Quote Originally Posted by SBETigg View Post
I completely disagree with you on the Edith storyline. Yes, it was hard for the farmer's wife, and I'm sure Marigold will have some issues with that for now. But I think everyone was completely insensitive to Edith, especially Mary. After what Mary went through with Matthew, you think she could have shown her sister some understanding.

I can't blame a woman for moping around when she had the news she was dreading at last, the confirmation of her loved one's death. She was mourning, and it was especially hard because everyone kept carrying on around her like it was nothing. But it acted on Edith as a catalyst to stop living the life forced on her and to make her own choices, choices made possible by her inheritance as it turns out. And I say, good for her! I see it as Edith finally turning her back on the rigid rules and making her own way. It's too bad for the farmer's wife, but she would have cut Edith off entirely from Marigold, which was against the whole purpose of settling Marigold there in the first place.
Do you remember those Burger King commercials, with the mascot in the big head (still freaks me out) and people would wake up and he'd be next to them in bed, or they'd open their windows first thing in the morning and he'd be there? Well, that's what Edith was turning into. Mrs. Drewe wasn't privy to Edith's secret, all she knew was that an old friend of Mr. Drewe died and asked them to raise the child. So to have Edith stalking the Drewe's and the child was naturally troubling to Mrs. Drewe. If Edith would have simply told her the truth and not been so selfish about her position and reputation maybe things would have been different, but it was her own actions that were creating the chain of events. Sybil managed to marry way out of class and marry and raise her child Catholic, despite her families and societies condemnation of it, yet Edith possesses none of that courage.

She lets everyone else make the choices for her and then she herself shows no remorse in ripping apart someone elses life. I don't see Edith's loss any greater than Mary's, probably less so as they were not together all that long. If Mary were still carrying on like that a year later I'm sure Edith would have had some choice words for her as well. Yeah the timing wasn't great, but Edith is sitting around wondering why all of York hasn't stopped living until she came to terms with it.

Mary lost Mathew, Tom lost Sybil, Cora lost a son, the house lost a footman to the war, Mrs. Patmore lost her nephew, Anna was raped, Bates was in jail, its not like Edith has a monopoly on the "woe is me" category.

I just find her character to be written very unsympathetically.