April Slowers Prompt #14 - Knowing One's Place (Downton Abbey)

[gilpin25]

Title: Knowing One's Place
Author: gilpin25
Prompt: #14, picture of wheelbarrows
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Mary, Edith, implied Mary/Matthew and Edith/Sir Anthony Strallan
Genre: angst, general
Rating & Warnings: PG, none apart from some spoilers if you haven't seen the whole series.
Word Count: 992
Summary: Were they inexorably

Comments

[gilpin25]

Thank you! I hope it is feasible that Mary would know all the staff, but I'm convinced her snobbery is of a very different type to Edith's, which seems more the normal upper class snobbery of having little to no interest in the servants and their lives. Whereas Mary respects Anna enough to ask her opinion on women trying to attain the vote, apologises to Bates for being in the servants' quarters, and helps William see his sick mother despite more outwardly sympathetic characters like her mother and Matthew's deciding it's not for them to interfere. In fact, her snobbery seems reserved for such as 'middle class' Matthew and his mother when they first arrive! So from all that stemmed the idea for this, and also from thinking that Mary has indeed much love for her father and Downton but wants independence at the same time? All of which leaves her forever on a path to clash with Edith, the much more apparently conventional sister, yet who perhaps has an even more ruthless side underneath.

One little typo: I noticed you've spelled it Strallen once and Strallen the other time. Actually, I want to know which it is, because I saw it spelled one way on Wiki and another on IMDB!

Thanks so much for catching that. I wasn't 100% sure myself and forgot to check - so obviously was hedging my bets, lol. The ITV site has it listed as Strallan, and as it's their series I'm presuming they'll have got it right!

I wasn't sure after posting this about ever writing more Downton fic (this one has taken me a mere eight days, amid many interruptions;)), but your words make me want to immediately. :D

[mrstater]

Whereas Mary respects Anna enough to ask her opinion on women trying to attain the vote, apologises to Bates for being in the servants' quarters, and helps William see his sick mother despite more outwardly sympathetic characters like her mother and Matthew's deciding it's not for them to interfere.

Oh, I meant to mention Mary's concern about William in my review, because the fic made me think of that example of her kindness--and I'd forgotten about how she treats Bates and Anna, as well. It's in those moments you can really see the similarities between her and Sybil...only Sybil hasn't been jaded by the precariousness of her situation or felt as thrust aside by their father.

I wasn't sure after posting this about ever writing more Downton fic (this one has taken me a mere eight days, amid many interruptions;)), but your words make me want to immediately. :D

I am VERY glad to hear that! Hope some of the prompts inspire. (And I'd love to see what you can do with Sybil and/or Branson. :))