the layers, the layers...
what was ellwood's intention here, exactly? what did he expect gaunt to say? 'oh, you're not really her type then, good - because i want you instead' ??
and gaunt's immediate petty jealousy sets the tone so well.
these comments often make me think that ellwood (at this point in time thinking gaunt doesn’t like boys) is trying to gain his affections by being very nice to his sister, trying to show gaunt that he’s good and caring and a gentleman (selfishly not for maud’s sake ofc, but to show Henry his better qualities, and maybe securing a good relationship with who he thinks will be, unfortunately, just his brother in law)
the mention of another prospect for maud might have been a way to test the waters, an obsessive checking as if asking ‘if it was up to your approval as the male brother of the girl, would you choose another? would you rather someone else to become part of your family instead of me? Do you even care?’ Marrying maud is the only way in which ellwood sees a way of securing gaunt’s permanence in his life, and it’s like he’s often pitching the idea, and bringing it up, preparing both gaunt and himself for the only future they can access, and also maybe hopelessly trying to force a jealous reaction from Henry (like that fight when gaunt broke his nose, but emotionally, yk?)
AND, in many ways ellwood projects his feelings and thoughts for Henry into maud (because is the socially acceptable option), so perhaps his true feelings are ‘Henry’s A1, capital sort of boy’ (maud IS a queen tho, Sidney’s just gay as fuck right here lmao), so Henry’s dismissal (that to us the readers is obvious jealousy) reads as rejection for ellwood, another confirmation that Henry is uninterested in love
oh i love this! 'trying to show gaunt that he’s good and caring and a gentleman' and 'an obsessive checking as if asking ‘if it was up to your approval as the male brother of the girl, would you choose another?' - there's something very mixed-up and primal about this, its pack animal behaviour, giving it even more of a sexual undertone because not only are they interested in each other and hiding it, but there's that idea of submission and dominance that is explored in more depth later during actual sexual scenes.
so an ideal answer from gaunt would have been him saying something like 'really? she liked cuthbert-smith?' with disgust, which ellwood would have read as an implied approval of him as the better suitor. and ellwood sneaking a compliment about gaunt in is so sweet too, because 'capital' sounds very slang, so he's basically saying gaunt is straight up hot via complimenting maud if so.
i wonder if they ever discussed ellwood marrying maud, or when gaunt figured out that was ellwood's intention if not. he probably thinks that maud (or anyone) would never turn ellwood down because what person in their right mind wouldn't want to marry ellwood? then maud is like 'nah'
well, in many instances ellwood sneakily (and not so much) looked for others’ approval, specially gaunt’s. There’s definitely a submission/validation aspect to it (if gaunt called ellwood a good boy he’d be riding that high forever lmaooo).
and YESSS, I was thinking exactly that, ellwood wished gaunt disapproved of cuthbert-smith, or anyone else for that matter, because then that meant that in some way (the only possible way), gaunt was choosing HIM!! In a very ellwood fashion, he was taking whatever he could. And the same goes with the compliments; Henry and maud are twins, flirting and complimenting his sister is just as close as he can get to telling gaunt to his face how pretty he thinks he is.
as for them talking about it, I would imagine gaunt avoided that conversation in his masterful ways, such as a) abruptly changing the subject, b) straight up walking away, c) impromptu and suspiciously close-contact wrestling match with ellwood, or d) start throwing punches BAJFJW
