<p>No. In GWTW, Scarlett had to marry in order to come up with the extortionate property taxes to save Tara.</p>
<p>The theme of Gone With the Wind is high taxes? Hahahahaha.</p>
<p>No. The theme (which appealed during the Great Depression) was that the strong will do what it takes to survive in the face of extreme economic adversity. </p>
<p>In GWTW, am I recalling correctly that the high tax bill was a newly heavy burden due to lack of plantation income, due to the men all going off to war? In other words, it was not the sort of problem that the British faced, of a dwindling of income over decades due to societal pressures, vs the sudden smashing of plantations due to the war?</p>
<p>Outside of GWTW (and Gatsby?) I can not think of American examples of the story line ‘how do we maintain our genteel lifestyle, mansion’, whereas the theme ‘old generation is blind to the problem, young generation faces it, must take active charge or loose the mansion’ is pervasive in the British dramas. the embodiment of which is unworried Cora vs increasingly active Mary. But I do not have a good background in history or drama, so I must be missing something.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>To state the obvious, very few of the men who were doing the work on a pre-Civil-War cotton plantation went off to war.</p>
<p>No. In GWTW, the carpetbaggers who had taken over the state government jacked up the property taxes in an attempt to take over the land. Only the carpetbaggers had any cash money. </p>
<p>Lady Mary doesn’t have the hardships that Scarlett had, but I see Lord Gillingham as sort of an Ashley Wilkes type. Too complacent. He has romantic appeal but I think the practical side of Mary will like Mr. Blake better in the end. He’s not the swashbuckling Rhett Butler but he’s more of a ‘bad boy’ than Lord Gillingham and that appeals.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As Cardinal Fang said, it wasn’t the Ashley Wilkeses of the South who had been plowing and planting and picking. It was slaves. In the old days, if Scarlet had to pay some taxes she could just have gone out and sold some people. Fiddle dee dee. Tomorrow is another day. (As you can no doubt tell, I think it was a great thing that that whole corrupt, brutal, deeply immoral way of life was “gone with the wind.”)</p>
<p>In fact, in Britain things changed more after the Great War because an entire generation of young men had been slaughtered. Add to that the death duties, which where very high, and sometimes paid for multiple heirs very quickly during and after the war. Add to the dwindling supply of cheap labor the increasing reluctance of young people to go “into service.”</p>
<p>I see Blake as appealing to Mary in some of the same ways Matthew did. He’s a gentleman, but he’s not a conventional sprout of the peerage. He knows something and does something other than waiting to inherit. I think she likes that.</p>
<p>Well, I like Blake better! And Mary has clearly decided to take a modern active role in management.</p>
<p>Point taken about slaves doing the actual labor, but I thought that the plantation men hired the managers and made the deals. Their absence forced Scarlet’s active role in finding a solution to keep Tara, did it not? She would have grown up with the expectation that her duties would be within the household, just as Mary would not have expected to be making deals that men exclusively made during her youth.</p>
<p>I don’t think Bates killed Mr. Green - just seems too obvious. As Chedva surmised, I think he has organised
something to cheer Anna up.</p>
<p>I like Blake for Mary too.</p>
<p>Daisy could get the day off because she works in the kitchen and Mrs. Padmore could do her work. Anna could not get the day off as she is a lady’s maid without an obvious replacement.</p>
<p>Couldn’t Mary ask Baxter to help her get dressed? Keep Anna upstairs?</p>
<p>A little cliche about Bates having the day off and Green getting pushed to his death. Anna and everyone else will suspect him.</p>
<p>cora is made to be a silly woman. If Maggie can see thru Rosamund’s idea to learn french in Switz., why couldn’t Cora?</p>
<p>The Dowager Countess is Rosamund’s mother. She’d be able to see through Rosamund better than her sister-in-law could.</p>
<p>Well, I’m liking all the older actors, both upstairs and down. With the exception of Cora and Lord G.</p>
<p>One theme that runs through these British costume dramas that is absent or present to a much lesser degree in American stories is the decline and fall of the titled and landed aristocracy and its attendant rigid class system. America, by design, never had a titled aristocracy, and it has always been easier in America to move up and into (and fall down and out of) the wealthy upper class. </p>
<p>So the not so subtle theme working its way through many British costume dramas, including Downton Abbey, is that changes and events are overtaking the British upper class and draining them of much of their former privilege and wealth. Can the Earl of Grantham and his family and wealth successfully deal with these many upheavals and survive if not unchanged at least largely intact? </p>
<p>I hope they don’t break our hearts re: Mr. Bates.</p>
<p>Bates had to have killed him. Otherwise, how was he so happy all of a sudden? Gillingham told Mary, and Mary told Anna, but nobody told Bates that Mr. Green was pushed under a bus. Bates knew because he did the pushing.>>>>>>></p>
<p>yep,and that is also what Anna’s face says.</p>
<p>The AV Club website brought up another question. What did Lord Grantham say at the end of the party when Blake and Gillingham agreed to drive together - something about a menage? I could not catch it.</p>
<p>ETA: I went back and viewed it: “What sort of menage has that turned into while I was away?” All the ladies are speechless!
