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-->'''Mary''': I can't make his eyes stay shut.
-->'''Cora''': Leave that and come away.
-->'''Cora''': Leave that and come away.
* FallenPrincess: Lady Mary after sleeping with Kemal Pamuk and then having to cover up his death.
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* FallenPrincess: Lady Mary after sleeping with Kemal Pamuk and then having to cover up his death.
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* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: The family refers to butlers, valets, chauffeurs and ladies' maids by their last name alone, and to housemaids and footmen by their first name alone. Housekeepers and cooks add "Mrs" to their last name whether they're married or not.
** When ex-chauffeur Tom Branson marries Sybil, the family struggle to call him "Tom" rather than "Branson." Around the same time, footman Thomas Barrow is promoted to under-butler and starts going by "Barrow" rather than "Thomas," which helps to enforce OneSteveLimit. Anna and Molesley keep their forms of address despite moving through various positions.
** When ex-chauffeur Tom Branson marries Sybil, the family struggle to call him "Tom" rather than "Branson." Around the same time, footman Thomas Barrow is promoted to under-butler and starts going by "Barrow" rather than "Thomas," which helps to enforce OneSteveLimit. Anna and Molesley keep their forms of address despite moving through various positions.
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* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: The family refers to butlers, valets, chauffeurs and ladies' maids by their last name alone, and to housemaids and footmen by their first name alone.alone (and proper names like James instead of Jimmy). Housekeepers and cooks add "Mrs" to their last name whether they're married or not.
** When ex-chauffeur Tom Branson marries Sybil, the family struggle to call him "Tom" rather than "Branson." Around the same time, footman Thomas Barrow is promoted to under-butler and starts going by "Barrow" rather than "Thomas," which helps to enforce OneSteveLimit. Anna and Molesley keep their forms of address despite moving through variouspositions.positions; in Anna's case it's so she and her husband Bates can be told apart.
** When ex-chauffeur Tom Branson marries Sybil, the family struggle to call him "Tom" rather than "Branson." Around the same time, footman Thomas Barrow is promoted to under-butler and starts going by "Barrow" rather than "Thomas," which helps to enforce OneSteveLimit. Anna and Molesley keep their forms of address despite moving through various
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** The senior servants at Downton. The straight-laced and loyal butler Carson (Superego), the hot-tempered chef Mrs. Patmore (Id) and Mrs. Hughes the housekeeper who balances them out and is amiable with everyone (Ego).
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** Had Matthew remained in Manchester, he likely would not have met and proposed to Lavinia Swire, and she may have avoided [[spoiler:death from Spanish flu]] while at Downtown. Additionally, she would not have been in a position to hand secret government papers in her uncle's possession to Mary's newspaper-owning fiance Sir Richard Carlisle, which he published, sparking a major scandal.
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** Had Matthew remained in Manchester, he likely would not have met and proposed to Lavinia Swire, and she may have avoided [[spoiler:death from Spanish flu]] while at Downtown. Additionally, she would not have been in a position to hand be [[spoiler:blackmailed by Sir Richard Carlisle for having given him secret government papers that were in her uncle's possession to Mary's newspaper-owning fiance Sir Richard Carlisle, possession, which he published, sparking had sparked the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marconi_scandal Marconi scandal]] a major scandal.few years prior]].
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* DisasterDominoes: If the ''Titanic'' hadn't sunk with James and Patrick Crawley aboard, there would have been no story:
** Had James and Patrick lived, Patrick would have wed Mary and kept Downton in the family - no need to bring Matthew to Downton [[spoiler:(and his untimely death)]].
** Had Matthew remained in Manchester, he likely would not have met and proposed to Lavinia Swire, and she may have avoided [[spoiler:death from Spanish flu]] while at Downtown. Additionally, she would not have been in a position to hand secret government papers in her uncle's possession to Mary's newspaper-owning fiance Sir Richard Carlisle, which he published, sparking a major scandal.
** Had ''Titanic'' passenger Charles Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada, not gone down with the ship, his expensive expansion plans for the company might have paid off. This would have prevented the company's ultimate bankruptcy, which wiped out much of the Crawley family fortune.
** Had James and Patrick lived, Patrick would have wed Mary and kept Downton in the family - no need to bring Matthew to Downton [[spoiler:(and his untimely death)]].
** Had Matthew remained in Manchester, he likely would not have met and proposed to Lavinia Swire, and she may have avoided [[spoiler:death from Spanish flu]] while at Downtown. Additionally, she would not have been in a position to hand secret government papers in her uncle's possession to Mary's newspaper-owning fiance Sir Richard Carlisle, which he published, sparking a major scandal.
** Had ''Titanic'' passenger Charles Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada, not gone down with the ship, his expensive expansion plans for the company might have paid off. This would have prevented the company's ultimate bankruptcy, which wiped out much of the Crawley family fortune.
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* FiveSecondRule: A roast chicken falls on the floor and a cat starts nibbling it. New scullery maid Daisy wonders what they're going to tell their employers, but head chef Mrs. Patmore calmly picks the chicken up, dusts it off and puts it back on the plate. It's implied this has happened many times before; Mrs. Patmore's philosophy is “what the eyes can’t see the heart won’t grieve over.”
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* {{Flanderization}}: Mary's relationship to Edith has never been great, but after Sybil's death, they seemed mostly fine with mildly snarking at each other, so it's rather baffling when, by Series 5, it becomes Mary's new favorite pastime to bully Edith relentlessly without provocation, trampling on Edith's feelings regarding the death of her lover, uttering confusion why anyone would care about her or worry about her, and completely out of the blue noting how worthless and pathetic she finds her sister.
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* {{Flanderization}}: Mary's relationship to Edith has never been great, but after Sybil's death, they seemed seem mostly fine with mildly snarking at each other, so other. So it's rather baffling when, by Series 5, it becomes Mary's new favorite pastime to bully Edith relentlessly without provocation, trampling on Edith's feelings regarding the death of her lover, uttering confusion as to why anyone would care about her for or worry about her, and completely out of the blue noting how worthless and pathetic she finds her sister.
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** Mrs Patmore, ''especially'' when she was trying to fly under the radar about having cataracts in S1.
** Ethel is passionately fiery until she's sacked for having sex; after that, all her fire goes into desperately trying to get either her love-child's father or the father's parents to acknowledge her son and help her support herself.
** Averted by Gwen, who has a very sweet temperament, but she can be fiery at times. In Episode 1.03, Miss O'Brien swiped her typewriter and put it on display in the servants' hall. Carson & Mrs Hughes called Gwen on the carpet over it, [[ConflictBall for no really good or discernible reason]], and Gwen finally let it rip in her umbrage and embarrassment:
** Ethel is passionately fiery until she's sacked for having sex; after that, all her fire goes into desperately trying to get either her love-child's father or the father's parents to acknowledge her son and help her support herself.
** Averted by Gwen, who has a very sweet temperament, but she can be fiery at times. In Episode 1.03, Miss O'Brien swiped her typewriter and put it on display in the servants' hall. Carson & Mrs Hughes called Gwen on the carpet over it, [[ConflictBall for no really good or discernible reason]], and Gwen finally let it rip in her umbrage and embarrassment:
to:
** Mrs Patmore, ''especially'' when she was is trying to fly under the radar about having cataracts in S1.
** Ethel is passionately fiery until she's sacked for havingsex; extramarital sex with a guest of the house; after that, all her fire goes into desperately trying to get either her love-child's father or the father's parents to acknowledge her son and help her support herself.
