According to Charlotte, the distinctive quality of mediocrity is moderation, which is the antithesis of genius. Mediocrity can see the faults of Genius, its imprudence, its recklessness, its ambition, but she is too cold, too limited, too self-centred to understand its struggles, its sufferings, its sacrifices; she is also envious and even its virtues appear to her under a false and tarnished light.14 Though she never actually makes the claim, it is implicit throughout Charlotte’s essay that she aligns herself with ‘passionate, misunderstood genius’
