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Does Elizabeth ever love as puppy-love?   Written by Tracy W (6/8/2007 1:33 a.m.) in consequence of the missive, More mature love., penned by BrendaB
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I hate to say this, but I am not sure what you mean by saying that Elizabeth's love could have been classified as puppy-love. I think you are saying that Elizabeth originally thought of love as not involving mutual respect, affection, gratitude and esteem? Do you mean that her affection for Wickham was puppy-love? If this is what you are saying, I think I may disagree.

We know Elizabeth is interested in Wickham, but she never says she loves him, instead she says the opposite:
At present I am not in love with Mr. Wickham; no, I certainly am not. (chpt 26)

JA later on in the same chapter says:
Elizabeth was watchful enough to see it all, but she could see it and write of it without material pain. Her heart had been but slightly touched, and her vanity was satisfied with believing that she would have been his only choice, had fortune permitted it.
The line "her heart had been but slightly touched" strikes me as confirmation that Elizabeth was saying the truth when she said she was not in love with Wickham.

Elizabeth's defence of Jane's behaviour to Bingley also strikes me as a rather mature concept
As yet, she cannot even be certain of the degree of her own regard, nor of its reasonableness. She has known him only a fortnight. She danced four dances with him at Meryton; she saw him one morning at his own house, and has since dined in company with him four times. This is not quite enough to make her understand his character." (chpt 6)

This speech strikes me as Elizabeth saying that it is important to understand a man's character, that one's regard for a man may be reasonable or unreasonable. She's also saying that it takes time to work out the degree of one's regard for a man, not just its reasonableness, and that one should understand a man's character (which I think covers your respect and esteem concepts).

Elizabeth was fooled by Wickham, but I don't think her being fooled was based on having a immature concept of love in itself, rather on over-confidence in her judgment of others and Wickham's looks and social skills overwhelming her critical thinking. And I think it's noticable that even at the height of her feelings for him she can say that she's not in love with him.

So to summarise, I don't think Elizabeth's concept of love changes during the novel. Presumably she got some good lessons from her father's library.


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