** Averted by Gwen, who has a very sweet temperament, but she can be fiery at times. In Episode 1.03, Miss O'Brienswiped swipes her typewriter and put puts it on display in the servants' hall. Carson & and Mrs Hughes called call Gwen on the carpet over it, [[ConflictBall for no really good or discernible reason]], and Gwen finally let lets it rip in her umbrage and embarrassment:
** Ethel is passionately fiery until she's sacked for having
** Averted by Gwen, who has a very sweet temperament, but she can be fiery at times. In Episode 1.03, Miss O'Brien
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* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: The family refers to butlers, valets, chauffeurs and ladies' maids by their last name alone, and to housemaids and footmen by their first name alone. Housekeepers and cooks add "Mrs." to their last name whether they're married or not.
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* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: The family refers to butlers, valets, chauffeurs and ladies' maids by their last name alone, and to housemaids and footmen by their first name alone. Housekeepers and cooks add "Mrs." "Mrs" to their last name whether they're married or not.
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* {{Flanderization}}: Mary's relationship to Edith has never been great, but after Sybil's death, they seemed mostly fine with mildly snarking at each other, so it's rather baffling when, by Series 5, it becomes Mary's new favorite pastime to bully Edith relentlessly without provocation, trampling on Edith's feelings regarding the death of her lover, uttering confusion why anyone would care about her or worry about her, and completely out of the blue noting how worthless and pathetic she finds her sister.
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* DontYouDarePityMe: Bates to Anna. Ethel very nearly says this to Mrs Hughes when the two discuss how her baby son, Charlie, should meet his paternal grandparents in a nicer place than the hovel in which she and the child were living.
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* DontYouDarePityMe: Bates to Anna. Ethel very nearly says this to Mrs Hughes when the two discuss how her baby son, Charlie, should meet his paternal grandparents in a nicer place than the hovel in which she and the child were living. Later, Thomas to Miss Baxter when she's genuinely worried about the [[CureYourGays "cure" he's administering to himself]].
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* DefrostingIceQueen: Lady Mary.
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* DefrostingIceQueen: Lady Mary. She freezes right back up the moment [[spoiler:her husband dies]].
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For the rest:
* [[DowntonAbbey/DowntonAbbeyTropesAToC A to C]]
* [[DowntonAbbey/DowntonAbbeyTropesGToI G to I]]
* [[DowntonAbbey/DowntonAbbeyTropesJToL J to L]]
* [[DowntonAbbey/DowntonAbbeyTropesMToP M to P]]
* [[DowntonAbbey/DowntonAbbeyTropesQToS Q to S]]
* [[DowntonAbbey/DowntonAbbeyTropesTToZ T to Z]]
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This page is for tropes that have appeared in ''Series/DowntonAbbey''.
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* DancesAndBalls: Approximately OnceASeason.
** Sybil had one in London during season 1. We didn't see it.
** The Servants' Ball in the season 2 Christmas special.
** The Ghillies’ Ball in the season 3 Christmas special.
** Rose gets a ball with [[spoiler:a special guest]] in the season 4 Christmas special.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 2, due to it being set largely during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* DarkSecret:
** Mr Pamuk died in Mary's bed and Cora and Anna helped moved his corpse.
** Thomas is gay [[spoiler: though this isn't as much of a secret as he thinks.]]
** Bates was [[ExactWords imprisoned as a thief]].
** O'Brien caused Cora's miscarriage.
** Mr Carson's former acting career is one for him; no one else cares about it.
** Anna was raped by Gillingham's valet and she fears Bates will take revenge and end up hanged for it if he finds out.
** In the later seasons, Baxter gets a near carbon-copy of Bates' dark secret from season 1.
** Mary's tryst with Lord Gillingham at a hotel.
** Edith having a daughter out of wedlock.
* DashedPlotline: Each season is stretched over two or three years.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Sybil and Branson.
--> '''Robert:''' "None of this is what I wanted for her".
** Branson's family is not exactly thrilled with his choice of wife, either, being a non-Catholic English woman.
--->'''Violet''': Well what does you mother make of this?
--->'''Branson''': If you must know, she thinks we're very foolish.
** This is more or less Rose's shtick, except she dates (or at least kisses) what Mommy will hate: a married man, a black man, a working-class man, a Jewish man.... To put the icing on the cake, she marries the Jewish man, whom (to add insult to her mother's injury) Rose's father actually likes.
* ADayInHerApron: In season 6, Mrs. Hughes gets fed up with Carson complaining about her cooking, so she fakes a wrist injury to force him to make dinner. He gets visibly flustered and exhausted, and shuts up after that.
* DeadpanSnarker: Thomas, Miss O'Brien and the Dowager Countess.
%% ** Carson on occasion.
* DeathGlare: Mrs Hughes hands out a couple of these to [[spoiler: Anna's rapist, Mr Green, in Season 4.]] Bates also gets one [[spoiler: at the end of 4x07 -- see WhamShot below.]]
* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: Vera Bates and Lavinia Swire in the Season 2.
* DecemberDecemberRomance: Isobel Crawley and Lord Merton. At the same time (Season 5), the Dowager Countess is seriously drawn to her old (chaste) Russian flame Prince Kuragin, but is also ''very'' seriously conflicted for many reasons. In late season 5 and season 6, there's also [[spoiler: Carson and Mrs. Hughes.]]
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: The first two seasons deconstructed TheDutifulSon (or daughter, in this case) with Lady Mary, who was brought up believing family honour is everything even above personal happiness. She eventually falls in love with Matthew but her mother's pregnancy and possibility of finally having a male heir causes her break things off because Matthew would be title-less. When Cora loses the baby, Mary again tries to be with Matthew but he loses trust in her and believes her to be a GoldDigger. In season 2, Mary becomes engaged to Sir Richard who could provide for her even if everyone hates him. She breaks it off eventually and her father finally recognizes his fault in making Mary sacrifice love for honour. He tells her she can [[MarryForLove marry whoever she wants]] because a little scandal is worth it as long as his daughter is happy.
* DeconstructedTrope: TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry, by showing us just how nasty it can get if the parents do nothing to stop it. Being the popular and beautiful sister, Mary believes that she is superior to HollywoodHomely Edith in every way. And she can see no other purpose for Edith ''existing'' than that she can use her as her personal punching bag to make herself feel better. And it becomes very clear [[TheUnfavorite that Edith also is Cora's least favorite daughter]], so she can get no sympathy from her either. Robert is a bit better, but he too dotes on Mary ([[TheDutifulSon who is the oldest daughter, who will do everything to keep the family estate running]]) and has little time for the unlucky middle child Edith. What should have only been a teenage grudge between the two sisters turns into a poisonous relationship, that will not change for the better until they have both reached their 30s.
* DefiledForever:
** This attitude runs to the heart of the Kemal Pamuk incident. He says he knows she won't cry out because even to be found with a man ''in her room'' would ruin her reputation, knowledge he essentially {{blackmail}}s her with. Sure enough, when the news inevitably gets out it makes it that much harder for her to find an eligible suitor, and she describes herself as "damaged goods".
** Poor [[spoiler:Anna]] also seems to believe this of herself after she is raped; fortunately, her husband strenuously disagrees.
