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reloha · 11 months

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Penelope Featherington and the Quality of Friendship

If Penelope used her wit, even her cruel wit, but any wit, more, out loud in front of the ton, she would have suitors. Philippa found a suitor over cheese, for pity’s sake. “Lady Whistledown’s“ plant puns received praise from her sister’s suitor. Prudence is having trouble because she has neither wit nor wits, not because she is too mean (and they’re all sabotaged by their mother’s “cutting edge” fashion taste). The man Eloise danced with, whom she called out for trying to “not-like-other-girls" her, would probably have gone crazy for mean Penelope. If Penelope were as vocally, publicly mean as Cressida, she would either be in her group or smashing that group. (I am not saying that being mean in public would have been the best of Penelope's available choices, but it would be more honest and, ironically, do less damage.)

Her mother pays only the most cursory lip service to Penelope’s getting married and has probably already begun to think of her as the daughter who will stay with her through her old age. But if Penelope allowed herself to speak and let either her nice or sharp sides (or both) be seen by more people, there would be suitors.

Alas, then she would have to consider other possibilities besides her long-time crush (or love, look at it how you will), and that is what she is most afraid of doing. She cannot let go of the dream of Colin, and so she embraces Whistledown, at first perhaps as a one-time lark (she tries to get out of debuting, remember, but her ability to obtain content for her “blog,” her “great” life’s work, becomes intrinsically tied to being in society). This (possible) lark becomes an identity, perhaps her truest identity, one that allows her wicked thoughts a free rein. Yet Cressida Cowper, the person outside of her family who has the best claim to be Penelope's nemesis, is rarely seen in the Whistledown papers as far as the audience can divine, except for the occasional knock on her fashion choices (with bonus slut shaming). The one time that springs to mind is aimed at running a modiste out of business to curry favor with another modiste, Mme. Delacroix, all in order to eliminate a perceived threat to Whistledown and gain leverage over Delacroix to obtain her assistance with—you guessed it—errands for Whistledown.

At first, Penelope uses Whistledown to lift the Bridgertons up. They are a family of “perfectly handsome sons and perfectly beautiful daughters.” If the audience never finds out who Whistledown is, it scarcely seems to matter at this point; she could just be one of any number of anonymous people in the ton and not part of the story at all. Whistledown uplifts Daphne at her debut. It is Whistledown, not the Queen, who names Daphne “a diamond of the first water” (something apparently forgotten in season two).

But then Anthony gets in the way of Daphne’s suitors, and perhaps Eloise offhandedly mentions it to Penelope (“I can’t think why she wants to deal with them anyway but Anthony is being overbearing” or similar), and Penelope realizes she can criticize Daphne, the pretty Bridgerton who apparently never thought of being friends with her or guiding her. Or the sister Eloise is kind of annoyed with (but would never really want to see hurt, which one would think Penelope has to realize). According to Daphne, Lady Whistledown all but declares her “unmarriageable,” a devastating fate for most Regency ladies and something Penelope fears herself to be. Lady Whistledown is powerful, and Penelope has gotten a taste for that power.

Penelope has crossed over into Whistledown’s dark side as early as this, striking out at someone she perceives as being above her and cutting her down to size. (In the books, nothing on this level occurs, although one cannot go so far as to say Lady Whistledown is a benign force there.) Yes, on the show, she is willing to “help out” by printing the Berbrooke gossip, but is she helping out? It makes good copy for her. It’s actually something of a scoop. But what if it were a lie? Has Lady Whistledown ever fact checked any of the things she has heard people talk about? How, even, could she?

For some reason, she begins to take shots at the Queen, a reckless and nonsensical thing to do. The Queen may have some input with the Prince Regent (this is never clear in Bridgerton but in the prequel-sequel-spinoff series, Queen Charlotte, we see it played out at least on a personal level), but her domain is the social season, and she has the time at least to set others on Whistledown’s trail. And what has Charlotte done to Penelope? Someone posted that the Queen looked at her with disgust (she wasn’t impressed with the three Featheringtons’ joint debut, perhaps, but that was hardly directed at Penelope personally).

