“a woman with a brain, and reasonable ability” — how a plain, boring girl found her fictional soulmate in Lady Edith Crawley
Finding one’s soulmate is one hell of a challenge, but finding one’s fictional soulmate seems to be a lot easier.
“Edith dear, you’re a woman with a brain, and reasonable ability. Stop whining, and find something to do!” — Granny Violet to Edith
I can’t tell if I see myself in Lady Edith Crawley from ITV’s Downton Abbey, or whether she formed me during my teenage years. Edith, played by the glorious Laura Carmichael, is described as plain and boring, though of course in my eyes she is neither. I tend to be the plain and boring one — all my friends are a lot prettier than I am, they’re all actually good at things and know what they want to do, whereas I’m just muddling through. Admittedly, Edith muddles her way through to being the owner of The Sketch, but that’s not the point. The point is, she is the awkward, excluded, omitted middle one. Mary is the heir, she marries the heir, she gives birth to the heir. Sybil is exciting and modern and contradicts the family by her very existence. Edith is just there, middle daughter, making her way through life. I think Edith would have been a lot happier had she been an only child, like me. Yes I’m plain and I’m boring, but I’m happy (ish, depends on the day).
“Edith is about as mysterious as a bucket!” — Lady Mary to Lord Grantham
Edith is the overlooked one. If she existed in modern times, she would be the one who was never invited to parties, or had things planned in front of her that she wasn’t invited to. I know the feeling. That’s why she writes, and why I write. We have to make our own fun. I would kill for a chance to write for something like The Sketch, though I’d rather not fall in love with my editor only for him to die and leave me pregnant, but I suppose it would spice up my life a little bit. She’s the sensitive one, considered a little pathetic perhaps. Wait, am I writing about myself or Edith now?
“I love him. I’d accept him in a trice if it weren’t for Marigold” — to her mother, Cora, on Herbert Pelham.
Edith gets her happy ending, though it took her long enough. I’d like to find my happy ending, perhaps I already have, but I’d like to do it without as much heartbreak as Edith. Poor girl goes through a lot, but she’s happy in the end. She gives me hope that I will be happy in the end, that no matter what happens and what I go through, there’ll be something good waiting for me at the end.
“I know now I need a purpose.”
I’m proud to be like Edith Crawley. I’m proud to have her as a role model, for her to have formed me through my teenage years. She is strong, emotional, principled, and downright lovely. As far as fictional soulmates go, I think she’s pretty damn good, and I love her.