** Bertie's mother feels this way about [[spoiler: Edith, but she quickly comes around.]]
* DefrostingIceQueen: Lady Mary.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Several examples that today are commonplace cause major distress. (Notably, several characters change their attitudes over time. This reflects the changing social mores of the era.)
** Woman having a lover before marriage. [[spoiler:Or having a baby out of wedlock.]]
** Inter-class marriages are treated with utter ''horror'' by the inhabitants of Downton Abbey. (Though they warm up to Branson eventually.)
** The notion of a lady undertaking any job harder than trying on a dress or flirting is treated with contempt, especially by the Dowager Countess.
** The idea that ''anyone'' of high station might take gainful employment rather than just manage the estate is initially disconcerting to ''all'' of the Crawleys and most of the servants, as well. Some of them gradually warm up to it.
** It's seen as somewhat odd that Matthew would continue his practice as a solicitor, ([[{{Irony}} considered a distinctly un-prestigious middle-class profession in Britain at the time]]). The problem isn't with him being a lawyer, but rather a solicitor. It wouldn't have been terribly strange had Matthew been a ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishCourts barrister]]'', which was one of the few professions which the gentry could take without shame -- particularly because it was the best way to get into politics and pretty much the only way to get into the judiciary. Solicitors had back then little chance of advancement outside of becoming a better-known solicitor (unless they sought to become barristers, which they could,[[note]]Having read law, a solicitor is eligible to join an Inn of Court and study to become a barrister.[[/note]] but it was difficult) and they were viewed with a skewed eye by most upper-class English in those days.
** They slam this ''hard'' in the opening of the eighth episode of the Season 3, when Carson discusses [[spoiler:that Thomas will have to leave Downton because of his homosexuality.]]
--->'''Carson:''' I cannot hide that I find your situation revolting, but whether or not you believe me I am not entirely unsympathetic. You have been twisted by nature into something foul and even I can see that you did not ask for it. I think it better that you resign, quietly...
** Witness the complete reversal regarding Edith's courtship of Sir Anthony. From a perfectly acceptable relationship, indeed superior to Sybil's and surprising for an unfavored middle child, with an older gentleman in the first season, Sir Anthony immediately becomes abhorrent to the family in the third. This is because he was injured in the war and lost the use of his right arm. Overnight he went from a good match to a doddering old cripple.
** When we first hear of Rosamund, Mary says she envies her for being a rich single woman in the big city but Robert is offended by what he believes is an insinuation that his sister is an OldMaid.
** Much of the drama involving Ethel in Season 3 stems from the belief that many of the characters share that to be even ''near'' [[SlutShaming an ex-prostitute is enough to taint their own reputations.]]
** InUniverse: When she first meets her grandsons-in-law Mrs. Levinson, being an American, seems to approve of Branson (a hard-working social climber) more than Matthew (a distant relative set to inherit her late husband's fortune).
* DenserAndWackier: Every season after the first one. While the first season is a rather understated comedy of manners, the second is much more densely plotted and veers at several times into full blown SoapOpera. Plot lines involve [[spoiler:a conman faking a relative coming back from the dead with amnesia, a suicide-murder frame-up, pregnancy of an unmarried woman, a miraculous medical recovery and a rather superfluous affair]]. Somewhat justified in that the years it covers include World War I and UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu pandemic, which brought with them a great deal more death and suffering, and social upheaval, than the residents of Downton would have been used to before the war.
* DepravedHomosexual: Thomas' encounters with Pamuk and Crowborough. And in Season 3, he chooses to enter Jimmy's bedroom and make advances on him while he was asleep and unable to give consent.
** Averted when Thomas goes out of his way to save Jimmy from thieves. (Thomas gets beaten up in the process.) He also accepts Jimmy's orientation, and asks if the two of them can still be friends.
* DeusExMachina: The giant pile of Swire money that arrives to save Downton Abbey in Season 3. And then the letter from Matthew, tucked into a book, which allows Mary to inherit his property.
** Characters in this show seem to have a tradition of writing important letters, and then not mentioning them to anyone, and then the letters get discovered after your death.
* DevotedToYou: Lady Mary attracts this attention from a whole slew of men including Matthew, Evelyn Napier, Tony Gillingham, Charles Blake and Henry Talbot. Which is odd, since she isn't any prettier, smarter, kinder or more interesting than her sisters or Lavinia. Maybe it's the most inexplicable in [[OneTrueLove Matthew's]] case. Sure, after they get to know each other and laugh together, it's believable they have a connection, but he was enchanted by the first impression she made, a walking, snooty representation of every value he found antipathic who even toyed with him down the line.
* DiabolusExMachina: So, so many. Especially in the third season.
* DiesWideOpen:
** Kemal Pamuk, to Mary's consternation.
** Vera Bates.
** In the Season 3 special, [[spoiler:Matthew Crawley]].
* DinnerAndAShow: Frequently, with the "upstairs" drama often interspersed with the backstage exploits of the servants preparing the meal.
* DirtyCop: Durrant, one of the prison guards in York, is in cahoots with another prisoner named Craig to smuggle drugs into the prison.
* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: [[spoiler:Mrs Hughes has a breast cancer scare]] in Season 3, and tries very hard to keep quiet about it to everyone but Mrs Patmore. Though they're willing -- albeit uncomfortable -- to use the C-word, the straightest use of the trope is when Carson tells Cora she's "ill... perhaps ''very'' ill".
* DisposableFiance: Both Mary and Matthew have one in Season 2. Lavinia is [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth killed by Spanish flu]] whilst Richard Carlisle [[DerailingLoveInterests blackmails Mary into their engagement]] [[spoiler:before she breaks it off with him in the Christmas special.]]
* DisposingOfABody: Not so much disposing as in getting entirely rid of it, but disposing in the sense of secretly moving it to cover up a damning situation when Kemal Pamuk dies in Mary’s bed.
* DoggedNiceGuy: William to Daisy. In the beginning, Matthew to Lady Mary. Branson to Sybil.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Bates to Anna. Ethel very nearly says this to Mrs Hughes when the two discuss how her baby son, Charlie, should meet his paternal grandparents in a nicer place than the hovel in which she and the child were living.
* DontSplitUsUp: Ethel's reaction when Major Bryant's parents ask her to let them adopt her baby and have her walk out of his life. She refuses. Until Season 3, when she gives him to them so he can have a better life.
* DoubleEntendre: "Mr Pamuk, Thomas is going to take care of you tonight" -- "Yes, Thomas is always sullen like that but he always cheers up when he sees a gentleman"...
* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: A DoubleSubversion. [[spoiler: Thomas tries to kiss James while he's sleeping after misinterpreting their relationship. Everyone downstairs is shocked and outraged, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance not because of the lack of consent, but because of the supposed depravity of Thomas' homosexuality itself.]] Even Mrs Hughes, one of the more open-minded residents of Downton, suggests that [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming James may have brought it on himself by accidentally giving Thomas signs that James was into him]].]]
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Imagine a male servant who insults a female employer and makes her doubt her self-worth. Imagine he bursts into her bedroom while she's topless and steals a kiss. Can you imagine her interceding to make sure he still got a good reference? Well, that exact scenario plays out with [[spoiler: Tom and Edna]]. The implications get even worse after they sleep together: he was going through a personal crisis and drunk when she sneaked into his bedroom. Then, she attempts a BabyTrap.
