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Robert doesn't respect Cora and thinks that she is inferior and less intelligent than he is. He insults her after her dinner with Brinker, asking why would anyone want her opinion. They have a good marriage if she plays the dutiful wife and knows her place, but he doesn't like it when she does something unexpected and goes against his image of her. I was disappointed with Robert, actually he's very narrow minded and he has a problem with strong smart women, like the school teacher.
I am finding Cora's syrupy expressions and way of speaking to be especially grating this season. I was also struck by how old she looked in this episode and wondered if it was the makeup; to me, she had a waxen look that I don't recall seeing before.
Robert's disappointment when Cora was not there is certainly understandable, but he was so pissy about it I couldn't feel any sympathy for him once he started talking.
Cora has a very calm manner of speaking - I can never imagine her raising her voice, but I feel that her character is very submissive and passive, probably why Robert gets his way most of the time and their marriage appears to be a good one and the only reason for that is probably because she gives in a lot. They may have fallen in love in time, but initially he married Cora because he needed her American dollars to help keep Downton afloat. She does look older this season and maybe it's more telling around the eyes as they've become kind of hooded, which naturally comes with age. Elizabeth McGovern is almost 53, I think and I don't think she has ever had any plastic surgery.
I hope she has a passionate affair with Brinker (Richard Grant). I wonder how happy she really is with Robert.
I never felt that Cora was very submissive and passive. I think she is definitely a gentle and warm-hearted person by nature; and someone who would know when to pick her battles in the marriage. Though when she argued with Robert and refused to sleep with him, after Sybil's death, Robert waited on her to forgive him.
Yes, Robert did marry Cora for her money; and she married him because her family wanted her to become a British noblewoman with a great estate and heritage. Most heiresses on both sides of the Atlantic, at the time that Robert and Cora married, followed their parents' wishes, though kinder parents would at least allow the daughter to marry someone she liked (or didn't dislike). Some of the marriages worked out, many did not.
Cora would have felt a bit over her head as the wife of a British Earl, alone in a new country with new rules and traditions to learn; and probably some other nobility looking down on her as a nouveau-riche American (and the daughter of a Jew). Not to mention having to deal with the Dowager Duchess as a mother-in-law - that cannot have been easy.
I imagine that Robert probably couldn't believe his luck, in landing not only a bride whose dowry could save his estate, but a bride who was beautiful and charming and genuinely nice. Despite his current idiocy in taking Cora's intelligence and insight for granted, I doubt that Robert would have been happy with a wife who had no interest in any intellectual or cultural pursuits.
Brinker and Cora do make a lovely couple, though. But then, I've always liked Richard Grant. I don't think Cora will have sex with him, though; she is fundamentally committed to her husband.
Cora has a very calm manner of speaking - I can never imagine her raising her voice, but I feel that her character is very submissive and passive, probably why Robert gets his way most of the time and their marriage appears to be a good one and the only reason for that is probably because she gives in a lot. They may have fallen in love in time, but initially he married Cora because he needed her American dollars to help keep Downton afloat. She does look older this season and maybe it's more telling around the eyes as they've become kind of hooded, which naturally comes with age. Elizabeth McGovern is almost 53, I think and I don't think she has ever had any plastic surgery.
I hope she has a passionate affair with Brinker (Richard Grant). I wonder how happy she really is with Robert.
Hugh Bonneville is younger than Elizabeth McGovern. He's 51. She's 53. I think they both look older than their ages.
Hugh Bonneville is younger than Elizabeth McGovern. He's 51. She's 53. I think they both look older than their ages.
Different people age - obviously - differently. I have a sister a year and a half older than I and it's been asked, from a view of a photo, if she was my mother. Poor girl inherited her father's family traits while I inherited my actual mother's family traits. Some maintain their youth better than others. I've frequently been judged at least ten years (or more) younger than my actual age.
I think the Downton Abbey production deliberately manages the appearance of the cast members to reflect some passing moment in time that a 'current scene' is attempting to project. Apparently audiences buy it. A part of that projection might be to make a scene, or an episode, or a season reflect any point in time within about ten years of the currently projected era.
I'm currently re-watching Season 1, and I've noticed quite a difference in Elizabeth McGovern's face; seemingly more than the just 4+ years difference in actual year of filming. So either they did a lot with make-up to make her look younger in Season 1, or are doing it now in the current season. Someone had mentioned earlier about her current eye mannerisms and head tilt or angle, and I wonder if that's perhaps to intensify the supposed 12 years she's aged.
Robert doesn't respect Cora and thinks that she is inferior and less intelligent than he is. He insults her after her dinner with Brinker, asking why would anyone want her opinion. They have a good marriage if she plays the dutiful wife and knows her place, but he doesn't like it when she does something unexpected and goes against his image of her. I was disappointed with Robert, actually he's very narrow minded and he has a problem with strong smart women, like the school teacher.
As I said in a previous post... Robert is an old' fart. But more and more I think he needs a colonic... a serious one.
If Cora or even Robert has an affair, my opinion of the show will drop several points!
Didn't Robert have a very brief affair with some hired help? Am I remembering wrong?
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Cora
