You say that like it's a bad thing! ;-)

Posted by kathleen (elder) on September 19, 1997 at 09:54:32:

In response to This Board Is Crawling With Bertramites!!! Arghhh!, written by Nora on September 18, 1997 at 19:50:12

Nora

< i>] Henry's love was not over ego, because if it had been; JA would have said so....Instead this is what was written (PROOF!!)
] Volume II Chapter X
] "Mr. Crawford is in love with Fanny"
] Volumne II Chapter XII
] "You know with what the idle designs I began-but this is the end of them."
] Volumne II Chapter XII
] "I am fairly caught."
] and the proof goes on and on . . .

I do not accept as PROOF anything that Henry Crawford says. I believe that he thought he was in love with Fanny. The fact that his sister, and the Bertram family believed him, too, is not proof either, since they could be wrong.

JA does tell us that Henry felt affection, so maybe he loved Fanny -- but I can only accept descriptions from the author on this point.

Nora:

] HENRY LOVES FANNY, and THE AFFAIR WAS ONLY A RUMOR!!

I think the book is very clear that the affair was NOT just a rumor. If it had only been flirtation, then Henry would not have desired

"To keep Fanny and the Bertrams from a knowledge of what was passing [which] became his first object. Secrecy could not have been more desirable for Mrs. Rushworth's credit than he felt it for his own."

JA also tells us that

"Henry Crawford . . . indulged in the freaks of cold-blooded vanity a little too long. . . . [Fanny's] influence over him had already given him some influence over her. . . . Would he have deserved more, there can be no doubt that more would have ben obtained . . . ." [emphasis mine]

JA didn't find Henry deserving of Fanny, and I agree (as I generally do with this author). ;-)

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