“When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.”
(Source: elsie-hughes)
I am so glad you asked. So glad I wrote over a thousand words (I’m so sorry).
I completely agree with all of this. I think that Mary and Mrs. Hughes are remarkably similar and think it’s quite logical that Carson loves them both so much. Similar personalities also usually clash, which is where some of the tension comes from. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that Mrs. Hughes takes some of her disdain of the class system out on Mary, who is the perfect example of an aristo woman.
I worry that as Mary deals with Matthew’s death she’s going to neglect her son, which will upset Carson greatly (both for the boy and more importantly because he feels for Mary) which will in turn cause Mrs. Hughes to feel as frustrated with Mary as ever (for upsetting Carson). BUT I also think you’re right in that Mrs. Hughes is the most compassionate person on the show, so I’m hoping that her empathy will overcome frustration.
Lmao, yes, I think I’ve harped on about some underlying similarities between the two of them for quite some time, but because these similarities were fostered in different systems, so to speak, for seemingly different reasons, tension is a given.
That being said, I think you definitely have nothing to worry about as far as Mary neglecting her - and the same with Mary upsetting Carson. We’ve received a few quotes about the next season, and one of the most striking ones was that Mary “will be like a lioness, defending her child from any threat” (I don’t know if that was it word for word, but that was basically it). And being that core pragmatist, this is, of course, completely in character. It wouldn’t make sense, as I see her, for Mary to neglect her son. Her son is the heir and the future of Downton falls on him - even more so now that Matthew is gone. He’s the most important thing and she’ll preserve Matthew’s memory, so to speak, through raising him. Not to mention that we’ve seen in times of grief and loss, Mary is always the one to move practically ahead. Neglect and becoming stuck because of Matthew wouldn’t really be in her nature. That’s not to say she won’t be upset and she won’t mourn, but Mary always seems to channel that into action. (After her engagement with Matthew falls through, she goes and finds a seemingly suitable new offer in Carlisle; when her sister is dying, as it’s been noted, Mary is the one doing the more medical procedures she can and tries to get the doctor’s to help her sister - while they sulk in the corner. These situations are a bit different, but highlight that practical way she deals with loss.)
And lmao, Mary can’t do anything wrong in Carson’s eyes. I think there’s a line in the S1 Scriptbook where JF mentions that even if Mary had murdered Pamuk, Carson would have justified it anyway (as he justifies an act he finds repulsive in other people). Because that’s what Carson is to Mary, that unrelenting, unquestioning source of parental support (which she doesn’t get from anyone else) (not in the same way, not from the very beginning ever, and not with the same degree of devotion). But Carson (no matter how hypocritical it would make him) (I mean the man is full of them) (which is maybe one of the best parts about his character sometimes) (only sometimes) (why am I using so many brackets), no matter how fond he becomes of George Crawley (which he undoubtedly will), will always put Mary first, because absolutely no one else is like Mary is his eyes.
So really, no worries on that front!
I am so glad you asked. So glad I wrote over a thousand words (I’m so sorry).
“You must bear it. And one day, I hope - and so would she - you’ll find someone to bear it with you.”
(Source: elsie-hughes)
Awhile ago I stopped wading into tags and such, but one point I’ve been seeing going around for past few months? or so is that ~Mary has no interests. This is a really confusing point for me because I definitely think you can see that Mary has a fairly healthy set of them. So here’s a post on how Mary has interests, the parallel nature of duty in Downton Abbey, and what I think the general meaning of this show is.
(Source: elsie-hughes)
AU MEME: Anna, Mary, and Noir(ish) for sam
make no mistake i don’t do anything for free,
i keep my enemies closer than my mirror ever gets to me,
and if you think that there is shelter in this attitude
wait ‘til you feel the warmth of my gratitude.
So a little while ago I finally went through PBS’ s3 bios for the cast. And I was really pleasantly surprised by them, mostly because they affirmed a lot of my own observations and that’s always nice. In particular:
An immoveable standard bearer, Carson may butt heads with his cohort Mrs. Hughes, but he extends great loyalty to her, as he does to the dowager countess, Violet, and always, to Lady Mary.
Now, this really isn’t anything new and I feel like everyone recognizes that these three women are clearly Carson’s sun, moon, and stars (possibly in reverse order but I’m not going to get into that metaphor). But I thought maybe I’d like to talk about why this is and what Carson sees in them and how they’re rather inherently similar. But then I also made a graphic last night with Violet, Cora, and Mary all sitting in a row as countesses (or would-be countesses) of Grantham and I thought that would also be fun to discuss. So, um, since my thoughts tag is mostly a mess of poorly written ideas (especially when it comes to Mary/Hughes parallels that was not written well and really needs to properly be done wow I’ll get on that later) and most of it is cringe-worthy and embarrassing so – let’s add more to that? Yes, great.
I’m going to try and only talk about three-ish things, so this is a sort of grab bag of hopefully short-ish meta thoughts prefaced by this pretentious write-ups and just so I don’t get off track and seem even more full of myself here is a table of contents complete with roman numerals:
i. On Carson (and Duty)
ii. Mary and Violet vs. Cora
iii. Mary and Mrs. Hughes and Embodying One’s Position
iv. A Summation of Carson’s Love
I really don’t expect anyone to read this because it’s bizarre and incoherent and tedious and long, but um, here we go:
and in my book, the countess of grantham lives at downton abbey.
(Source: elsie-hughes)
and i just wanna know, where do you keep your kings?
and if they ever fall, then will you think of me?
(Source: elsie-hughes)
I can’t pretend that all is well, it’s like I’m haunted by a ghost, there are times I cannot speak your name, for the catching in my throat / ( praise the water under bridges, praise the time we say we’ll heal, praise the fonder that still grows on the absent heart and fields, praise be to this pain these days, it’s all I seem to feel )
(Source: elsie-hughes)