the surprising intersection between Lady Sybil and Bella Swan
Some random musings brought about by the season 2 finale of Downton Abbey...
You're My Ticket: Twilight & Downton Abbey (spoilers for 2.08)
One thing I find intriguing about the Edward/Bella Twilight pairing and the Sybil/Branson subplots on Downton Abbey is how for the female character this relationship is very much about what who she wants to be and the lifestyle that the man represents.
One thing that the Jacob Black character seems to miss in the Twilight series is that one of Bella's major motivators is how very much she wants be a vampire and join the Cullen family. Though the series starts out like a surprisingly creepy vampire romance, by the second book it's become more complicated. She wants to be a vampire even if Edward doesn't want it for her and goes around him to his family to discuss joining them, making it clear that his disagreement doesn't ultimately matter. She feels some reluctance about jumping right into marriage through Book 3 but feels absolutely none about being vamped as of the end of Book 1. She's not really choosing between Edward and Jacob -- she's choosing between mortality & a human life vs an immortal life as a vampire. The text makes this explicit at times (especially in the movie version), and then when she finally becomes a vampire the narration celebrates how she savors the feeling of finally coming home and becoming the person she always knew she was meant to be. Thus, all of Jacob's impassioned arguments about what he can give her are destined to fall flat ("be human", "grow up", "be Bella"**). Even the fact that she realizes she's in love with him of course ends up changing nothing at all.
In the same way, we see in Downton Abbey 2.07-2.08 that Sybil's family is incapable of understanding the real reason that she can't be dissuaded. Like in Twilight, the adversaries to the relationship can't conceptualize that her values could be so alien to their own. They keep trying to convince her that they know best for her, and sincerely believe this this to be so, but there's a complete disconnect from their idea of fulfillment & happiness and how she defines it. Sybil is rejecting the lifestyle of the aristocracy and thus threats of having less money, having to work, not being accepted at court, being rejected in London... these mean as little to her as "becoming a monster" and losing human ties do to Bella.
I'm intrigued by how even more blatant Sybil is about the reason behind her choice. She basically straight out says that she's marrying Branson to escape the chains of her status. It's not much about romance for her at all. From S1 when she began to explore woman's lib, to S2 when she got to experience first hand what it felt like to have real responsibility, individual purpose, and intellectual fulfillment... Sybil realized that her father would never understand or condone her interests and mental & emotional needs, and nor would he ever likely arrange a suitor for her who would understand or condone them either. As a married woman in her class, many things she desired would be forbidden.
**note that Jacob defines her "being Bella" by what he thinks Bella is -- he defines her by her humanity, while Bella does not define herself this way at all. In the same manner, we have the father correcting Branson at the end of 2.08 that he should call Sybil "Lady Sybil" -- because this is what her father feels defines her (she is a lady of the aristocracy and if she isn't that, then she will be lost and living a life that's not hers). Sybil of course immediately rejects this correction and scoffs at the idea of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://silviakundera.dreamwidth.org/835424.html. There are
comments.
You're My Ticket: Twilight & Downton Abbey (spoilers for 2.08)
One thing I find intriguing about the Edward/Bella Twilight pairing and the Sybil/Branson subplots on Downton Abbey is how for the female character this relationship is very much about what who she wants to be and the lifestyle that the man represents.
One thing that the Jacob Black character seems to miss in the Twilight series is that one of Bella's major motivators is how very much she wants be a vampire and join the Cullen family. Though the series starts out like a surprisingly creepy vampire romance, by the second book it's become more complicated. She wants to be a vampire even if Edward doesn't want it for her and goes around him to his family to discuss joining them, making it clear that his disagreement doesn't ultimately matter. She feels some reluctance about jumping right into marriage through Book 3 but feels absolutely none about being vamped as of the end of Book 1. She's not really choosing between Edward and Jacob -- she's choosing between mortality & a human life vs an immortal life as a vampire. The text makes this explicit at times (especially in the movie version), and then when she finally becomes a vampire the narration celebrates how she savors the feeling of finally coming home and becoming the person she always knew she was meant to be. Thus, all of Jacob's impassioned arguments about what he can give her are destined to fall flat ("be human", "grow up", "be Bella"**). Even the fact that she realizes she's in love with him of course ends up changing nothing at all.
In the same way, we see in Downton Abbey 2.07-2.08 that Sybil's family is incapable of understanding the real reason that she can't be dissuaded. Like in Twilight, the adversaries to the relationship can't conceptualize that her values could be so alien to their own. They keep trying to convince her that they know best for her, and sincerely believe this this to be so, but there's a complete disconnect from their idea of fulfillment & happiness and how she defines it. Sybil is rejecting the lifestyle of the aristocracy and thus threats of having less money, having to work, not being accepted at court, being rejected in London... these mean as little to her as "becoming a monster" and losing human ties do to Bella.
I'm intrigued by how even more blatant Sybil is about the reason behind her choice. She basically straight out says that she's marrying Branson to escape the chains of her status. It's not much about romance for her at all. From S1 when she began to explore woman's lib, to S2 when she got to experience first hand what it felt like to have real responsibility, individual purpose, and intellectual fulfillment... Sybil realized that her father would never understand or condone her interests and mental & emotional needs, and nor would he ever likely arrange a suitor for her who would understand or condone them either. As a married woman in her class, many things she desired would be forbidden.
**note that Jacob defines her "being Bella" by what he thinks Bella is -- he defines her by her humanity, while Bella does not define herself this way at all. In the same manner, we have the father correcting Branson at the end of 2.08 that he should call Sybil "Lady Sybil" -- because this is what her father feels defines her (she is a lady of the aristocracy and if she isn't that, then she will be lost and living a life that's not hers). Sybil of course immediately rejects this correction and scoffs at the idea of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://silviakundera.dreamwidth.org/835424.html. There are
comments.