was helping the girls who got in a difficult situation. She becomes especially
shocked when a police officer asks her how much she was charging for each
abortion. Vera, at first, doesn’t even understand what she was asked about,
because she never thought of taking money for helping people, it was purely
altruistic. Vera has to tell her husband why she was arrested, because he
doesn’t yet know. She is afraid to tell him, because, despite her thinking she
wasn’t doing anything bad, she knows what other people think of abortions
and she’s afraid her husband wouldn’t understand. But after some time he
accepts it and supports her. When Vera’s son finds out, he’s very angry at his
mother and thinks that she’s done terrible things. But Vera’s husband tries to
convince his son that Vera is a good person. He argues with his son. When he
tells Vera about it, she just says that it’s normal for his age to divide everything

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to black and white. She believes her son will understand when he becomes
older and more experienced. But the situation itself, that a family where each
member loved and cared for each other, now has arguments. So this movie is
also about the families and how some external conditions may affect even the
most friendly ones, like Vera’s.

Vera is judged in the court and eventually has to admit her crime. When asked,
she says “I’m guilty”, but she looks rather scared and it’s obvious that she
doesn’t believe what she says. But she realises that there’s no way back.

This story gives a lot to think about, especially the ethical side of the question.
Yes, Vera was doing illegal abortions. Yes, there was a risk of her patients
dying. But, on the other hand, Vera was trying to help them, as most of them
were too poor to get a legal abortion, but needed this help often even more
than others. The fact that Vera didn’t even charge the girls for her services
makes it easier to decide whether Vera was doing good or bad. And,
eventually, abortions will become legal in England in 1967, just a little time
after Vera’s story.