* DownerEnding:
** Season 1. Why hello there [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WORLD WAR ONE]].
** Season 2 has the Spanish Flu.
** Season 3 has an episode where [[spoiler:Sybil dies from eclampsia after childbirth]].
** In the Season 3 Christmas special when [[spoiler:Matthew dies in a car crash... soon after greeting his new son]].
* DramaBombFinale: ForegoneConclusion though it might be, it doesn't get much more dramatic than the outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* DramaticIrony:
** Cora, Anna and Mary carry a dead body from one end of the house to the other, by themselves, and with only Daisy noticing. The following day, after the body has been discovered, Lord Grantham worries about the ladies and female servants' state of mind. After all:
--> ''"We must have a care for feminine sensibilities. They are finer and more fragile than our own."''
** In the Series 3 finale, Shrimpie reveals to Robert that he and Susan are selling Duneagle and should have modernized like Robert had. The audience likely knows that getting Robert to modernize was a hard-fought battle.
** In the second episode of Season 5, Cora and Robert wonder about Edith's sudden decision to be godmother to the baby girl the Drewes adopted [[spoiler:who also happens to be Edith's biological daughter]]. Robert immediately thinks his daughter wants a child of her own after the disappearance of Michael Gregson.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Vera, apparently with [[spoiler:[[DivorceRequiresDeath arsenic bought by Bates]]]], no less.
** A blinded soldier at the village hospital in Season 2, after being told he is to be sent away to a rehabilitation centre.
** In season 6, [[spoiler:Thomas attempts it, but he is saved just in time.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** Kemal Pamuk just...dies, for no apparent reason, after [[OutWithABang spending the night with Mary]]. She assumes he had a stroke or heart attack.
** [[spoiler: Matthew dying in a car crash]] at the end of Season 3.
** [[spoiler:Sybil dies from complications of childbirth.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Subtle, but Daisy's flashback in Season 1.
** In the first episode, Bates' fitness for his job is a point of contention. Nearly everyone except Robert wants him out, but among the loudest voices in favor of letting him go is Cora. That is extremely out of character for her relative to the rest of the series, in which she is often the only one who doesn't look down her nose at anyone with a disadvantage.
** Early on, we see a lot more of the never-named servants who also work in the house.
*** Lampshaded in the show itself, as the outbreak of war reduces the Abbey's previously generous staffing to an absolute operating minimum, and it never quite recovers its earlier Edwardian grandeur even into the 1920s.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Anna and Bates. He jumped through a ton of hoops to try to divorce his awful wife, and after she was finally out of their way, he was [[spoiler:wrongfully imprisoned for her death.]] By the end of Season 3 they're finally able to be together and happy, until [[spoiler: she is raped in season 4, and both of them are suspects in her rapist's murder]]. In season 6 that issue is finally resolved, but then [[spoiler: Anna struggles with infertility.]]
** Also applies to Lady Edith, who not only suffers through at least as much heartbreak and suffering as the rest of the Crawleys but spends most of the series as TheUnfavourite and ButtMonkey. This continues all the way to the last episode of season six, when [[spoiler:her engagement to Bertie Pelham is sabotaged by Mary]]. Finally, in the Christmas Special (and series finale) she gets to [[spoiler: marry Bertie after all - and become marchioness of Hexham and thereby outranking her parents and her sister.]] Not only does she get to live happily ever after, [[spoiler:her husband and his mother know that Marigold is her daughter and accept it]].
** Poor Molesley goes from being butler at Crawley house to being valet to the heir, and after [[spoiler: the heir's death]] must take a job doing manual labor as he is too proud to return to Downton as a footman. He eventually does return after the staff take pity on him, but he is prone to numerous embarrassing mishaps until he eventually decides to take a test and [[spoiler:become a teacher at the local school, inspiring students who thought they could never be anything but servants either.]]
* EatingTheEyeCandy: Jimmy's first introduction to the female staff. And Thomas, who [[ShirtlessScene walks in on him dressing]]...
* TheEdwardianEra: Even though Edward VII's successor George V is king during the show's setting, the Edwardian era is generally accepted as lasting until the outbreak of World War One in 1914.
* TheEeyore: Mr Carson.
* {{Elopement}}: Violet reveals that, during her time in Russia, Prince Kuragin and her planned to run away to elope, despite both of them already being married. Kuragin's wife chased them down and forced Violet to return to her own husband. In retrospect, Violet is happy she was saved from a terrible mistake.
* EndOfAnAge: The show in a nutshell, especially with Series Two being set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Series One is explicitly the only season where the British Aristocracy is at the height of their power and influence. It diminishes with each passing season.
* EndangeredSouffle
* EnforcedColdWar: Thomas and O'Brien versus the rest of the servants.
* EnsembleCast
* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** One of the first things Robert says in the pilot tells the audience very quickly what kind of man he is: aware of the evils of the system he lives in, but not really enticed to see it change.
--->'''Carson:''' I understand that most of the ladies ''(referring to the Titanic sinking)'' were taken off in time.
--->'''Robert:''' You mean the ladies in first class. God help the poor devils below decks. On their way to a better life.
** In-universe for why Carson is so fond of Lady Mary: when she was five, she came downstairs politely explaining to him that she was running away and might she please have some of the silverware to sell for money?
* EvilDuo: O'Brien and Thomas. They seemed in jeopardy of splitting up at the end of Season 1, after [[spoiler: Thomas joined the army and O'Brien was atoning for causing Cora's miscarriage]], but it didn't last long. As of Season 3, they've fallen out again over Thomas' mistreatment of Alfred ([[ConflictBall or something]]).
* EvilIsPetty: Thomas and O'Brien seem to like to screw with their employers, other members of the staff, and even each other, for no real reason.
* EvilRedhead: Edna.
* EvilVersusEvil: Thomas v. O'Brien, regarding Alfred and Jimmy, in Season 3.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Mary and Matthew.
* EvolvingCredits: Each season has a different promotional poster showing Downton's inhabitants. Notably after Season 2, the number of servants starts decreasing as maids and footmen become more and more redundant.
* ExactEavesdropping: Thomas hears just enough of the Countesses' discussion of Violet's search for a new maid to think they're talking about replacing O'Brien. Admittedly, it doesn't help that O'Brien herself overhears the Earl and Countess talking about ''firing her''.
* ExactWords:
** In his revelation about his past to Carson, Mrs Hughes, and Anna in Season 1 Episode 6, he says "Thomas has tried to convince you that I am a drunkard and a thief... Until a couple of years ago I ''was'' a drunkard, and I was imprisoned as a thief." He never says that he actually was a thief...and we soon learn that he was not--Mrs. Bates had actually carried out the theft, but Bates took the fall (in large part because he was a depressed drunk).
** While Bates is [[spoiler:forging a note to give to Mr. Sampson]] in the Series 4 finale, Mrs. Hughes comes upon him and asks what he's doing; Bates replies he's doing something for Lord Grantham.
* ExiledToTheCouch:
** In the latter episodes of Season 3, Robert is forced to sleep in his dressing room for several days while Cora is [[spoiler:blaming him for Sybil's death]].
** Later, Robert exiles himself there after getting annoyed with Cora getting too close to another man. Cora finally gives him an ultimatum, telling him that, if he had never found himself in a similar situation, he should stay in that room; otherwise, he should return to their bedroom. After recalling his situation with Jane, Robert quietly follows Cora to their room.
