Why Matthew Fairchild's fate is echoed in excerpts of "The Beautiful Cordelia"
The beautiful Cordelia is just a funny throwaway meant to show us parts of Lucie's personality and her writing, right? Well I think wrong. The beautiful Cordelia gives us clues to Matthews fate. No, no. Stay with me on this.
Matthew is an incredibly mysterious character when it comes to those present in The Last Hours. He wasn't on the 'found' family tree.
Though ofc none of the Fairchild's were. However it does raise questions. When did he die? Who did he marry? Why can we know about these families but not the Fairchild's? Is clary descended from Matthew or Charles Buford? This has led some to theorise that matthew dies, or that he leaves the shadowhunter world. Perhaps to become a downworlder or a mundane.
I think that matthew will be wrongly convicted of a crime in order to save someone he loves, perhaps Cordelia or James, and that he will go on the run/into hiding.
In other words, I think that Matthew is the highwayman from Lucie's story.
-"And sparks were about to fly between her and the handsome highwayman, who was in reality a duke’s son, convicted of a crime he hadn’t committed and forced to make his living on the roads. It was all so romantic—"
A dukes son= son of the consul, the most powerful position in shadowhunter society.
Sparks were about to fly= Lucie notices in the book that Matthew has possible feelings for Cordelia. We know that because of:
"“He does not really care for me. In fact, I think—” She broke off. It was a theory she had developed, seeing the way Matthew’s gaze had been drifting the past few days. But she was not ready to share it."
Cassie has described lucie as one of the most observant characters in tsc, likening her to the detective Ty. She often sees things others dont- especially when it comes to Matthew. I.e his drinking, his possible feelings for Daisy.
We know that the Duke isn't James because he's already in the story
"and the handsome man who adored her, Lord Hawke. Sadly they had been parted when the beautiful Cordelia had been kidnapped by pirates,"
Lord HAWKE= James HERONdale.
"“Wonderful,” she said, taking the sheets of paper. “I can hardly wait to see if Cordelia escapes from the wicked Bandit King!” “Well, as it turns out, the Bandit King isn’t entirely wicked. You see, he’s the youngest son of a duke who’s always been—"
Youngest son of a duke= Matthew is the youngest son of Charlotte, the consul
The Bandit isn't entirely wicked= people misunderstanding Matthew because of the way he manifests his pain
It had landed on several manuscript pages of The Beautiful Cordelia, and they were now quite ruined. “Well, don’t experiment on me!” she said. “You’ve destroyed a very important scene in which Cordelia is romanced by a pirate king.” “Piracy is unethical,” said Thomas. “Not in this case,” said Lucie. “You see, the pirate king is secretly the son of an earl—”
Now I know this is the pirate king, not the highway man, but I'm going to conflate the two beacue they are basically the same. Once again reference to being the secret son of someone important
Piracy is unethucal/not in this case= sometimes a crime is comiited for a good reason, or it has a good explanation behind it. Foreshadowing?
"It was him! The man from the inn! She recognized his handsome face, his radiant green eyes."
This is from the excerpt of the beautiful Cordelia where she meets the sarcastic highwayman. Green eyes=Matthew. He is the character repeatedly expressed to have green eyes, it is a striking characteristic of his
"Matthew was watching him with thoughtful green eyes that were no longer dancing."
"“Your hand,” Matthew said suddenly, leaning forward and fixing his green eyes on James. “What happened?”"
Why do I think Matthew will be punished for a crime he didn't commit?
Well first off as seen above this is the fate of the highwayman, who most strongly mirror Matthew over any other character. Secondly we get foreshadowing for this elsewhere in the book
“I do not have solid information, only rumors and guesses. I would not betray one of my own kind to a member of the Clave unless I knew for certain that they were guilty of a crime, for the Clave would arrest them first and examine the evidence later."
This is how Ragnor describes the Clave, purposefully bringing up that their conviction methods are not evidence based.
“‘Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing Boy,’” Matthew intoned. “Coleridge.” “Wordsworth,” James corrected.
Now at first of course this is just a funny exchange. But the actually quote when you look at it fits. "shades of the prison house" "the growing Boy"
“I thought my life would be one thing. Now it seems it is to be entirely different.” Matthew screwed up his face in a way parents often found adorable. James thought it made him look like Oscar. “Believe me,” he said. “I do know how that feels.”
I know Matthew is referencing his Sin but this could also be foreshadowing- Matthew has to change his life entirely from what he thought it would be
Plus Matthew is parralled with Alastair's dad a lot. Alastair recognises his alcoholism unlike most others. Perhaps Matthew will pretend he was drunk and they will sentence him on that? Plus on a side note I think one of the ways Alastair will be 'redeemed' is by helping Matthews addiction bc of his knowledge with his father.
I think that matthew will take the fall for a crime to stop Cordelia being hurt. I think this will perhaps be what is referenced in "the Carstairs owe the herondales" because perhaps a herondale lost/scarificed their parabatai in order to save a Carstairs
I dont think Matthew will have an entirely happy fate. I think he will see taking the fall for someone else as punishment for his own sin.
But I don't think he will go to prison. Somehow he'll escape and live his life as a highwayman- one who's secretly the son of a consul.
The last hours mirrors great expectations right? Will in GE there is the character of "the convict" who helps the main character. This could be Matthews parallel? As the "convict" who helps James? Or daisy? Whoever one is supposed to mirror pip? The convict also has a child who is given up fro adoption- this is a crazy thought but maybe Matthew has a child he has to give up for adoption and this is clary's line? And the surprise baby given up for adoption cassie has mentioned? I know that this is probably baby Carstairs but it's a thought.
Also Matthew has a lot of parallels to Sydney carton. What is Sydney fate? He swaps places with the husband of the woman he loves and is executed. Sounds like a possible outcome for the herondale/carstairs/Fairchild's love tangle if I've ever heard one. It would be funny if daisy ends up slightly mirroring lucie from AToTC when our own lucie herondale is right there.
Anyway I'm sorry this is so long. Please ignore those who don't care. This who do please please tell me your thoughts and if I'm crazy
TL;DR Matthew, like the character in Lucie's story, will become a criminal secretly the son of a powerful person
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