Books

1 readers

1 users here now

founded 10 months ago

MODERATORS

communick@metacritics.zone

What Does This Mean? (alien.top)

submitted 9 months ago by dynamic__4576@alien.top to c/books@metacritics.zone

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Could someone help me understand what Jane Austen meant when she said :

"There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself." - Pride & Prejudice, Volume 1, Chapter 6.

The speaker is Charlotte Lucas and she is conversing with Jane Bennet.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Wren-bee@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Charlotte is basically saying that a person can’t fall in love without encouragement of some sort, and that she thinks Jane needs to encourage Bingley more. The gratitude or vanity comes from someone liking you; the “not safe to leave any to itself” is that an affection can’t be safely left without encouragement if a person wants it to bloom.

[–] dynamic__4576@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago

Ohh. So Bingley's liking/attachment towards Jane leads to the development of emotions like vanity and gratitude in her and it would not be appropriate (or safe as Charlotte calls it🤔) to be left without some reciprocation.