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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I appreciated the lesson in power imbalance that Benedict got from the cottage caretaker. Curious if they’re going to revisit that so directly again in the rest of the season.

I like Benedict well enough this season, but then that dolt went ahead and pissed me right off. Ooooo, I wanted to throw something at my TV with that mistress line. Make him crawl, Sophie.[/quote]

It's realistic though, the most she could hope for due to the limitations of class. It was a different time. However, she'd of course be better off with a stable job for life versus a temporarily-more-luxurious mistress position that could end at any moment.[/quote]

If you go back to the time period, being the mistress of a powerful man could actually be a pretty good power play and set you up pretty well for life.  It depended very much on the couple — sometimes it was a true love situation where the man really did want to take care of her for life.  [b]Nelson’s mistress “lady hamilton” was born in poverty but did quite well for herself and his dying wish was that she be taken care of.  [/b]

I’m not sure there was such a thing as a stable job for life in the 18th century — a housekeeper at a manor house is probably the closest you would get, but even that would depend on the family caring enough to provide for you in old age, as you wouldn’t be able to put much by.[/quote]

Nelson's wishes were ignored and Lady Hamilton and her and Nelson's daughter were left begging.  She died at 49 in massive debt. And this was after Nelson died a national hero.[/quote]

I know but she did well while he was alive and if he’d lived things would have been very different for her and her child’s.  Just making the point that the long term mistress to a man of standing was relatively speaking a pretty good job for a woman in th 18th century.  Emma probably would not have done better working in the mills for instance, or married to a miner, or working in a great house.  All the ootions were pretty lousy.  [/quote]

DP but that's actually a fair point. Shows like Bridgerton and Downton Abbey glamorize this work in a weird way (partly by skipping over the parts of the job, and of life in these eras, that were completely disgusting, like having to literally clean people's urine and feces on a daily basis and how common illness was and how little actual freedom women actually had) but it was backbreaking.

I will note that Sophie's education would set her up for an obvious job as a governess, which would be a much better job than a maid -- less physically demanding, for sure. Were she not obviously destined to marry Benedict by the end of the season, and setting aside what I'm sure will be malignant meddling by her stepmother, it's realistic that someone with her skill set would get snagged by one of the younger Bridgestons as a governess for their kids. Maybe not as glamorous as being a mistress with her own house, but more stable and as close as someone of the lower classes could get to a "cushy" job in those days. [/quote]

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