Eloise is a character who I have mixed opinions on, mostly the writer's fault and their approaches to Feminism. It was this latest release that has left me feeling awful for her, mostly due to being in a similar position to her. I'm asexual among friends who are all in relationships or married and it is an incredibly isolating feeling, and here Eloise is a spinster among her married off friends and family.
She has spent the first part of Season 4 being punished for simply being a spinster, something she has wanted throughout the entire show. Eloise is isolated from Francessca and Penelope as when entering conversations it centred entirely around married life, her mother sends her to oversee her sister's finishing school lessons, all the while being called selfish. By episode 4, you can really see her walls cracking, preparing her for her inevitable love story. She just 'hasn't found the right man' and that she'll come to understand wanting to be a wife.
For a character who's arc centers around feminism and independance, they are paving the way to a character arc where she realises her wrongs, and that it was immaturity that fueled her desire to be a spinster. By 'correcting' the more radical sibling, and turning her into a trad-wife (which happened in her book) it paints a fantasy for conservatives: that of assimilation. She's being beaten down to accept social norms.
The reason as to why I felt the need to mention my asexuality was that I truly believe that Eloise dressing up as Joan of Arc for the masquerade, could be some sort of hint to her own asexuality. I had found it interesting that Eloise chose this specific costume. The time period is set at a point where foreign relations with France are not peaceful and so becoming a symbol of French victory would be seen as treachery. It is most likely the fact that Joan is such a historically important independant figure, someone that it would make sense for Eloise to idolise and dress as. Yet when comparing the two characters a shared trait stands out. My dissertation is on the chastity and virgin identity of Holy Women, and like other female saints, Joan's virginity was incredibly important. Her entire character is centered on the title 'Pucelle', meaning Maid, which labels her as a virgin, this is what makes her actions valid in the eyes of late medieval theologians. It was what made her be able to act powerfully and independantly (without having to mentally marry jesus... don't ask). Eloise wishes to use the label spinster to grant her this same power and independance, making her wish to embody Joan such an interesting choice for a character. I will acknowledge that this is Bridgerton and everyone will get their love story, but to me this parallel could offer Eloise as an asexual character.
That is why her treatment this season is heartbreaking to me. The show plays fast and loose with the limitations of Regency society, and yet the one thing it keeps coming back to is that marriage is everyone's happy ending. Why build up this character only to have her crack and lose every aspect that makes her her. There are eight siblings, even multiple queer ones, and yet it is unthinkable to have a character who does not want a relationship or to marry. What's worse is that she was finally talking to women at parties and becoming involved in society, some fascinating character development revealing that she's now more comfortable to do so now that she's 'on the shelf'. This detatchment being a shield. I used to wish for her to be a lesbian, interpreting her distaste for suitors as distaste for men, but it might go deeper to being asexual. (this doesn't mean she cannot be a lesbian, I still wish she was).
All in all, if they bring back Phillip Crane in part 2 of season 4 or hint at Marina's death I will fight someone.
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| please form a book club |
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