ion one gets from Betty Flanders about Jacob is blurred and distant. Betty sees the world looking through her tears (18) and communicates with Jacob mostly through letters, without personal contact. Even in the letters, Jacob is hardly the tangible proof of validation that Betty is hoping for. The letters offer Betty, in blatant curtness, create the portrait of Jacob that his life is mystifying and uncertain. She read his letter, posted at Milan, Telling me, she complained...really nothing that I want to know; but she brooded over it (157). Betty Flanders impressions of Jacob show the disconnection from her life and Jacobs, but also her continuous need for his love in her life.Jacob is continually called distinguished-looking, seeing him for the first time that no doubt is the word for him (77). This description is used throughout the novel, a description that is both vague and telling at the same time. We know that Jacob is attractive and alluring, two traits that make him a prime romantic interest to many of his peers. Bonamy, Clara, Florinda, and Fanny are all characters that are attracted to Jacobs presence. Yet, none of them ever seem able to understand him. All of these characters seem to be stuck in the same void of true connection with Jacob, one that continues the detachment and misreading of Jacob by his own world. To Jacob, Florinda seemed to him something horribly brainless (89), he is cautious of Bonomys homosexuality and thus pushes him away, Claras own virginity (both sexually and spiritually) makes Jacob too frightening (77) for her and Fanny is too desperate. These human limitations make the characters constantly in pursuit of Jacob, but never fully able to comprehend him. Their portrait of Jacob is made entirely too much of their own opinion- it is through their own eyes and loneliness that they began to create Jacob instead of fully knowing him. These brief impressions that make up Jacob leaves the reader at loss to w...
