Season 3 of Bridgerton maintains the complexity of its female characters by focusing on Portia and Penelope Featherington’s relationship.

Netflix’s Bridgerton is a series on a modern take on the Regency era, following the romantic storylines of the Bridgerton family. The series is told through the narration of the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown. Season 3 follows  Colin Bridgerton, and his courtship with his long-time friend and neighbor Penelope Featherington, aka Lady Whistledown herself.

Women in the world of Bridgerton

“You know, it’s no easy thing being a parent. How is it to raise daughters when all my life I was taught that all power comes from a man?” –Portia Featherington.

In this time of Regency, two things are set up,  women don’t have rights, let alone agency and every family is seemingly perfect and happy. Then you’re introduced to the Featheringtons, a family that has only been struggling since we saw them. And the show allows us to watch and follow their struggles and who leads them through them, Portia Featherington.
The Featherington girls led by their mother Portia Featherington

Portia Featherington, our struggling Matriarch 

Portia Featherington keeps her family afloat even through her bad marriage, financial trouble, and constant scandal. She is also guiding and taking a young woman under her wing to make that character’s life better the best way she knows how. It is not done in the most conventional methods, but it’s done with the way she knows how.

Portia is never meant to be a likable character, but she is a resilient one with an innate sense of survival who is willing to do anything for her loved ones. This is much like someone else we know, her daughter Penelope.
The Featherington daughters Philipa and Prudence with their spouses, as Penelope Featherinton stands alone

ortia and Penelope

Part 2 of Bridgerton season 3 emphasizes the similarities between them. Both Portia and Penelope are clever, wise, observant, and at times selfish. Even with different personalities, they both are willing to do anything for the ones they love, and most importantly, they fight for what they deserve.

Penelope Featherington is this way because her mother is Portia Featherington. A female character whose struggle and demeanor at times is disagreeable but one worthy of defending. A real depiction of a woman in her position in the fictional world of Bridgerton.

 
Penelope Featherington standing alone at the first ball in her emerald green dress, debuting her new look

Mother Daughter Relationship

Portia may not be the most nurturing mother to her daughters, but this does not come from a place of cruelty. Portia’s inability to see her daughter Penelope for her strengths and talent is because she pushes her away. A by-product of her own issues of not knowing how to raise daughters. Portia is so focused on their survival that she doesn’t get to try to actually know them or give them credit that they could be good on their own.

However, Part 2 of Bridgerton season 3, gently corrects this with Portia and Penelope’s relationship as the focus. Portia regrets not knowing Penelope’s capability sooner and quickly recognizes her shortcomings. This allows her to give the time and energy her daughter always deserved.
Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington sit next to each other in her garden Bridgerton. (L to R) Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton, Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in episode 301 of Bridgerton. Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024

Penelope’s Growth

For Season 3 of Bridgerton Part 2, tasked with the development of Penelope’s romance with Colin Bridgerton, many routes could have been taken. However, they chose the most mature and unexpected route through Portia. Focusing on the mother-daughter relationship’s ups and downs to parallel that of the rest of the tone proved most effective. Because it is in the healing of this bond that more layers are given to both Portia and Penelope.