While in her first season, Penelope tries to be a little discreet about her secret identity, in her second season, she becomes more obvious. When someone in a group of girls says that Whistledown will not write anything because they are all in the country, Penelope asks if she thinks so and smiles a secretive smile that could not be more blatant.

Lady Bridgerton puts Eloise and Penelope into that group of girls hoping Eloise, and perhaps Penelope too, will make more friends. Eloise asks why the girls can’t say no to their mothers’ edicts regarding suitors and is met with shocked looks. (Eloise is criticized online for this as well, for this apparently means she is inconsiderate of these girls who cannot on any account question anything, but it is entirely possible that one or two of them thought about this later and their lives were changed in even small ways by it. The idea that every woman in the Regency era never questioned anything or did anything is not true anyway, and, if it were, this is still Regency fantasy, even without dragons.)

Neither Eloise nor Penelope makes a new friend. For Penelope, who secretly longs to be part of the social life of the ton, not on the outskirts, this is a huge missed opportunity, if only she would realize it. In addition to friendship to offer, some of these girls probably have brothers or cousins or even a young uncle whom they could introduce to Penelope or even to her annoying sister, Prudence. Perhaps more importantly, Penelope might begin to see the other girls as people, not just fodder for her society pages, and she might come out into the light instead of remaining in the shadows with Lady Whistledown. But she might have to let go of the dream of Colin, the thing she most dreads doing, the thing she cannot bear to do.

When Edwina exchanges a few pleasantries with Penelope, Penelope could also use that as a springboard for a friendship, but she instead walks off to talk with Colin and never sends a note to Edwina or makes any attempt at friendship, even when Edwina is spending a great deal of time with the Bridgertons. Eloise appears to have the beginning of a friendship, or at least a mutual admiration society, with Edwina’s sister, Kate. The only friends Penelope appears to want are Eloise and Colin, and she gets annoyed when the former interrupts her while she is talking with the latter, but she never takes the step of sharing her feelings for Colin with Eloise. Although Eloise might have been puzzled by those feelings had she done so, it is difficult to believe she would be anything other than supportive of her friend, as she was when she divined that Penelope enjoyed all the parties and social whirl—the opposite of what Penelope does for Eloise when she confides her burgeoning feelings to Theo.

There may be several issues of her paper that only reveal engagements prior to the official announcements or critique fashion choices, including the Featheringtons’ (which would work to her benefit if her mother would pay attention—unfortunately, she can’t just write “Penelope Featherington looks better in pink, Lady Featherington”), and maybe she doesn’t write about couples sneaking off to the coat closet, but she is not kind. She does not wield her considerable power to help anyone unless it is in Whistledown’s best interest and will sell more papers or in line with Penelope’s current agenda, the things she believes will achieve what she wants. Breaking up Marina and Colin, getting Eloise away from the print shop and her trail, not letting Eloise do a mock version of Whistledown because Whistledown is hers—these are Penelope’s goals at different points. Penelope could tell Eloise the truth about Marina (at least Marina would not have been publicly shamed and maybe the Bridgertons would have even helped her in some way) before writing about her, the truth about Whistledown before writing about Eloise, but she does not. Before writing about Eloise, she could go to the Queen and confess. She does not.

Penelope claims, rather disingenuously and conveniently, that the Queen will never believe her. It is absurd to think Penelope has left no trail, no evidence that she is Whistledown. Even if she has burned all her drafts after sending the final to the printer’s, the printer will remember her as the person who came to make arrangements in the guise of an Irish servant (particularly as she spoke quite insultingly to him). The Queen can’t execute anyone. She could hire an assassin, in theory, but this isn’t Game of Thrones and Charlotte isn’t a monster. Penelope could go to the Queen and offer to work with her. She could confess to Eloise before Eloise figures it out, and they could come up with a plan together. She could just take the consequences of what she has done and live with them. She had other choices besides throwing her friend under the omnibus (which didn’t exist yet, but, oh, well) to “save” her.

