Does anyone know what Will's illness was? I was thinking maybe TB but he wasn't coughing and they didn't seem to be worried about having a baby around him. He looked sweaty and feverish also. I must admit I haven't read the book so don't know if it's mentioned in it.
Thanks.
I thought Wickham's shot might have hit him.
shareI thought that too, but there would have been a clear wound if that was the case. Plus, Elizabeth visited Will the day of Denny's death, so he was definitely ill long before that day.
shareI assumed he had been injured
🐈 Rachel
Yes - I thought that since he worked with horses, as his father did, he took a bad fall, or was somehow injured by his work - that's why he had a ie: a cane, but more of something that went under his shoulder - something solid wood - and good for cracking someone on the head.
vivling
I don't believe it's ever stated.....though he certainly had enough strength to give Denny a good swat!
shareIt's not specified. There were so many then incurable illnesses, including the one Jane Austen herself died of (thought to be Addison's Disease). Cancer, TB, heart disease - who knows. Many things confined people to their beds and a slow but sure end. I suppose P D James didn't't feel the need to be specific.
shareIt's a plot device. The specifics don't matter. The only thing that matters is that he's sick.
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I think it was convenient for the story, not to mention the nature of Will's illness. He looked as though he just had a touch of flu. He certainly didn't look as though he was on his deathbed. Even though he was living in times when sudden mortality from some unspecified disease was a little bit more common. It just didn't seem quite real for him to go out like a light just like that. They could have made more ill-looking.
shareI thought it was weird that they never showed him coughing. Usually in period dramas like this they like to bump people off with various nonspecific lung ailments. I've watched enough similar shows to know that showing a character coughing is shorthand for saying "this person is going to die."
Of course if it WAS TB, the whole Bidwell family was in trouble - that's some highly contagious stuff. So maybe it was cancer. They did show him leaning on a crutch but never alluded to his having been injured in any way (and if he'd been, say, kicked by a horse that was by no means certain death).
There's a tidal wave coming, so you'd better start learning to swim. - Jukebox the Ghost