Persuasion

Literary significance and criticism

In his essay "Persuasion: forms of estrangement", A Walton Litz summarises the issues critics have raised with Persuasion as a novel:[8]

Persuasion has received highly intelligent criticism in recent years, after a long period of comparative neglect, and the lines of investigation have followed Virginia Woolf's suggestive comments. Critics have been concerned with the "personal" quality of the novel and the problems it poses for biographical interpretation; with the obvious unevenness in narrative structure; with the "poetic" use of landscape, and the hovering influence of Romantic poetry; with the pervasive presence of Anne Elliot's consciousness; with new effects in style and syntax; with the "modernity" of Anne Elliot, an isolated personality in a rapidly changing society.

In her 1980 book on Austen, Susan Morgan challenges Litz on calling Persuasion a novel showing Austen's assimilation of the new romantic poetry. Morgan notes Litz's comment on "the deeply physical impact of Persuasion"; he remarks that "Mansfield Park is about the loss and return of principles, Emma about the loss and return of reason, Persuasion about the loss and return of 'bloom'." According to Morgan, Litz "acknowledges the crudeness of these formulations, and we recognize that he is attempting to discuss a quality of the novel that is hard to describe. But such summaries, even tentatively offered, only distort. The few brief nature scenes in Persuasion (and they are brief, out of all proportion to the commentary on them), the walk to Winthrop and the environs of Pinny and Lyme, are certainly described with sensibility and appreciation. And in Anne's mind they are just as certainly bound up with 'the sweets of poetical despondence'."[9]

Persuasion is the first of Austen's novels to feature as the central character a woman who, by the standards of the time, is past the first bloom of youth. British literary critic Robert P Irvine writes that Persuasion "is in many ways a radical departure" from Austen's earlier novels.[10] Austen biographer Claire Tomalin characterizes the book as Austen's "present to herself, to Miss Sharp, to Cassandra, to Martha Lloyd...to all women who had lost their chance in life and would never enjoy a second spring."[11]

A recurring debate in 18th-century Britain concerned the power of books over women: were women more susceptible to the power of reading than men, and if so, was reading a benign or malign influence on them?[12] Austen first addressed this question in Northanger Abbey, in which reading Gothic books has comic effects for Catherine Morland, and also gives her a more acute sense of reality and people.[12] The American scholar Adela Pinch writes that Austen returns to this theme in Persuasion but in a more mature and probing manner, as Persuasion is concerned with "what it feels like to be a reader. It does so by connecting this feeling to what the presence of other people feel like. It explores, that is, the influence reading can have on one's mind by comparing it to the influence of one person's mind over another's."[12]

Pinch writes that Persuasion has been called the most lyrical of Austen's novels; "Its emphasis on memory and subjectivity has been called Wordsworthian, its emotional tone has been likened to Shelley and Keats, and its epistemological strategies compared to Coleridge's conversation poems. Its modernity has been hinted through allusions to the lyric fiction of Virginia Woolf."[13]

Pinch also writes that Austen is more concerned with spatial matters as various families, especially the Musgroves, are portrayed in terms of the amount of space they take up and noise they generate.[14] For example, Captain Wentworth and Elliot are prevented from embracing by grossly obese Mrs Musgrove, and Sir Walter comments after seeing some Royal Navy sailors that they are "fit not to be seen"; Austen notes how people look and the brain registers visual information.[15] Pinch describes Persuasion as a novel of "repetitions, of things happening within a strong context of memory."[16] Anne is often lost in her own world of thought, and throughout the book the phrase "Anne found herself" recurs.[17] During her walk at Winthrop on a November day, Anne ruminates on various aspects of her life and the books she has read, and Austen seems to suggest that reading is insufficient consolation for a woman's pain, but also unavoidable if one wishes for her comfort.[18]

