epiphanies.

[hyacinthian]

So aragons and I keep talking about Edith from Downton Abbey and I think, much like Terri Schuester, the more we talk about her, the more I keep headcanoning her into a position as my favourite.

I love people with childhood issues.

Comments

THIS COMMENT GOT RIDICULOUSLY LONG, GOOD LORD.

[marketchippie]

I think this is fascinating. I cannot join you in stanning her because I am a Mary stan, first second first episode out, deep in the blood, but I love personal canon like no other, and while I hate (violently) everything that she does, I cannot hate her because she is perfectly constructed-like all the Downton characters, really; THIS SHOOOOW-and because the calibration of the sister dynamics is the most perfect thing, where it's both a set of perfectly parsed character relationships/sibling ties and also a microcosm of the different ways women felt and acted in the time and, ugh, perfectly formed people itt. Besides which, there are always these tiny, tiny windows in which she gets to be wonderful-when she comes in to tell the family that Sir Anthony's probably going to propose, her smile is the most beautiful thing. And then she goes and calls Mary a slut and it all goes to shit, but while I react intensely and viscerally against everything she does, it's never out of character and I could totally talk about her forever. This show

Re: THIS COMMENT GOT RIDICULOUSLY LONG, GOOD LORD.

[hyacinthian]

Hahaha, never apologize for length. I didn't stan her until I started thinking about her because she seems so intricate and layered and I love how everything is a microcosm of childhood issues. I just feel like her entire arc is about figuring out who she is and what her role is because everyone in that entire house is seemingly fixated on Mary whilst Sybil is out doing her own thing and I think Edith wants so desperately to be good and realizes that no one pays attention to her that way.

And honestly, I really hope they explore whether or not she thinks she's damned, because I find that fascinating. Because then she's the girl who just wanted people to pay attention to her, who just wanted love because she hasn't gotten it familially, platonically, or romantically, and at some point, that just puts you in this position where you think other people are incapable of loving you. And I love the idea of spinsterhood because often that gets linked somehow to the idea of cloisters and nuns and just being religious, and if Edith thinks she'

Re: THIS COMMENT GOT RIDICULOUSLY LONG, GOOD LORD.

[marketchippie]

The thing that I think is interesting about her wanting to be good-which is absolutely a thing that she does-is that her conceptions of doing good are very much tied into being a Good Woman. So while her pretty sisters chafe against the society that lets them in, she can't share in their dissatisfaction with the status quo in the same way because she's never known what it was like to be on the other side of the wall. She's never had an easy share in society the way they have, so all she sees is the privilege and not the prison. That's why I think the nurse thing is a good idea, because her in Downton is her in a very self-made prison, very unconscious. She's not shackled to it like Mary, she's not seeking to break free like Sybil, instead her dream right now is to embody the good lady in ways that her sisters (in respective opposite ways) don't bother to be, both because she is constantly trying to find and fill the spaces they leave around them and because she only sees what they're throwing away, not what's shackling them

Re: THIS COMMENT GOT RIDICULOUSLY LONG, GOOD LORD.

[hyacinthian]

Well, she really has no marriage prospects unlike Sybil and Mary and if Mary's already 20(-ish), which is prime marriage age, then she's in danger of reaching that age soon and no one has so much as made her an offer, so I think she has no other option than trying to be the Good Woman because she does want financial security and real estate security (i.e. to have a space) and that wholly depends on her getting married. Which has not even been an option for her because no one's offered. And the one time that someone has offered or it looked like he was going to, it became another contest thing between her and Mary, which she lost

[falulatonks]

Oh god, my problem with Edith's always been that I want to feel sorry for her or at least understand where she's coming from, and I have moments like that, except it's almost always nullified by something else she does - but this post is gloriously fascinating and if your personal canon becomes actual canon, I may actually adore her. I'd love to read anything that gets into her headspace like that. If she thinks she's damned (and that alone is beautiful, I hope she gets a separate narrative that explores this sort of thing) - if she becomes a nurse at the war - if she falls in love with a soldier - perfect! I can just imagine seeing her reacting to that kind of feeling, to that kind of attention, so she's defined as someone wholly separate from what she was at Downton and how she was known.

Basically, trudging through that mess of a paragraph - I love this so much. I love your brain.

[hyacinthian]

I actually started out hating her. A lot. A loooooot. And then I don't know why but I started thinking about it because she has Jan Brady syndrome hard except it's the early 20th century, so it's not like that can be fixed that easily. And then the more I thought about it, the more layered and incredibly complex she became.

♥ ♥