Marianne has high ideals/expectations about her lover. She says to her mother, "I could not be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own. He must enter into all my feelings; the same books, the same music must charm us both." She goes on, "Mama, the more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!".

I've always sympathized/identified with Marianne when I read this chapter. My mother has taught me to set my standards high when considering a possible spouse. She always says to never settle for less. And ever since I was a teenager, I envisioned what my hero would be like. And like Marianne, it seems that "I shall never see a man whom I can really love", because I do have high expectations.