oneithersidetheriverlie:

Marriage on ‘Downton Abbey’ Isn’t Boring—It’s Realistic

By Jennie Rothenberg Gritz

  Feb 7 2013, 9:05 AM ET

Grand romantic yearnings have given way to something more satisfying and intimate.

This is the stuff real marriages are made of. If happy families are all alike, as Tolstoy somewhat disingenuously tells us, it’s not because nothing interesting goes on behind closed doors. It’s because good marriages are dynamic. Each one is filled with tiny challenges and mood shifts, and couples are always making micro-adjustments….

….That’s why the current season of Downton Abbey is arguably the most interesting of all. We’re no longer wondering whether Matthew and Mary will ever walk down the aisle. … But we’ve seen the young Crawleys learn how to maintain respect, and even passion, as they bicker over money…..

…It’s those private, believable moments that keep the show from going the way of The Office, where Jim and Pam’s happiness left a void that couldn’t be filled by any number of goofy romantic subplots involving Andy Bernard. There’s plenty of uncertainty ahead for Downton Abbey, both as a television program and as a fictional estate. But by letting his characters grow into real relationships, creator Julian Fellowes has made a promising investment in its survival.

I came across this article and actually found her points on our beloved characters on Downton quite compelling. Her references also to Anna Karenina and the subplot of Kitty and Levin also throws light, like M/M, on the undercurrents of happy families and the subtleties of marriage behind closed doors.

 There has been many different views on how JF has written particularly       married!Mary, and I am not negating how anyone feels about specific characters. But this article reminded me that the early years of marriage can be quite blissful and as a whole people can be very happy, as well as maintaining essentially who as individuals they are. What we see on screen is many instances of private M/M and Matthew’s Mary, and how they have finally come to be in that place,(lustful, bantery and content) with added dynamics of family obstacles thrown in for drama, as life really does do.

Essentially I’m expressing that i loved married!Mary/Matthew and their subtle nuances and I am heartbroken that we will never see more, as that would have been an epic and provocative love story.

What I like though is that Downton and in direct relation JF and his writing, has created conversations, as we all have different places that we come from in how we relate to fictional characters we see. We all look through different eyes to that played out before us, and we interpret accordingly. None of it is right or wrong, but we are all united by the fact that they evoke in us feelings.

Obviously knowing what happens by the end of Series 3, we will not see either newly married couple grow and stretch, but at least we have been left understanding what their relationships were like behind closed doors, even if briefly.

(X)

I agree and the early married years are a rollercoaster for most couples, often described as the most difficult period of marriage. They’re an adjustment to going from being solely individuals living separate lives, to becoming a partnership of two individuals living a life together. I’m surprised more people didn’t see a strong parallel btwn Mary and Matthew’s realistic and appealing married life and Cora and Robert’s in S1. In fact, there were even some visual parallels of Mary and Cora with their breakfast trays in bed. Both marriages have had those nuanced moments that showed all the elements of what real marriage is like. It’s a combination of sweetness, passion, frustration and reconciliation. We also saw it to a lesser degree (only because it ended even more quickly) with Tom and Sybil. None of our couples always agree nor have charmed lives with no conflict. They all argue and have to work at marital harmony, but continue to love each other throughout all the ups and downs. I have a feeling we will continue to see this with another marriage in S4: Anna and Bates. It will be interesting to see it with a downstairs couple. We’ve already seen it somewhat with them, of course. But now it will be more in the same domestic realm as Mary and Matthew, Sybil and Tom, and Robert and Cora.

(via fauxkaren)

Favourite Matthew & Mary quotes - 2x01

(Source: wolfsfall, via themarycrawleyshow)

(Source: you-had-me-at-downton)

(Source: you-had-me-at-downton, via derpderpabbey)

(Source: you-had-me-at-downton)

derpderpabbey:

Picspam - background downstairs people

(via downtondownstairs)

Dan Stevens & Michelle Dockery in “Downton Abbey in 1920” Series 3 DVD bonus [x]

(Source: wolfsfall, via astudyinsherlock)

(via she-is-marvellous)

relevantinfofortheendoftheworld:

Happy Valentine’s Day 2013!

…and here are my Downton Valentines from last year (in case you need some Carson, Matthew, Branson, Violet, and Bates). 

(via you-had-me-at-downton)