These are some very interesting ideas so far, I like the way everyone here is getting almost personally involved with the images in this card.
Every picture tells a story and this one is sure to tell a new story to everyone who looks at it, every time I find something more and another way to look at this.
Sometimes I think the woman is not only "putting up" with stuff, but putting things back to store... keeping the valuables hidden or out of sight, sort of like a savings account sort of thing. In another way she is almost entering a High Priestess area, going within the darkness of the doorway to find or perserve some treasure. The two pentacles on the door posts... balance in the house... balancing frugality with pleasure... what can come with the balancing of earth with emotions... things built from the beginnings. The feminine force of creation and procreation... the 2 and 1 become three. Perhaps instead of hanging up the Pentacle, she is taking it down... that something new and growing is hidden within her in the darkness... to emerge as something or someone young, with much to learn and grow from. As in a pregnancy.
I also find it very interesting the way the placement of the pentacles adds to the story here. The couch with the patriarch has 4 Pentacles on one side... the conservation and foundation. He has one as a fastening pin on his shoulder, that what he has is fastened to him, also pointing to him as the beginning, that everything hangs from. Then there is another pentacle for the other side of this couch... fortelling the future loss, as the lesson of life... that death and loss are part of the cycle and must come and be accepted. So it might not only be sadness or boredom in his eyes, but resolution to accept his fate, that his purpose has been surved. Does he have regrets for things he didn't do or accomplish?
All the pentacles associated with the old man, add to 6... the balance of giving with getting... he needs them for what they can give him, they need him for what he has yet to offer. Also there is the balance of power, the balance of everything here, as central to it all.
Because I still feel that the girl is admonishing that grizzly old dog... as if he still can learn a few new tricks and remedy anything left undone or changes in attitudes and behavior.
The pouch the younger man carries is also a 1... the seeds for the future... in one sense... it takes $ to make $... and also the passing of the purse/inheritance from one generation to the next. Or even a Trust, relying on the past to build for the future. It could very well be he is a messenger, telling the old man it's time for a change, that transformation is coming soon, but it makes me feel more he is holding on to the support and wisdom the old man has to offer him. That he is now the one to carry on the practical tasks of continuation of this legacy... the actual work that goes with keeping all in order and on task. The combination of the old man and young man... adds to 7... the waiting that come with this... the young man cannot fully assume the mantle of authority of the patriarch until his passing.
Down in the corner are snowdrops, the first sign of spring... that whatever has gotten old and tiresome is going to be renewed with fresh growth and the promise of summer to come... winter is over, to hold with hope and not give up. Something new is on it's way.
The sky looks more like a sunset... the end of the day, the end of an era, the change of order is here.