A Bridgerton Thesis

Spoilers for all three seasons of Bridgerton

Bridgerton ends season three with something like a thesis statement. Penelope, as she stands before the members of high society (including the queen), confesses that she is the Lady Whistledown that kicked up quite the fuss in the Ton and gossiped about everyone and everything, derailing numerous lives on screen and likely off. Or rather, she just repeated gossip she was hearing as she went about her life on the marriage mart. And in some ways it’s an important distinction. In others it isn’t. Either way, as she stands there to repent for whatever sins she might have committed as Lady Whistledown, she says something along the lines of “Gossip is Power,” a lesson she didn’t consciousness know until damage was already done.

Which was part of the problem, right? Penelope earned the ire of the queen through her gossip, through spreading information about how the queen’s designed matches fell short (often foiled by the Bridgertons) and other whispers that put the queen’s (or even the king’s) power into some sort of doubt or ridicule, but even when one overlooks the way the queen truly came to hate her, in high society, with your reputation meaning so much, the gossip that was happening around and about you really had the power to tear you down. It could wreck your business dealings, it could prevent your children from marrying, and it could keep you from even socializing cordially with other people.

And why is this? Gossip actually served some sort of social function. It was a way of…