I’m with Amanda here. I think some of you are being awfully hard on Edith. Hey, I agree the plot line has lingered too long, but that’s the plot, not the character.
Marigold is under 2 years of age. That’s not a long time to wait to decide what to do with the child, especially in a situation in which Edith did not know what happened to the father. Reality is that most people have no memory of what happened to them during the first 2 years of life. (Cue CC crowd claiming they and/or their children do. I’m only saying most people do not.) And, remember the times. Adoption wasn’t viewed as it is now. In fact there was NO legal adoption in the UK until 1926. Children weren’t viewed as they are now. Nobody thought in terms of a child suffering permanent damage because (s)he was taken away from a family as a toddler and/or it being awful for a nanny to be the primary caretaker of a young child.
Edith is now wealthy. She doesn’t have to run the publishing business herself. She can hire someone or sell it and live on the proceeds. She is wealthy enough to tell the rest of her family to go jump in a lake.
Reality is that although the “taint” of illegitimacy will affect Marigold’s future, her opportunities in life will be far greater as Edith’s illegitimate child than as the Drewes’ foster child–especially since Mrs. Drewe was unwilling to take the money Edith wanted to give the Drewes for Marigold’s education. Mrs. Drewe loves Marigold–last night’s scene was very affecting and well played by the actress. However, the Drewes have other children to provide for as well.
And certainly Marigold is better off with Edith than she would be in the awful sort of “boarding school” Violet and Rosamund want to pack her off to. And if I were Cora I’d be more furious with them than Edith when the truth comes out.
We don’t know whom Edith called in London, but now it seems she may just have been making reservations for somewhere for her and Marigold to stay.
Mary is turning back into the awful person she was before Matthew. She totally fell apart for a long period of time when he died, but she hasn’t an ounce of sympathy for Edith. And, really, she doesn’t want Gillingham, but she enjoys yanking his chain.
The three unmarried sisters shared a lady’s maid in 1917 but who’s to say that wasn’t cut back? It’s been mentioned alot downstairs that other houses have cut back staff to “only a footman” and “only one maid” or whatever. Remember Ivy wasn’t replaced? When Robert lost all that money on the railroad, he stopped hiring, or got angry when someone was hired, right? In 1917 or so, Sybil was a wildchild learning to cook and boil water downstairs, but who’s to say, Edith didn’t have some clue after tending to soldiers as a aid?
^^ True. Some of Edith’s charges at the hospital may have been incontinent, and she certainly would have had to boild water for wound cleaning, bandage washing, etc.
I am glad Edith may get away from the family. They were pretty awful to her. I know early on she did her share of ‘awful’, but she certainly wasn’t alone in that. I don’t understand why Mary seems to be the golden child, and Edith the black sheep. I do hope Edith can come into her own, then mend things with the family, on her terms.
I think the Isis story line is a device to get Robert and Cora back together as they bond over the old dog’s demise.
I thought the plot line with the objecting tenant mother not knowing the child was Edith’s was absurd. Why wouldn’t she know? Her husband did so why wouldn’t she? But that would have made for less sorrow for Edith, though not have changed the outcome of her taking control of her child and her life.
Mr. Drewe said his wife wouldn’t question him about the child if he told her it was his dying friend’s wish. He wrote a fake letter and she didn’t question it. Edith was the one who approached Mr. Drewe, brought him to the house, not his wife. She just thought Edith was the landlord admiring the girl and then getting increasingly annoying as time went on. No reason to think Edith was the child’s unmarried mother. I mean, I think it was common knowledge to everyone in the village that Edith was a spinster at this point. Mrs. Drewe doesn’t need to keep quiet, I mean Marigold is with Edith and Edith left to live on her terms so it’s not like she wants to keep the secret anymore. And why does she need to?
Just jumping in to add that Edith does have a maid; her name is Madge. (I only know this because a DA Quiz showed up on my FB feed this morning, and that was one of the questions, i.e. what is the name of Edith’s maid?)
Probably because Mary is strong and decisive and Edith tends to collapse and wallow in self-pity.
I liked Edith a lot better when she was writing columns, expressing opinions and being relatively dynamic. Unfortunately, she only seems to be able to do that when she is attached to a man, and Mr. Gregson (mad wife notwithstanding) was a married man at that. I can’t remember if her family was aware of that little fact and that the reason he went to Germany was so that he could divorce her. I can’t imagine that would reflect very well on Edith and I wonder if they are ever going to mention his inconvenient wife or just drop that unresolved issue. I would think that it would come up in the reading of the will and disposition of his estate but have no confidence that JF will address that.
Some may still find Edith sympathetic, but I just find her weak, poor-me attitude impossible to respect and she’s just never been very nice. I can’t think of a single time she’s done something unselfish and she’s always been so desperate for a man that she even kissed a married farmer (whose wife witnessed the act) during the war. Even the actress who plays her said that she was a ■■■■■ during an interview in season one.
Mary may be a ■■■■■, but she’s strong and doesn’t fling herself at every man who shows any interest in her. She’s embracing social change and taking responsibility for managing the estate and I’m enjoying her growth as a character.
She also looks fabulous in every new outfit she wears, which has become the most entertaining part of the show for me.
Edit: I forgot to mention Edith’s hissy fit over Mary’s new haircut. Seriously? Boo-hoo, how DARE you change your hairstyle while I’m supposed to be the center of attention over my dead, married boyfriend who disappeared two years ago? In front of Rose’s new boyfriend (how DARE she have a new boyfriend when mine is dead)? Even Cora thought that was unfair. Apparently, that evening was supposed to be all about Edith.
Well, I think it would have been gracious if Mary had at least acknowledge Edith’s loss. Instead, she snarked, “Well, we’ve all known for a year that he was dead!”
But she can’t expect them to know that she is mourning for the loss of her baby’s father AND the baby. Her grief is disproportionate to what they know about the relationship.
While excessive, it was similar to Mary’s outburst at the dinner table not too long after her husband Matthew died.
To some extent, there seems to be a bit of a double standard and Fellowes wrote the stories in a way to get many to go along with favoring Mary and disliking of Edith beyond her flaws. Especially considering Mary shares some of them but is better at acting in a manner which gets us to forget them in her case.
But some of the housemaids did double-duty as lady’s maids for unmarried young women. So Edith had the services of a lady’s maid, even if the person performing those services did not have that title.