Flushed with fever, red-hot cheeks, mouth filled with oranges every hour. I savored the light emitted by my laptop’s screen. Every sick person is a grouch, so here are the DON’T’S I learned from Lizzy. Perhaps more will come if I get sicker. (Note: Lizzy is Elizabeth Bennet, the main character in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.)

1. Coquetry. A subtler word for flirtation.
Lizzy compliments what she finds truly admirable. She refuses offers when she does not want or deserve them. She doesn’t feign affection. Never will you find her playing or taking advantage of someone’s weak emotions.

2. Vanity. A person may be proud without being vain. 
Pride relates to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us. Lizzy must be judged as proud, but vain, she never was. Among the voices we hear, we’d better listen to the one that comes within us than those around us. (Self-check: “Am I proud or vain?”)

3. Complaisance. A deficiency of nature even the best education cannot mend.
Flattery could lead you to the palace, but it wouldn’t put you on the throne.  It is wise to be kind, but it is foolish to please others all the time. No matter how witty or careful you are with words, you’ll invariably displease someone.

4. Falsity.  An inclination to hide condescension in artful talk.
Lizzy delights in overthrowing deceptive schemes and cheating people of their premeditated contempt (Chapter 10). She unmasks hypocrisy. She despises the indirect rudeness and elegant humiliation of the “rich”.

5. Catwalk. Lizzy would always wonder why models are afraid to walk side by side.
Though raised from a family of pure girls, Lizzy was disinclined to showing off . Her mom’s ultimate goal in life was to get them wealthy husbands. Of this thought, she does not care. She would never understand why any women should die for a man’s attention. Lizzy doesn’t speak, look, and even think for a/her man’s approval alone.