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In The Little Prince, why doesn't the rose confess her love, yet the prince still loves her?
Quick answer:
The rose does not confess her love due to her vanity and pride. She is boastful and demanding, which sometimes hurts the prince. Despite this, the prince loves her because her actions, such as blooming and casting her fragrance for him, show her love. He realizes that her flaws are her way of seeking attention and acknowledges her love through her deeds rather than words.
The rose does not tell the prince that she loves him
because she has a couple of character flaws. One of her
character flaws is vanity. Her vanity makes her very boastful
but especially very demanding. She boasts that her four thorns can protect her
from tigers, and yet, she considers herself to be too delicate to be allowed to
stand in the draft. Due to her vanity she demands a screen of the little prince
and also a glass globe to be put under at night. In fact, in his narration, the
prince explains that the flower's vanity began to torment him, as we see in the
line, "So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity--which
was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with" (Ch. 8). In
addition to being vain, she is also very prideful . She is...
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so prideful, that she would prefer to "put the prince in the wrong," rather than admit she is wrong (Ch. 8).
The flower symbolizes femininity, and despite character flaws,
men consistently love women. In his narrative, the prince regrets his decision
to leave, saying that he should not have taken seriously any of the vain and
prideful things she said. He says that he should "have judged by deeds and not
by words"; he should have recognized that her returned affection for him was
shown in how "she cast her fragrance and her radiance over [him]" (Ch. 8). In
other words, because she made him happy with her beauty and her scent, he
should have recognized that she truly did love him. Furthermore, he says that
he should have recognized that all of the vain things she said and asked him to
do were simply her way of getting attention from him, just as women often do.
Therefore, despite her character flaws, he continues to love his
flower because she loves him in return. He especially
loves her because she does a great deal of wising up before he leaves. She asks
his forgiveness, assures him that she loves him, and also shows inner strength
in rejecting the glass globe and saying, "I must endure the presence of two or
three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies" (Ch.
9). Hence we see that despite her initial character failings, she truly is a
loving and noble flower.