I hope you understand criticism does not imply meanness of spirit. (;D) I understand why Frederick feels hurt and rejected and I empathize with his heartache however I don’t see any reason to empathize him a free-pass for poor behavior. When you said Anne ripped Frederick’s heart out (36425) it raised an interesting point for me—that Anne was not completely responsible for all his misery. Perhaps Frederick did feel Anne (against her character) fed him a line to cover she is “just not into him anymore” but my question is why should he? If Frederick believed Anne was lying; IMHO he let his emotions misconstrue her words and actions because I do not believe she lied to gentle ending the engagement. This scenario reinforces my view Frederick’s passions blindly overpowered his intellect—he is reacting rather than thinking and it increases his and Anne’s misery immensely for no good reason. The fact Frederick was hurt, passionate and intensely emotional makes his unbending opinions and unjust views of Anne’s character somewhat understandable but not justifiable IMHO. Anyway it is an endlessly interesting subject to me. Thanks. (;D)