The Gilded Age: Why did Gladys agree to marry The Duke? Explained by the actress

The Gilded Age, Season 3, Episode 3, finally brought home a conclusion to all of Bertha's scheming and plotting, as Gladys is engaged to Hector, the Duke of Buckingham. Gladys has been nursing her broken heart over Billy Carton and trying to avoid the match that her mother had arranged for her with the Duke.

However, the third episode features the Duke's negotiations with George Russell regarding Gladys' dowry, and George's disappointment with Bertha's choice. Nevertheless, by the end of the episode, Gladys agrees to the match after a private moment with the Duke. In a recent conversation with Decider, actress Taissa Farmiga, who plays Gladys on The Gilded Age, talks about her character's decision.

Taissa Farmiga talks about her character's arranged match with the Duke in The Gilded Age

If there's one character who has been pining for a love match for herself, despite her mother's scheming and plotting, it's Gladys Russell. So, it came as one of the biggest surprises on The Gilded Age, when Gladys, who pines for sweet boys like Billy Carlton and who had even convinced her father to support her in a love match, decides to let her mother arrange her match with the Duke of Buckingham.

In The Gilded Age, Season 3 Episode 3, the Duke negotiates with George regarding Gladys' dowry, wanting him to offer a more generous dowry than he originally intended. When George agrees to increase the dowry, stipulating that the increased amount would be Gladys' allowance, he retorts with:

"Paid to Gladys? But what use is that to me?"

Nevertheless, an agreement is finally reached, thanks to Bertha's plotting, but it is Gladys who surprises everyone with her agreement on The Gilded Age. It must also be taken into consideration that all her avenues of choice had been closing down one after the other, with Billy's betrayal, Bertha's determination, and her father's helplessness.

Farmiga explains that it was the pressure from everyone and her constant heartbreak that led her to agree to the match, rather than continuing to stress anymore:

"I think, at the end of the day, it was just the pressure of everybody. I think she was dealing with the heartbreak of Billy. She’s dealing with the fear of the future because she feels like she’s being forced into a future she’s not choosing. There’s a numbness that comes with that and you can’t make a decision when you’re in such an emotionally depleted place, I think. Because there was so much pressure. You have to choose. She just sort of doesn’t want the stress anymore?"

After a private audience with the Duke on The Gilded Age, where she learns his true name, he's honest with her, and they share a brief connection in a "beautiful moment." This brief connection between them gives her some hope in what looked like a very dark future so far:

"There’s a brief moment of connection with her and the Duke. You know, she thanks him for not being fake. So I think maybe it’s like a tiny little sparkle of a lightning bug in the dark. It’s kind of like a light guiding you. "

Ultimately, for Gladys, it all came down to:

"But I really think that she was just sick of feeling shitty. So she’s like, ‘Let’s just move on.' "

By the end of The Gilded Age episode, along with Gladys' painting's reveal, comes the dramatic announcement of her marriage, but only time will tell if Bertha can actually get an anxious Gladys to walk down the aisle.

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