* {{Expy}}: Loads, considering it's basically ''Film/GosfordPark: The Series''. Possibly the most obvious is Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, who is extremely similar to ''Gosford'''s Constance, Dowager Countess of Trentham, and played by the same actress.
* FamousNamedForeigner:
** The name "Kemal Pamuk" sounds suspiciously like a composite of the names of two famous Turks, Kemal Atatürk (the founder of the Republic of Turkey) and Creator/OrhanPamuk (a Nobel-winning novelist), despite the fact that Ottomans didn't have official surnames; and even though some wealthy and powerful families would have unofficial family names, those names would be nowhere near as plain and simple as the single word "pamuk", which means "cotton" in Turkish.
** In Season 5 we meet two noble refugees from the Russian Revolution, named [[Literature/WarAndPeace Prince Kuragin and Count Rostov]].
* FallenPrincess: Lady Mary after sleeping with Kemal Pamuk and then having to cover up his death.
* FamilyBusiness:
** Discussed in Series 1; after getting a dressing-down by Carson, William grouses that Carson probably comes from a long line of butlers dating back to the time of William the Conqueror. Bates replies that Carson would have had to learn his trade on some level.
** Lang mentions that his mother was a Lady's Maid, which explains his own skills.
* FancyDinner: There are many of these. Matthew screws up at his first one. Also of note is when they try to hold one of these during the war and are severely affected by rationing. And, as always, we see these from both the perspective of the Crawleys and the servants, in something of a subversion of the trope (including the "screwing up" bit: ''Alfred'' screws up his first dinner by using incorrect service).
* FieryRedhead:
** Mrs Patmore, ''especially'' when she was trying to fly under the radar about having cataracts in S1.
** Ethel is passionately fiery until she's sacked for having sex; after that, all her fire goes into desperately trying to get either her love-child's father or the father's parents to acknowledge her son and help her support herself.
** Averted by Gwen, who has a very sweet temperament, but she can be fiery at times. In Episode 1.03, Miss O'Brien swiped her typewriter and put it on display in the servants' hall. Carson & Mrs Hughes called Gwen on the carpet over it, [[ConflictBall for no really good or discernible reason]], and Gwen finally let it rip in her umbrage and embarrassment:
---> '''Gwen:''' I've bought a typewriter and I've taken a correspondence course. I'm not aware that either one of these things is illegal!
* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: The family refers to butlers, valets, chauffeurs and ladies' maids by their last name alone, and to housemaids and footmen by their first name alone. Housekeepers and cooks add "Mrs." to their last name whether they're married or not.
** When ex-chauffeur Tom Branson marries Sybil, the family struggle to call him "Tom" rather than "Branson." Around the same time, footman Thomas Barrow is promoted to under-butler and starts going by "Barrow" rather than "Thomas," which helps to enforce OneSteveLimit. Anna and Molesley keep their forms of address despite moving through various positions.
* FlatWhat:
** Thomas, when Bates suggests a search for the missing snuffbox which Thomas had hidden in Bates' room.
** Anna, when Bates tells her he [[spoiler: bought the rat poison he thinks Vera used to commit suicide]].
** When Jimmy tells Carson that he feels he ought to go to the police [[spoiler:about Thomas's homosexuality]], this is Carson's response.
* FlowerMotifs: Five characters are named after flowers; Daisy, Violet, Ivy, Rose and Marigold.
* ForTheEvulz: Thomas and O'Brien, and they often have no identifiable motivation. And ironically, the one thing O'Brien at least thought she had a motivation for ([[spoiler:planting a bar of soap so Cora would have a fall]]) is the only one for which she actually shows regret.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Sir Anthony's comment in episode 3.02 that "there's never been a safer mode of travel" than the automobile.
** When it becomes clear in Season 1 that war is about to be declared, William makes it clear that he's all ready to sign up and fight. Thomas' response? "Thank you, Mr Cannon Fodder." [[spoiler:Which is exactly what he wound up being: Matthew & William got caught in a cannon blast, with William throwing himself in front of Matthew to try and protect him. Matthew lived; William didn't.]]
** Every time Lavinia had any reason to believe that she and Matthew wouldn't live happily ever after, she started whinging about how she couldn't live without him. Guess what happened when she decided to break it off with him because she realized he loved Mary more than he loved her? (Hint:[[spoiler:she died of Spanish flu only a few hours later.]])
* FriendToAllChildren: Thomas in season 6 is shown to be good with kids, especially George.
* FreudianTrio
** The Crawley girls. Mary (superego) and Edith (id) always bickered while Sybil (ego) was the peacemaker. This changed in later seasons with Edith and Sybil switching roles.
** The Crawley matriarchs. The ultra-conservative aristocrat Violet (Superego) and the liberal, upper-middle class Isobel (Id) always butt heads while Cora (Ego) has to remind them she is Downton's current mistress.
* FullyClothedNudity: At least one example; when Kemal Pamuk barges into Lady Mary's room, she is wearing an all-concealing and fairly shapeless nightgown; she nevertheless picks up the covers and holds them to her body to cover it as if she were completely naked. TruthInTelevision for the time period.
----
----
* DancesAndBalls: Approximately OnceASeason.
** Sybil had one in London during season 1. We didn't see it.
** The Servants' Ball in the season 2 Christmas special.
** The Ghillies’ Ball in the season 3 Christmas special.
** Rose gets a ball with [[spoiler:a special guest]] in the season 4 Christmas special.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 2, due to it being set largely during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* DarkSecret:
** Mr Pamuk died in Mary's bed and Cora and Anna helped moved his corpse.
** Thomas is gay [[spoiler: though this isn't as much of a secret as he thinks.]]
** Bates was [[ExactWords imprisoned as a thief]].
** O'Brien caused Cora's miscarriage.
** Mr Carson's former acting career is one for him; no one else cares about it.
** Anna was raped by Gillingham's valet and she fears Bates will take revenge and end up hanged for it if he finds out.
** In the later seasons, Baxter gets a near carbon-copy of Bates' dark secret from season 1.
** Mary's tryst with Lord Gillingham at a hotel.
** Edith having a daughter out of wedlock.
* DashedPlotline: Each season is stretched over two or three years.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Sybil and Branson.
--> '''Robert:''' "None of this is what I wanted for her".
** Branson's family is not exactly thrilled with his choice of wife, either, being a non-Catholic English woman.
--->'''Violet''': Well what does you mother make of this?
--->'''Branson''': If you must know, she thinks we're very foolish.
** This is more or less Rose's shtick, except she dates (or at least kisses) what Mommy will hate: a married man, a black man, a working-class man, a Jewish man.... To put the icing on the cake, she marries the Jewish man, whom (to add insult to her mother's injury) Rose's father actually likes.
* ADayInHerApron: In season 6, Mrs. Hughes gets fed up with Carson complaining about her cooking, so she fakes a wrist injury to force him to make dinner. He gets visibly flustered and exhausted, and shuts up after that.
* DeadpanSnarker: Thomas, Miss O'Brien and the Dowager Countess.
%% ** Carson on occasion.
* DeathGlare: Mrs Hughes hands out a couple of these to [[spoiler: Anna's rapist, Mr Green, in Season 4.]] Bates also gets one [[spoiler: at the end of 4x07 -- see WhamShot below.]]
* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: Vera Bates and Lavinia Swire in the Season 2.
