This image of Mary walking towards Downton, arms held open (in despair, in confusion, in an embrace? with questions, desires, hopes?) is iconic. She’s approaching what she knows from afar, the draw of the house calling her back, with the perspective of distance, and the bitterness of disillusion. This moment illustrates some of the core dramatic tensions of the show: people versus propriety (and property); modernity versus tradition; and heart versus head. And Mary embodies these themes; her story holds them all, just as her arms seem open at once here to carrying a great burden and a great future.
(Source: itsstilllife, via thequietworld)
