LADY VIOLET BRIDGERTON
ANTHONY BRIDGERTON
LADY VIOLET’S SON
SIENA ROSSO
HERE IS A CRUCIAL PART OF THE ASTRID ESSED ANALYSIS ABOUT
THE RELATIONSHIP OF LADY VIOLET AND HER SON ANTHONY
THE SIENA ROSSO AFFAIR
SEE
INTRODUCTION
Bridgerton series is about the Bridgerton aristocratic Family in the Regency Era and
describes the happenings of the eight Bridgerton children and their mother and matriarch Violet Bridgerton
LADY VIOLET AND HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER SON ANTHONY
Most important:
Lady Violet loves Anthony deeply, but their bond is strained by a number of factors:
By the death of the patriarch and father of Anthony, Edmund, his wife Violet is so
deep in mourning, that Anthony has to take full responsibility for not only the Estate and Household [as the head of the family], but also as the ”caretaker” and surrogate father of his younger brothers and sisters
When Lady Violet resumes her tasks as matriarch again, she is still mourning, often not
realizing that Anthony, eventhough he is the judicial head of the family, needs the
;love of his mother too.
While she is tender towards her 7 children,especially daughter Daphne, she often treats Anthony, unintentionally, with severe harshness, coldness and even cruelty, by consistently
scolding him and pointing mercilessly on his duties [making cruel remarks like ”O my dear son, your father should have been soooo disappointed], without giving him room for
a break or even mourning his dead father [by saying ”Stop mourning, it’s ten years now, while she herself takes all the time for mourning]
So Anthony thinks mistakingly that his mother on;y uses him in his role as Viscount and loving him less then the other children
REASONS FOR VIOLET’S HARSHNESS, TENDING TO CRUELTY
Firstly
Violet doesnt realize her own harshness and as far as she sees it, she thinks she must harden
Anthony for his role as patriarch of the family in a relentless social Regency Era, where one
misstep could cause social death
And that threat of social death, especially concerning the marriage chances of
her daughters, is the reason for her harshness against Anthony in a time, that missteps
were not forgiven
So, because of that situation, she is extremely strict against him, culminating in cruelty, which hurts him deeply, especially given her tenderness to her other children.
She also fails to see his needs because of her deep mourning.
Then there is the unequal position of men and women.
As head of the Family, Anthony is also the legal head of his mother.
And as a strong willed woman, Violet finds it hard to accept, that her own
child is now her legal ”boss”
Then, as an eldest son, Anthony bears all the responsibility for the family.
How immense the burden is for an 18 year old boy is something that Lady Violet doesn’t realize at all, until much later.
She forces him [as is his task as head of the family] to arrange the marriage and the debut of his sister Daphne and of course he makes some mistakes, but Lady Violet, instead of
understanding that he has to learn from his mistakes ;;pounces on him like a tigress and
scolding him without mercy.
THE SIENA ROSSO AFFAIR
A deep wound for Anthony is also that while Daphne is allowed to marry for love, his mother
coldly commands him to break up his love affair with opera singer Siena Rosso.
[Eventually it’s Siena herself who ends the affair, but triggered by Violet’s and the Ton’s fierce resistance, leaving Anthony heartbroken]
While of course Lady Violet wants him to be happy too, to her defence must be said, that
a marriage between an aristocrat and an operasinger was a no go area in Regency Time, since
opera singers not onl;y were of another social class, but were also considered
as immoral women.
Such a marriage would ruin the marriage chances of his sisters, so Violet had no choice.
But in the light of her severe strictness against him and his scolding for even innocent
mistakes he makes, her fierce resistance against his affair [which she considered as a mere ”infatuation] must have hurt him deeply, a fact Violet didn’t realize at all.
But at the end, Violet realized the sharp pain she unintentionally inflicted on her son and
made tearful apologies to him.
MORE TO WRITE ABOUT BRIDGERTON AND THE SIENA ROSSO AFFAIR!
SEE ALSO
SEE COMMENT
THE SIENA ROSSO AFFAIR
Based on the essays by Astrid Essed, here is the refined English summary of that specific dynamic:
Unintentional Heartbreak and Maternal Blindness
Essed emphasizes that while Lady Violet causes Anthony immense pain by thwarting his relationship with Siena Rosso, her actions are layered with a specific kind of misunderstanding:
- A “Passing Fancy”: Violet does not fully realize how deep Anthony’s love for Siena truly goes. She views the relationship (or chooses to view it) merely as a “fling” or a passing whim, failing to recognize the profound heartbreak her son is experiencing.
- The Inevitable Conflict: Essed argues that even if Violet had recognized it as true love, she would have resisted just as fiercely. The social consequences for her daughters—the threat of “social death” within the aristocracy—left her with no other choice in that “merciless time.”
- Love Behind the Harshness: Despite her severity, Essed is clear that Violet is a loving mother to all eight of her children. Her harshness toward Anthony doesn’t stem from a lack of love, but from the impossible position of being a protector. Deep down, she would have felt the pain of his loss, yet she felt forced to prioritize the family’s survival over his individual happiness.
As Essed notes on astridessed.nl, Violet is a matriarch who is “loving at heart” but often forced into heartbreaking choices where she sacrifices tenderness for the sake of the family’s reputation.
SECOND COMMENT
The Siena Rosso Affair: Unintentional Heartbreak
Essed emphasizes that while Lady Violet causes Anthony immense pain by thwarting his relationship with the opera singer Siena Rosso, her actions are layered with a specific kind of maternal blindness:
- A “Passing Fancy”: Violet does not initially realize how deep Anthony’s love for Siena truly goes. She views the relationship as a mere “infatuation” or a whim, failing to recognize the profound heartbreak her son experiences when the affair ends.
- The Threat of Social Death: Essed argues that even if Violet had recognized it as true love, the social reality of the Regency Era left her no choice. A marriage to an opera singer—considered “immoral” by the Ton—would have meant “social death” for the entire family and ruined the marriage prospects of the other seven children.
- Sacrificing Tenderness for Survival: Her fierce resistance is a form of protection. As a matriarch, she feels forced to prioritize the family’s reputation over Anthony’s individual happiness, replacing her usual maternal warmth with a cold, merciless focus on duty.
The Paradox of the “Mother-Son-Viscount” Dynamic
According to Essed, the core conflict arises because Anthony is both a grieving son and the legal head of the family:
- Emotional Neglect: While Violet is tender toward her other children, she treats Anthony with a “harshness tending to cruelty.” She scolds him like a “tigress” for mistakes, forgetting that as an 18-year-old thrust into leadership, he needed a mother’s comfort just as much as his siblings.
- The Burden of Responsibility: Violet initially fails to see the immense weight Anthony carries as a surrogate father. She expects him to be a hardened patriarch while she herself remains lost in her own deep mourning for Edmund.
- The Turning Point: The tragedy is resolved only when Violet finally recognizes the sharp, unintentional pain she has inflicted. In a moment of deep self-reflection, she offers “tearful apologies,” finally embracing Anthony as her son rather than just the Viscount.
Conclusion by Essed:
Violet is a “loving mother at heart” who is forced into heartbreaking choices. Her journey is one of moving from the “paradox of power” back to the simple, tender bond between a mother and her child.
Violet is a “loving mother at heart” who is forced into heartbreaking choices. Her journey is one of moving from the “paradox of power” back to the simple, tender bond between a mother and her child.
For the full context of these analyses, you can visit Astrid Essed’s Bridgerton commentaries