* DecemberDecemberRomance: Isobel Crawley and Lord Merton. At the same time (Season 5), the Dowager Countess is seriously drawn to her old (chaste) Russian flame Prince Kuragin, but is also ''very'' seriously conflicted for many reasons. In late season 5 and season 6, there's also [[spoiler: Carson and Mrs. Hughes.]]
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: The first two seasons deconstructed TheDutifulSon (or daughter, in this case) with Lady Mary, who was brought up believing family honour is everything even above personal happiness. She eventually falls in love with Matthew but her mother's pregnancy and possibility of finally having a male heir causes her break things off because Matthew would be title-less. When Cora loses the baby, Mary again tries to be with Matthew but he loses trust in her and believes her to be a GoldDigger. In season 2, Mary becomes engaged to Sir Richard who could provide for her even if everyone hates him. She breaks it off eventually and her father finally recognizes his fault in making Mary sacrifice love for honour. He tells her she can [[MarryForLove marry whoever she wants]] because a little scandal is worth it as long as his daughter is happy.
* DeconstructedTrope: TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry, by showing us just how nasty it can get if the parents do nothing to stop it. Being the popular and beautiful sister, Mary believes that she is superior to HollywoodHomely Edith in every way. And she can see no other purpose for Edith ''existing'' than that she can use her as her personal punching bag to make herself feel better. And it becomes very clear [[TheUnfavorite that Edith also is Cora's least favorite daughter]], so she can get no sympathy from her either. Robert is a bit better, but he too dotes on Mary ([[TheDutifulSon who is the oldest daughter, who will do everything to keep the family estate running]]) and has little time for the unlucky middle child Edith. What should have only been a teenage grudge between the two sisters turns into a poisonous relationship, that will not change for the better until they have both reached their 30s.
* DefiledForever:
** This attitude runs to the heart of the Kemal Pamuk incident. He says he knows she won't cry out because even to be found with a man ''in her room'' would ruin her reputation, knowledge he essentially {{blackmail}}s her with. Sure enough, when the news inevitably gets out it makes it that much harder for her to find an eligible suitor, and she describes herself as "damaged goods".
** Poor [[spoiler:Anna]] also seems to believe this of herself after she is raped; fortunately, her husband strenuously disagrees.
** Bertie's mother feels this way about [[spoiler: Edith, but she quickly comes around.]]
* DefrostingIceQueen: Lady Mary.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Several examples that today are commonplace cause major distress. (Notably, several characters change their attitudes over time. This reflects the changing social mores of the era.)
** Woman having a lover before marriage. [[spoiler:Or having a baby out of wedlock.]]
** Inter-class marriages are treated with utter ''horror'' by the inhabitants of Downton Abbey. (Though they warm up to Branson eventually.)
** The notion of a lady undertaking any job harder than trying on a dress or flirting is treated with contempt, especially by the Dowager Countess.
** The idea that ''anyone'' of high station might take gainful employment rather than just manage the estate is initially disconcerting to ''all'' of the Crawleys and most of the servants, as well. Some of them gradually warm up to it.
** It's seen as somewhat odd that Matthew would continue his practice as a solicitor, ([[{{Irony}} considered a distinctly un-prestigious middle-class profession in Britain at the time]]). The problem isn't with him being a lawyer, but rather a solicitor. It wouldn't have been terribly strange had Matthew been a ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishCourts barrister]]'', which was one of the few professions which the gentry could take without shame -- particularly because it was the best way to get into politics and pretty much the only way to get into the judiciary. Solicitors had back then little chance of advancement outside of becoming a better-known solicitor (unless they sought to become barristers, which they could,[[note]]Having read law, a solicitor is eligible to join an Inn of Court and study to become a barrister.[[/note]] but it was difficult) and they were viewed with a skewed eye by most upper-class English in those days.
** They slam this ''hard'' in the opening of the eighth episode of the Season 3, when Carson discusses [[spoiler:that Thomas will have to leave Downton because of his homosexuality.]]
--->'''Carson:''' I cannot hide that I find your situation revolting, but whether or not you believe me I am not entirely unsympathetic. You have been twisted by nature into something foul and even I can see that you did not ask for it. I think it better that you resign, quietly...
** Witness the complete reversal regarding Edith's courtship of Sir Anthony. From a perfectly acceptable relationship, indeed superior to Sybil's and surprising for an unfavored middle child, with an older gentleman in the first season, Sir Anthony immediately becomes abhorrent to the family in the third. This is because he was injured in the war and lost the use of his right arm. Overnight he went from a good match to a doddering old cripple.
** When we first hear of Rosamund, Mary says she envies her for being a rich single woman in the big city but Robert is offended by what he believes is an insinuation that his sister is an OldMaid.
** Much of the drama involving Ethel in Season 3 stems from the belief that many of the characters share that to be even ''near'' [[SlutShaming an ex-prostitute is enough to taint their own reputations.]]
** InUniverse: When she first meets her grandsons-in-law Mrs. Levinson, being an American, seems to approve of Branson (a hard-working social climber) more than Matthew (a distant relative set to inherit her late husband's fortune).
* DenserAndWackier: Every season after the first one. While the first season is a rather understated comedy of manners, the second is much more densely plotted and veers at several times into full blown SoapOpera. Plot lines involve [[spoiler:a conman faking a relative coming back from the dead with amnesia, a suicide-murder frame-up, pregnancy of an unmarried woman, a miraculous medical recovery and a rather superfluous affair]]. Somewhat justified in that the years it covers include World War I and UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu pandemic, which brought with them a great deal more death and suffering, and social upheaval, than the residents of Downton would have been used to before the war.
* DepravedHomosexual: Thomas' encounters with Pamuk and Crowborough. And in Season 3, he chooses to enter Jimmy's bedroom and make advances on him while he was asleep and unable to give consent.
** Averted when Thomas goes out of his way to save Jimmy from thieves. (Thomas gets beaten up in the process.) He also accepts Jimmy's orientation, and asks if the two of them can still be friends.
* DeusExMachina: The giant pile of Swire money that arrives to save Downton Abbey in Season 3. And then the letter from Matthew, tucked into a book, which allows Mary to inherit his property.
** Characters in this show seem to have a tradition of writing important letters, and then not mentioning them to anyone, and then the letters get discovered after your death.
* DevotedToYou: Lady Mary attracts this attention from a whole slew of men including Matthew, Evelyn Napier, Tony Gillingham, Charles Blake and Henry Talbot. Which is odd, since she isn't any prettier, smarter, kinder or more interesting than her sisters or Lavinia. Maybe it's the most inexplicable in [[OneTrueLove Matthew's]] case. Sure, after they get to know each other and laugh together, it's believable they have a connection, but he was enchanted by the first impression she made, a walking, snooty representation of every value he found antipathic who even toyed with him down the line.
* DiabolusExMachina: So, so many. Especially in the third season.
* DiesWideOpen:
** Kemal Pamuk, to Mary's consternation.
** Vera Bates.
** In the Season 3 special, [[spoiler:Matthew Crawley]].
* DinnerAndAShow: Frequently, with the "upstairs" drama often interspersed with the backstage exploits of the servants preparing the meal.
* DirtyCop: Durrant, one of the prison guards in York, is in cahoots with another prisoner named Craig to smuggle drugs into the prison.
* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: [[spoiler:Mrs Hughes has a breast cancer scare]] in Season 3, and tries very hard to keep quiet about it to everyone but Mrs Patmore. Though they're willing -- albeit uncomfortable -- to use the C-word, the straightest use of the trope is when Carson tells Cora she's "ill... perhaps ''very'' ill".
* DisposableFiance: Both Mary and Matthew have one in Season 2. Lavinia is [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth killed by Spanish flu]] whilst Richard Carlisle [[DerailingLoveInterests blackmails Mary into their engagement]] [[spoiler:before she breaks it off with him in the Christmas special.]]
* DisposingOfABody: Not so much disposing as in getting entirely rid of it, but disposing in the sense of secretly moving it to cover up a damning situation when Kemal Pamuk dies in Mary’s bed.
* DoggedNiceGuy: William to Daisy. In the beginning, Matthew to Lady Mary. Branson to Sybil.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Bates to Anna. Ethel very nearly says this to Mrs Hughes when the two discuss how her baby son, Charlie, should meet his paternal grandparents in a nicer place than the hovel in which she and the child were living.
* DontSplitUsUp: Ethel's reaction when Major Bryant's parents ask her to let them adopt her baby and have her walk out of his life. She refuses. Until Season 3, when she gives him to them so he can have a better life.
* DoubleEntendre: "Mr Pamuk, Thomas is going to take care of you tonight" -- "Yes, Thomas is always sullen like that but he always cheers up when he sees a gentleman"...
* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: A DoubleSubversion. [[spoiler: Thomas tries to kiss James while he's sleeping after misinterpreting their relationship. Everyone downstairs is shocked and outraged, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance not because of the lack of consent, but because of the supposed depravity of Thomas' homosexuality itself.]] Even Mrs Hughes, one of the more open-minded residents of Downton, suggests that [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming James may have brought it on himself by accidentally giving Thomas signs that James was into him]].]]
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Imagine a male servant who insults a female employer and makes her doubt her self-worth. Imagine he bursts into her bedroom while she's topless and steals a kiss. Can you imagine her interceding to make sure he still got a good reference? Well, that exact scenario plays out with [[spoiler: Tom and Edna]]. The implications get even worse after they sleep together: he was going through a personal crisis and drunk when she sneaked into his bedroom. Then, she attempts a BabyTrap.
* DownerEnding:
** Season 1. Why hello there [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WORLD WAR ONE]].
** Season 2 has the Spanish Flu.
** Season 3 has an episode where [[spoiler:Sybil dies from eclampsia after childbirth]].
** In the Season 3 Christmas special when [[spoiler:Matthew dies in a car crash... soon after greeting his new son]].
* DramaBombFinale: ForegoneConclusion though it might be, it doesn't get much more dramatic than the outbreak of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
* DramaticIrony:
** Cora, Anna and Mary carry a dead body from one end of the house to the other, by themselves, and with only Daisy noticing. The following day, after the body has been discovered, Lord Grantham worries about the ladies and female servants' state of mind. After all:
--> ''"We must have a care for feminine sensibilities. They are finer and more fragile than our own."''
** In the Series 3 finale, Shrimpie reveals to Robert that he and Susan are selling Duneagle and should have modernized like Robert had. The audience likely knows that getting Robert to modernize was a hard-fought battle.
** In the second episode of Season 5, Cora and Robert wonder about Edith's sudden decision to be godmother to the baby girl the Drewes adopted [[spoiler:who also happens to be Edith's biological daughter]]. Robert immediately thinks his daughter wants a child of her own after the disappearance of Michael Gregson.
* DrivenToSuicide:
** Vera, apparently with [[spoiler:[[DivorceRequiresDeath arsenic bought by Bates]]]], no less.
** A blinded soldier at the village hospital in Season 2, after being told he is to be sent away to a rehabilitation centre.
** In season 6, [[spoiler:Thomas attempts it, but he is saved just in time.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** Kemal Pamuk just...dies, for no apparent reason, after [[OutWithABang spending the night with Mary]]. She assumes he had a stroke or heart attack.
** [[spoiler: Matthew dying in a car crash]] at the end of Season 3.
** [[spoiler:Sybil dies from complications of childbirth.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Subtle, but Daisy's flashback in Season 1.
** In the first episode, Bates' fitness for his job is a point of contention. Nearly everyone except Robert wants him out, but among the loudest voices in favor of letting him go is Cora. That is extremely out of character for her relative to the rest of the series, in which she is often the only one who doesn't look down her nose at anyone with a disadvantage.
** Early on, we see a lot more of the never-named servants who also work in the house.
*** Lampshaded in the show itself, as the outbreak of war reduces the Abbey's previously generous staffing to an absolute operating minimum, and it never quite recovers its earlier Edwardian grandeur even into the 1920s.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Anna and Bates. He jumped through a ton of hoops to try to divorce his awful wife, and after she was finally out of their way, he was [[spoiler:wrongfully imprisoned for her death.]] By the end of Season 3 they're finally able to be together and happy, until [[spoiler: she is raped in season 4, and both of them are suspects in her rapist's murder]]. In season 6 that issue is finally resolved, but then [[spoiler: Anna struggles with infertility.]]
** Also applies to Lady Edith, who not only suffers through at least as much heartbreak and suffering as the rest of the Crawleys but spends most of the series as TheUnfavourite and ButtMonkey. This continues all the way to the last episode of season six, when [[spoiler:her engagement to Bertie Pelham is sabotaged by Mary]]. Finally, in the Christmas Special (and series finale) she gets to [[spoiler: marry Bertie after all - and become marchioness of Hexham and thereby outranking her parents and her sister.]] Not only does she get to live happily ever after, [[spoiler:her husband and his mother know that Marigold is her daughter and accept it]].
** Poor Molesley goes from being butler at Crawley house to being valet to the heir, and after [[spoiler: the heir's death]] must take a job doing manual labor as he is too proud to return to Downton as a footman. He eventually does return after the staff take pity on him, but he is prone to numerous embarrassing mishaps until he eventually decides to take a test and [[spoiler:become a teacher at the local school, inspiring students who thought they could never be anything but servants either.]]
* EatingTheEyeCandy: Jimmy's first introduction to the female staff. And Thomas, who [[ShirtlessScene walks in on him dressing]]...
* TheEdwardianEra: Even though Edward VII's successor George V is king during the show's setting, the Edwardian era is generally accepted as lasting until the outbreak of World War One in 1914.
* TheEeyore: Mr Carson.
* {{Elopement}}: Violet reveals that, during her time in Russia, Prince Kuragin and her planned to run away to elope, despite both of them already being married. Kuragin's wife chased them down and forced Violet to return to her own husband. In retrospect, Violet is happy she was saved from a terrible mistake.
* EndOfAnAge: The show in a nutshell, especially with Series Two being set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Series One is explicitly the only season where the British Aristocracy is at the height of their power and influence. It diminishes with each passing season.
* EndangeredSouffle
* EnforcedColdWar: Thomas and O'Brien versus the rest of the servants.
* EnsembleCast
* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
** One of the first things Robert says in the pilot tells the audience very quickly what kind of man he is: aware of the evils of the system he lives in, but not really enticed to see it change.
--->'''Carson:''' I understand that most of the ladies ''(referring to the Titanic sinking)'' were taken off in time.
--->'''Robert:''' You mean the ladies in first class. God help the poor devils below decks. On their way to a better life.
