What does "resignation" mean in this extract?
What does "resignation" mean in the text below?
There were many others who were alarmed by the drive to self-fulfillment Jane exhibited; The Spectator in April 1860 deplored the "pale, clever, and sharp-spoken young woman" who had become the fashion; the Saturday Review pretended resignation to the dominance of "glorified governesses in fiction," who, like the poor, would be always with them, since literature had "grown to be a woman's occupation."
— A Literature of Their Own by Elaine Showalter
I looked it up in a few dictionaries, but I think none of them fits this context.
According to The Free Dictionary, "resignation" means
- The act or an instance of resigning
- An oral or written statement that one is resigning a position or office
- Unresisting acceptance of something as inescapable; submission.
Solution 1:
It's meaning No. 3. They pretended to be resigned to the fact that the spirited governess had become a favourite character in fiction.