Sentimental Education Women and Femininity Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

[…] and women passed along with an indolent expression in their eyes and that camelia tint in their complexions which intense heat imparts to feminine flesh. (1.5.397)

Mmm, hot and sweaty women. Come on, Frederick—get it together. Notice, though, that Frederick is walking through Paris, one of the more beautiful places on earth, and still, his attention is on the ladies. This guy's obsessed.

Quote #5

From time to time she left her seat to receive those who had just come in; and the murmur of feminine voices, made, as it were, a cackling like that of birds. (1.9.366)

Though Frederick gets a kick out of the parties at the Dambreuse house, he often finds the idle chatter kind of annoying. Here, he associates the women's voices with the unpleasant sound of birds. We're not so sure they'd be as into him if they could hear his thoughts.

Quote #6

Then he allowed his thoughts to dwell even on Frederick's personal appearance. It had always exercised over him an almost feminine charm; and he soon came to admire it for a success which he realised that he was himself incapable of achieving. (2.12.8)

Deslauriers's attraction to his friend Frederick is complicated. He is not only jealous of him, but also finds him strangely attractive—in a feminine way. What about Frederick is feminine?