Naiveté, Naive, Innocence, Gullibility

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Naiveté, Innocence
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by Roy Posner and MSS

Naiveté

Edmund Dantes Good, Yet Unsuspecting, Naive Nature that Needed Inner Strength
Edmund Dantes [in novel The 'Count of Monte Cristo'] was a shipmate. He was 19. His captain, who was ill, gave Dantes a letter to deliver to Napoleon on Elba and then died. To a shipmate, the captain's word is an order, especially when it is a dying wish.

It never struck Dantes that in France of that day to visit the Emperor in exile would warrant the anger of the government. He visited Napoleon on Elba, gave him the letter, received a letter for someone in France from him.

Nor did he take care to hide the possession of that letter. On landing in France, the owner of his ship elevated him to the captaincy, overlooking Danglars, who was much elder to him.

Dantes went immediately to see his father and fiance Mercedes. Soon their wedding was arranged. On the eve of the wedding, the police came to his reception and arrested him for possessing the letter. It never struck Dantes what his crime was.

Danglars was smarting under the wound of having been overlooked. Dantes was not aware of it nor was it possible for him to conceive that someone could be jealous of him.

Mercedes was the prettiest Catalan girl in Marseilles. She was 17 and an orphan. Her cousin Fernand was courting her for a long time, but she had given her love to Edmund.

Dantes knew of Fernand and his love for Mercedes, but it never entered his head that Fernand could be a rival to his personality. Dantes's neighbour was a tailor who was innately vicious.

Danglars and Fernand met under a tree outside a hotel and compared notes about Dantes. The tailor was an interested accomplice. Danglars knew of Dantes's visit to Napoleon and the letter from Napoleon to someone in France.

Fernand, bitterly disappointed in love, came up with the idea that Dantes could be arrested and imprisoned.

Danglars offered to write an anonymous letter by his left hand to the Magistrate and the venomous three together executed their pet project of treachery. The letter informed the government about Napoleon's letter in Dantes's possession.

Dantes was arrested and shut up in prison. Fernand carried a false news of Dantes's death to Mercedes and gently persuaded her to marry him. In prison, Dantes was resisting the warders and turned violent. He was then put in solitary confinement.

He tore his hair in despair. He did not know what he was accused of. It was a mystery to him how he, who had been on the eve of marrying the girl he deeply loved and who had received the promotion to captaincy, could land in jail.

His nature was open and unsuspecting. It was noble. To live in this world of human affairs, one should be worldly-wise.

It is not enough to be GOOD, magnanimous and unsuspecting. An unsuspecting nature is one of generosity. But it has an element of naiveté, a simple-mindedness. Inner strength of purity behind such a noble character can ward off such evil influences. (MSS)

Overcoming Unsuspecting Goodness
Unsuspecting goodness like Edmund Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo will be betrayed by rivals, colleagues, betrothed fiances and ultimately by life. Dantes ended up in prison. He was a spirited young man. After 14 years of hell, he dominated life. It was because he was no longer naively innocent. He developed a conscious innocence, an innocence couched in inner strength. He was innocent not because he was weak and ignorant, but because he was calm inside from strength and incapable of human perversions. A proverb says, "Learn even theft, but forget it". One needs to know the existence of the negative side of life, the evil, but must be capable of not being urged by it.

Naiveté and Unconsciousness
Fitzwilliam's naive ignorance [in Pride and Prejudice] of what he is disclosing, like Wickham's intentional falsehoods, arising from a state of unconsciousness or involution. (MSS)

Naive, Innocence in Pride and Prejudice

Collins in general

Jane somewhat

Darcy’s sister with Wickham (innocent)

Innocence

Innocence
Innocence is a form of Ignorance, like foolishness, stupidity, lackadaisicalness, etc. It comes to people who lack a certain degree of psychological strength. It also issues from lack of experience; i.e. knowledge of the world. It too can lead to falsehoods and ignorance, as the innocent, sweet American farmer saw no reason to go to war while Hitler was marching across Europe. Looking around and being curious and expressing our strength are two means of coming out of Innocence. Innocence has a positive side too, as the innocence of a child is open to various possibilities. He may be less close-minded. The innocent can be filled with anything, any possibility, until the mind matures and perceives and develops a level of strength that knows and acts on the true truths of life. Innocence matures into knowledge, strength, and experience. (MSS)

To Be Categorized

Seeing Behind the Serene and Quietly Engaging Facade

Recently due to Netflix streaming to my large screen TV, I have been afforded the opportunity to watch the hundreds of episodes of Star Trek across five different series without commercials. So many life lessons are presented there against a backdrop of futuristic technology.

Every dozen or so episodes there seems to be a story of a person who came across as humble and serene. This quality is endearing, especially at first. However, once the story develops, this seemingly elevated character turns out to be a fraud or filled with virulent attitudes and motives. There must have been several dozen episodes with this theme across 20 years of television episodes. If this is so, it must be there in the Character of Life. (It also serves the purpose of miss-direction and fooling the audience, but still there must be a truth in it being a living reality.)

Many people in history have had this demeanor, only to turn out negative. We all know of several ourselves. One I know ushered me into Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and then turned fully hostile.

Karmayogi surely has explained this phenomenon in his many thousands of pages of writings. It is there everywhere in life.

In Pride and Prejudice, it is there in Wickham. Though not necessarily serene and taking to the Spirit, his outer demeanor was pleasing and winning. They were all then fooled by his treachery. In our lives too we must be vigilant, and perceive the limitations of motive and character behind the serene or quietly engaging facade.

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