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

[litlover12]

Very good! Those two are something else, aren't they? I love what their mother said about thinking that having daughters would be like "Little Women," and how it didn't turn out that way at all. :-) You really capture their dynamic well.

[gilpin25]

Thanks very much! :) I find the relationship between these two fascinating: Mary doesn't seem to be riled by Sybil in the same way, but is that because Sybil is that much younger or because she simply doesn't compete like Edith does? Both characters feel very well-written to me in the series because at times I've sympathised with both - and at others thought they need to grow up!

The "Little Women" quote is such a good one because the three of them are certainly a very long way from that. LOL.

[roh_wyn]

Oh, I love this. The competition is always right out front with these two, isn't it?

And I know we're meant to feel for Mary, but really, I came away from this sort of liking and admiring Edith, for her initiative, and for not backing down from the challenge. Mary's too used to getting her own way, and it must be great to put her in her place now and then. TEAM EDITH FOREVER!! ;)

[gilpin25]

Aw, thank you. :) Yes, competition it certainly is and in more ways than one, lol. I'm glad you rather admired Edith for holding her own: I always think her snobbery is of a different sort to Mary's and wanted to try and show a bit of both sides of that going on here. It was fascinating in the series to see just how far Edith would take the rivalry between them (and that O'Brien knew exactly how to play her so she would?).

TEAM EDITH FOREVER!! ;)

LOL. I love that I've sympathised with both and also thought they both want a good slap at times! I don't know if you're sad like me and got the DVD, but amongst the deleted scenes is one of Edith with her father from the first episode. I thought it was a shame it didn't get shown as you saw their affection for each other and their sadness over Patrick's death right at the beginning.

[litlover12]

Oh, that IS a shame. I hate how PBS deletes stuff.

[shimotsuki]

All I know about Downton Abbey is what I've read in the Wikipedia synopsis, heh, but I very much enjoyed reading this scene between two such strong-willed and competitive sisters. I don't know what canon incident this is leading up to, involving Daisy (that is, I presume there is one!), but it's nicely ominous foreshadowing here with Edith's small secret smile and Mary's thought there at the end.

[gilpin25]

LOL, this must be rather like when I was reading your Vorkosigan fic somewhat in advance! Hopefully, this hasn't spoilt anything too much if you get chance to watch it. I can certainly recommend the relationship between the three sisters, and Mary and Edith in particular, as being one where you've just decided who your sympathy lies with, and then another event makes you wonder if you're being slightly unfair to the other. At times, neither do themselves any favours whatsoever as their rivalry seems to almost know no bounds, and they're kind of engaged in cat and mouse stuff here, trying to get the upper hand.

Really nice of you to take time to read this and I'm very glad you enjoyed it. :)

[mrstater]

This is definitely not the most boring DA drabble ever! :)

I love this, not least of all for the somewhat surprising yet totally in-character depiction of Mary actually knowing all the names of the staff and how to run an estate--no wonder she is so very disillusioned with her lot when she's gone to all this trouble to do her duty--and I suspect there's a great deal of love there, too, such as Sir Robert has for DA, and Matthew comes to have for it--and I think that's just so Mary, to have that depth of feeling underpinning her brusque and not-seeming-to-care attitude.

And you've captured Edith so perfectly, too, wrong-footing her yet again by contrasting her brand of snobbery with Mary's--but still giving her the upper-hand. I can definitely imagine this as a missing scene before That Dreaded Deed. Such a heart-dropping last line!

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!Do write more

[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

[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. :))