Penelope could confess to the Queen and offer to prove she is Whistledown by having the Queen give her a false piece of gossip and allowing herself to be placed in a room in the palace while she writes it up as a mock Whistledown column. Surely Penelope is clever enough to do that, isn’t she?

Penelope tells Mme. Delacroix that the Queen wants to be flattered, so Penelope knows this. She knows the Queen isn’t out to destroy Whistledown. She could write an issue with something flattering the Queen, but she doesn’t. She writes a post that will separate Eloise from someone she has come to care for and from the people who are not rich but want to do something in the world.

For Eloise to have a cross-class love interest is not madness, although unusual in the world of the story. Theo is a printer’s apprentice and a writer who could very well own his own business someday, and Eloise is working on a novel, or at least was in season one. Both of them could be published someday beyond political pamphlets, although those are fine too. (And, yes, Penelope and Colin both write too.)

Of course, this wouldn’t make Theo a “gentleman” by the definition of the time, but Lady Mary wed a man who was not in the ton, and, although she hoped her daughters would not have to choose between love and security, it is doubtful that she regretted her choice. Her husband also wound up with a very good job in India as secretary to a royal family, and, had he died later, their financial circumstances might have been better. It seems as if Lady Mary's parents refused to put a brave face on things and instead hid away, but the Queen’s only rebuke for Lady Mary is that she did not say goodbye to her, not that she married “down” or against her family’s wishes. Eloise’s family would probably not refuse to see her as the Sheffields did with Lady Mary if she were to marry "down" (Daphne could remind Violet that she said she wished for Daphne to have the very best, not in rank but in love), and not being invited to society parties would hardly be a loss to Eloise.

Many of the people who say this would ruin her younger sisters' chances also argue that every scandal the Bridgertons go through is short-lived (which is somewhat the case) and they can never be truly ruined. (Although it’s unlikely the show will go the Theo route, more's the pity, if it were to do so, one would expect this to be a long enough road that Francesca's first marriage would already have happened, and we know her second husband wouldn't care about her sister's so-called scandal anyway. And Hyacinth, well, Hyacinth is rather similar to Eloise in many ways.)

Theo was an important friendship to Eloise and going to those meetings an important part of her growth, facts Penelope would realize about her friend if she would listen to her instead of gaslighting her.

But Eloise is not Penelope’s best friend. Penelope’s best friend is Lady Whistledown. It is Lady Whistledown whom Penelope protects, and she is the one to whom Penelope always turns when she has a problem. She scarcely shares a problem with Eloise outside of her confusion about where babies come from. She never comes to Eloise about her father’s death (which, to be fair, scarcely seems to faze her, and that is probably understandable); about Marina, the only other person who is close to being Penelope’s friend (and it can’t be because she respects Marina’s secret); about her feelings for Colin; about how to get her mother off this yellow kick. When Eloise asks her about herself, Penelope almost invariably changes the subject. There is one memorable and revealing conversation while they lie on the grass in which Penelope extols the joys and power of not being seen, of being invisible, of being a wallflower. It’s a fascinating speech, and she has every opportunity to tell Eloise about Whistledown after it, for good or ill, to ‘fess up, but she doesn't. Instead, she continues down her dark path.

By the end of the season, Penelope has destroyed her friendship with Eloise, and she has had her illusions of Colin destroyed by overheard words (not staying long enough to hear what follows, whether it’s “Penelope deserves better than me” or “Penelope is like a sister to me” or "Who would want to court Penelope?"). Her bridges are effectively burned and to rebuild them would take meticulous care, diligent work, and more than a little self-reflection, as well as attempts at apology and amends.

Lady Whistledown is the only friend Penelope has left.

Special thanks to @dollypopup and @torchwood-99, who have written so many thoughtful posts.

#anti Penelope Featherington #not really but close enough #Bridgerton spoilers #Bridgerton opinions #this got long #Bridgerton #Bridgeverse #Eloise Bridgerton but kind of incidentally #Penelope villain arc

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