…</p>
<p>Do they all think they are gay? <tic></tic></p>
<p>What if Gillingham killed Green? Gillingham goes to fire Green, Green brags that he raped Anna but that wasn’t so bad nudge-nudge heh-heh they all want it anyway, and Gillingham shoved him under the Bus of Justice? </p>
<p>No, it has to be Bates. He needs to avenge the attack on Anna. He had the means, the motive, and the opportunity apparently. I think he did it, but will never admit to it, and poor dear Anna will have to live with wondering about it. (And now wondering about Vera, the first wife…)</p>
<p>I like Blake and Mary together, much as I thought the pigpen scene ludicrous. He appears to have a strong character that will complement Mary nicely. The other suitors seem a little weak in the backbone. </p>
<p>No one has commented that it is odd that there are so many eligible healthy, uninjured men interested in Mary, when a “whole generation” of men that age were killed or wounded. Did all these guys have desk jobs in WWI?</p>
<p>CBBB, I agree with you about Edith’s not showing. What’s with that??? If she and Auntie are going off to Switzerland for 4 months, she better get plans ready. She might be able to hide a baby bulge, but her boobs would be getting bigger too. That’s the first change I noticed when I was prego.</p>
<p>I noticed 3 new romances brewing: Baxter and Mosley, Isabel and the guy who sent her flowers, and Tom and the teacher. The 3 romances that seem to be fizzling: Rose and Jack (so glad he decided to drop that immature Rose), Daisy and Alfred, and Mary and her beaus. (I’m betting she’ll favor the guy she played with in the mud. Somehow, that romance is more fitting since it involves Downton.)</p>
<p>I don’t look forward to having Shirley MacLane back on the show. I find her character so unappealing. No wonder the Brits enjoy having someone like her character representing wealthy Americans.</p>
<p>As for what happened to Rapey MacRapester: I’m certain Bates did that, but I find side stories like that muddies the other plots that were being developed. Mary thinks Bates is the murderer too: she asked what to do about someone who commiitted a crime, but she agreed with that crime, should she report it. And Anna, when she heard about the details, asked if anyone saw anything. She let out an obvious sigh of relief when she was told this happened when many peoppe were there.</p>
<p>And Mary’s character: was she in practically every scene: rescuing the pigs, helping Anna, and ridding Rose/Jack pre-nups. I’m amazed she didn’t push her way into scenes that involved Tom and/or Edith. As much as I enjoy scenes with Violet (and Isabel acting like Florance Nightingale), why was the story line about her sick days get included? </p>
<p>I liked Tom’s schoolteacher. He wouldn’t get along with a wilting daisy. And I do like Isobel having two beaus now. Molesley and Baxter are cute together, and I’m thinking that Baxter now feels secure enough in her job to tell Thomas to shove it.</p>