I Can't Help My Amazingness

Some people are just gifted with the talent of being endearing and attractive and susceptible to being adored by every human being that happens to come across their existence.

It doesn’t seem fair.

But life isn’t fair.

And now we proceed to pound those people’s heads in with our glares because it just doesn’t seem fair that they twist themselves subtly into people’s hearts without even trying.

That’s Robert for you: the harmless guy that happens to be adored and cared for by every woman out there because he is just that type of guy.

And so when I saw a post commenting on this quote:

If your attentions to any married women here were ever offered with any intention of being convincing, you would not be the gentleman we all know you to be, and you would be unfit to associate with the wives and daughters of the people who trust you" (pg 46)


and describing it as the woman demonstrating her jealousy towards Robert’s affections towards Edna and protecting him, I couldn’t help but disagree.

What I think of as I read this passage is not jealousy or protectiveness. What I see is a woman speak matter-of-factly about the truth of who Robert is. She is explaining to him that the only reason men let him engage in conversation with their wives or spend so much time with them, in spite of his palpable charm and unmistakable affableness is the fact that he is unaware of it all.

He may be appealing and charismatic, but he doesn’t act that way with the purpose of obtaining the women’s hearts. He doesn’t exploit his social talents by even thinking of getting one of those few females to fall in love with them.

He just happens to be that way, and that’s what makes him harmless and less of a threat. That is why said husbands let their wives hang around him with no second thought.

That is why he is viewed as a gentlemen and not some playboy extraordinaire that preys on married women.

So this is not Ratignolle expressing jealousy as much as she is stating a warning.

She does care about him, and that is why she is cautioning him to not overstep his “niceties” in regards to Mrs. Pontelliers, because, according to her, they seem to be approaching another level of amiability.

A friendly warning.

That’s just it.