** In-universe for why Carson is so fond of Lady Mary: when she was five, she came downstairs politely explaining to him that she was running away and might she please have some of the silverware to sell for money?
* EvilDuo: O'Brien and Thomas. They seemed in jeopardy of splitting up at the end of Season 1, after [[spoiler: Thomas joined the army and O'Brien was atoning for causing Cora's miscarriage]], but it didn't last long. As of Season 3, they've fallen out again over Thomas' mistreatment of Alfred ([[ConflictBall or something]]).
* EvilIsPetty: Thomas and O'Brien seem to like to screw with their employers, other members of the staff, and even each other, for no real reason.
* EvilRedhead: Edna.
* EvilVersusEvil: Thomas v. O'Brien, regarding Alfred and Jimmy, in Season 3.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Mary and Matthew.
* EvolvingCredits: Each season has a different promotional poster showing Downton's inhabitants. Notably after Season 2, the number of servants starts decreasing as maids and footmen become more and more redundant.
* ExactEavesdropping: Thomas hears just enough of the Countesses' discussion of Violet's search for a new maid to think they're talking about replacing O'Brien. Admittedly, it doesn't help that O'Brien herself overhears the Earl and Countess talking about ''firing her''.
* ExactWords:
** In his revelation about his past to Carson, Mrs Hughes, and Anna in Season 1 Episode 6, he says "Thomas has tried to convince you that I am a drunkard and a thief... Until a couple of years ago I ''was'' a drunkard, and I was imprisoned as a thief." He never says that he actually was a thief...and we soon learn that he was not--Mrs. Bates had actually carried out the theft, but Bates took the fall (in large part because he was a depressed drunk).
** While Bates is [[spoiler:forging a note to give to Mr. Sampson]] in the Series 4 finale, Mrs. Hughes comes upon him and asks what he's doing; Bates replies he's doing something for Lord Grantham.
* ExiledToTheCouch:
** In the latter episodes of Season 3, Robert is forced to sleep in his dressing room for several days while Cora is [[spoiler:blaming him for Sybil's death]].
** Later, Robert exiles himself there after getting annoyed with Cora getting too close to another man. Cora finally gives him an ultimatum, telling him that, if he had never found himself in a similar situation, he should stay in that room; otherwise, he should return to their bedroom. After recalling his situation with Jane, Robert quietly follows Cora to their room.
* {{Expy}}: Loads, considering it's basically ''Film/GosfordPark: The Series''. Possibly the most obvious is Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, who is extremely similar to ''Gosford'''s Constance, Dowager Countess of Trentham, and played by the same actress.
* FamousNamedForeigner:
** The name "Kemal Pamuk" sounds suspiciously like a composite of the names of two famous Turks, Kemal Atatürk (the founder of the Republic of Turkey) and Creator/OrhanPamuk (a Nobel-winning novelist), despite the fact that Ottomans didn't have official surnames; and even though some wealthy and powerful families would have unofficial family names, those names would be nowhere near as plain and simple as the single word "pamuk", which means "cotton" in Turkish.
** In Season 5 we meet two noble refugees from the Russian Revolution, named [[Literature/WarAndPeace Prince Kuragin and Count Rostov]].
* FallenPrincess: Lady Mary after sleeping with Kemal Pamuk and then having to cover up his death.
* FamilyBusiness:
** Discussed in Series 1; after getting a dressing-down by Carson, William grouses that Carson probably comes from a long line of butlers dating back to the time of William the Conqueror. Bates replies that Carson would have had to learn his trade on some level.
** Lang mentions that his mother was a Lady's Maid, which explains his own skills.
* FancyDinner: There are many of these. Matthew screws up at his first one. Also of note is when they try to hold one of these during the war and are severely affected by rationing. And, as always, we see these from both the perspective of the Crawleys and the servants, in something of a subversion of the trope (including the "screwing up" bit: ''Alfred'' screws up his first dinner by using incorrect service).
* FieryRedhead:
** Mrs Patmore, ''especially'' when she was trying to fly under the radar about having cataracts in S1.
** Ethel is passionately fiery until she's sacked for having sex; after that, all her fire goes into desperately trying to get either her love-child's father or the father's parents to acknowledge her son and help her support herself.
** Averted by Gwen, who has a very sweet temperament, but she can be fiery at times. In Episode 1.03, Miss O'Brien swiped her typewriter and put it on display in the servants' hall. Carson & Mrs Hughes called Gwen on the carpet over it, [[ConflictBall for no really good or discernible reason]], and Gwen finally let it rip in her umbrage and embarrassment:
---> '''Gwen:''' I've bought a typewriter and I've taken a correspondence course. I'm not aware that either one of these things is illegal!
* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: The family refers to butlers, valets, chauffeurs and ladies' maids by their last name alone, and to housemaids and footmen by their first name alone. Housekeepers and cooks add "Mrs." to their last name whether they're married or not.
** When ex-chauffeur Tom Branson marries Sybil, the family struggle to call him "Tom" rather than "Branson." Around the same time, footman Thomas Barrow is promoted to under-butler and starts going by "Barrow" rather than "Thomas," which helps to enforce OneSteveLimit. Anna and Molesley keep their forms of address despite moving through various positions.
* FlatWhat:
** Thomas, when Bates suggests a search for the missing snuffbox which Thomas had hidden in Bates' room.
** Anna, when Bates tells her he [[spoiler: bought the rat poison he thinks Vera used to commit suicide]].
** When Jimmy tells Carson that he feels he ought to go to the police [[spoiler:about Thomas's homosexuality]], this is Carson's response.
* FlowerMotifs: Five characters are named after flowers; Daisy, Violet, Ivy, Rose and Marigold.
* ForTheEvulz: Thomas and O'Brien, and they often have no identifiable motivation. And ironically, the one thing O'Brien at least thought she had a motivation for ([[spoiler:planting a bar of soap so Cora would have a fall]]) is the only one for which she actually shows regret.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Sir Anthony's comment in episode 3.02 that "there's never been a safer mode of travel" than the automobile.
** When it becomes clear in Season 1 that war is about to be declared, William makes it clear that he's all ready to sign up and fight. Thomas' response? "Thank you, Mr Cannon Fodder." [[spoiler:Which is exactly what he wound up being: Matthew & William got caught in a cannon blast, with William throwing himself in front of Matthew to try and protect him. Matthew lived; William didn't.]]
** Every time Lavinia had any reason to believe that she and Matthew wouldn't live happily ever after, she started whinging about how she couldn't live without him. Guess what happened when she decided to break it off with him because she realized he loved Mary more than he loved her? (Hint:[[spoiler:she died of Spanish flu only a few hours later.]])
* FriendToAllChildren: Thomas in season 6 is shown to be good with kids, especially George.
* FreudianTrio
** The Crawley girls. Mary (superego) and Edith (id) always bickered while Sybil (ego) was the peacemaker. This changed in later seasons with Edith and Sybil switching roles.
** The Crawley matriarchs. The ultra-conservative aristocrat Violet (Superego) and the liberal, upper-middle class Isobel (Id) always butt heads while Cora (Ego) has to remind them she is Downton's current mistress.
* FullyClothedNudity: At least one example; when Kemal Pamuk barges into Lady Mary's room, she is wearing an all-concealing and fairly shapeless nightgown; she nevertheless picks up the covers and holds them to her body to cover it as if she were completely naked. TruthInTelevision for the time period.
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