Love In Marta Acoste's Dark Companion

It is the feeling of butterflies in a person’s stomach. It is the person one dreams about every night. It is that one person on someone’s mind, who makes him or her forget about everything and everyone around him or her. Love is a dangerous drug, and can often take one out of reality, or become oblivious to those around them. In Dark Companion by Marta Acosta, Jane Williams is transferred to Birch Grove, a rich and academically enhanced school, where she meets the headmistress’s son, Lucky Radcliffe. Jane then falls in love with Lucky, but negative consequences follows. Her love towards Lucky causes her to become blind to the outside world, in which Jane becomes blind towards the true intentions of Lucky, towards herself, and towards the truth
She loves him way too much, and because of that, she forgets to love herself. Everything she does is in hopes of grabbing his attention. Her lack love towards herself shows when she says, “I wanted to hear him tell me that what we had was special, that I was special, and not merely some mousy girl.” (p.191). Jane’s love towards Lucky takes over and puts all her attention on him, in doing so; it blinds her from respecting herself. Jane’s much needed "acceptance" from Lucky causes her to be vulnerable, and become easily manipulated by Lucky, as she says, "I despised myself for letting my crush on Lucky make me so vulnerable." (p.163). Jane knows about how vulnerable she is to Lucky, but she chooses not to act upon in because of her love for Lucky. Jane is indeed a strong girl (p.228), but with her love for him dominates her mind, and making her forget to love
Jack is trying to tell her the truth, but she blindly stands in defense for Lucky, and does not realize the consequences of not trusting Jack. Behind the scenes, Jack has really been protecting Jane the entire time. When Jane meets Claire in the Chemistry lab, Claire mentions, “I would have done it [killed you] before, but Jack spent nights sleeping near your cottage,” in which Jane thought to herself, “Jack had watched out for me!” (p.312). This statement by Claire clearly contrasts the original thought Jane had about Jack, in which he is up to no by good creeping outside her cottage. The moment she hears Claire mentions these lines, her thoughts about Jack turns around 180 degrees, as Jane begins to realize the truth, that Jack had truly been looking out for her the entire time. After escaping the Chemistry lab, Jane is found unconscious, and not breathing. Jack finds her on the ground, and begins to do CPR on her (p.319). This shows how Jane is blind to Jack’s original intentions, as her love for Lucky dominates her, causing her to shield out other information. In the end, after all truth has been unveiled, Jane ends up dating Jack, a boy who genuinely cares and looks out for her. If it were not for Jack, Jane would not be alive at this point in the book. Her original preference for Lucky and her hatred for Jack clearly blind her from Jack’s true intentions,