| Thinking well of the person you broke up with
Written by Line
(10/4/2005 11:57 p.m.)
In ch.10, "it was the highest satisfaction to [Anne] to believe Captain Wentworth not in the least aware of the pain he was occasioning." In so many ways, JA's characters are instantly recognizable to us today, but in some ways I find their attitudes are clearly different. One difference is taking comfort in continuing to think well of the moral character of the person you broke up with. In P&P, Jane Bennet asks Elizabeth to stop criticizing Bingley so that she can continue to think well of him, and in S&S, if I remember correctly, Elinor wants to do the same. Today, I think someone who had recently gone through a break-up would be dwelling on their ex-partner's shortcomings, and very likely listing (or hearing their friends list) reasons why it was a good thing the relationship didn't continue. If they insisted on dwelling on their ex-partner's virtues, their friends would likely think they were either in denial or not yet over their ex.
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