I don't really think it is being knowledgeable as much as putting on a show of being knowledgeable that's the problem here. A majority of men and women in today's world respect intelligent women. But intelligence coupled with a complete lack of humility is just intolerable (and embarrassing for the pedant herself).
i mean....wrt dorothea.... i feel like eliot knew that her (eliot's) own life as an independent writer was due to her skill and her work but also obviously to insane luck. most pedantic women (then? always? pedantic everybody not just pedantic women?) lived frustrated lives. & so many novels are claustrophobic studies of english departments or narrow little literary scenes that i'm glad eliot did "a study of provincial life" instead....that being said great essay
I don't really think it is being knowledgeable as much as putting on a show of being knowledgeable that's the problem here. A majority of men and women in today's world respect intelligent women. But intelligence coupled with a complete lack of humility is just intolerable (and embarrassing for the pedant herself).
i mean....wrt dorothea.... i feel like eliot knew that her (eliot's) own life as an independent writer was due to her skill and her work but also obviously to insane luck. most pedantic women (then? always? pedantic everybody not just pedantic women?) lived frustrated lives. & so many novels are claustrophobic studies of english departments or narrow little literary scenes that i'm glad eliot did "a study of provincial life" instead....that being said great essay
Thank you! And hard agree on the "frustrated lives" (speaking as an unreconstructed pedant)! 😆