The literary scholar Stuart Tave, in his essay on Anne Elliot, notes the melancholy qualities of her reality after she turns down Captain Wentworth's original proposal of marriage. For Tave, Austen portrays Anne as a character with many admirable traits, usually exceeding the characters who surround her in these traits. Tave singles out Austen's portrayal of Anne at the end of the novel in her conversation with Captain Harville, when they discuss the relative virtues of gender and their advantages compared to one another; Tave sees Anne as displaying remarkable intelligence. Tave quotes from Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex." Tave applies Woolf's insight to Persuasion, writing: "All histories are against you, Captain Harville says to Anne in their disagreement about man's nature and woman's nature, 'all stories, prose and verse.' He could bring fifty quotations in a moment to his side of the argument, from books, songs, proverbs. But they were all written by men. 'Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story,' as Anne says. Persuasion is the story told by a woman."[19]

In her book on Austen, the critic Julia Prewitt Brown finds significance in comparing Persuasion to Emma with regard to Austen's ability to vary her narrative technique. Brown writes:

The coolness to the reader (conveyed by Austen's narrative) contrasts with an intensity of feeling for the characters in the story, particularly for the heroine. The reason for this contradiction is that Anne Elliot is the central intelligence of the novel. Sir Walter is seen as Anne sees him, with resigned contempt. For the first time Jane Austen gives over the narrator's authority to a character almost completely, In Emma, many events and situations are seen from Emma's point of view, but the central intelligence lies somewhere between the narrator and the reader, who together see that Emma sees wrongly. In Persuasion, Anne Elliot's feelings and evaluations correspond to those of the narrator in almost every situation, although there are several significant lapses...It seems that this transfer of authority placed a strain on Jane Austen's accustomed narrative tendencies and that she could not maintain it completely.[20]

Robert Irvine writes that, unlike other Austen heroes, who are either part of the gentry, the aristocracy or the Church of England, Wentworth is a self-made man who has become rich via prize money allowed to those who served in the Royal Navy.[21] Sir Walter disparages naval officers like Wentworth and Croft because they "spoil" their complexions outside on the sea and have risen "too quickly" in social status. But Sir Walter is portrayed as financially incompetent, having squandered his inherited wealth, whereas Wentworth uses his prize money wisely.[22] Sir Walter's dismissal of the navy men who played such a prominent role in defeating Napoleon is considered unpatriotic and ungrateful.[22] According to the scholar Gary Kelly, Sir Walter is a stand-in for the notoriously spendthrift and snobbish Prince Regent George—of whom Austen deeply disapproved—who was infamous for his womanizing, gambling, drinking, and inability to pay his colossal debts.[22] At the time, there was a widespread belief that Britain defeated France despite the Prince Regent rather than because of him, and Kelly states that a character like Sir Walter—who did nothing to defeat Napoleon—attacking someone like Wentworth was Austen's way of expressing her frustration at the Prince Regent taking credit for defeating Napoleon.[22]

Anne and Wentworth, once married, do not become part of the land-owning gentry; Austen writes that the two were destined for "settled life."[21] According to Irvine, the sailors in Persuasion are the "most subversive characters" in all of Austen's books, as they possess "national importance" only by the virtue of their role in defeating Napoleon and do not own land or ask for social recognition from the gentry.[21] The Royal Navy in Persuasion is a meritocracy where one rises up via one's talents, not via birth and land, which makes Persuasion the most radical of all of Austen's novels, according to Irvine.[21]

Irvine notes that the gentry characters in Persuasion are an "unimpressive lot." Sir Walter is portrayed as a vain, pompous, and incapable of providing love for his children, while the Musgroves lack class and elegance.[23] John Wiltshire writes that Sir Walter obsessively reads books relating only to the baronetage, and the Musgroves are relentlessly philistine in their tastes.[24] Admiral and Mrs Croft do not plan to buy an estate, being content to rent Kellynch Hall, and are described as taking better care of the estate than Sir Walter, whose family has owned Kellynch Hall for three generations.[25] Wiltshire considers that the Musgroves' and Sir Walter's narrowness of vision and taste highlight the heightened state of Anne's consciousnesses.[24]

Charles Musgrove, though friendly and respectable, is portrayed as unsuitable for Anne as his only interests are guns, hunting, dogs and horses.[26] Irvine notes that in British fiction at the time, it was a normal plot device for women—who were portrayed as more sensitive and poetical than men—to improve someone like Charles by showing him that there is more to life than hunting, but Anne rejects this role, and the narrator suggests that she was right to do so.[27] The marriage of Anne's parents is presented as such a match, with Anne's mother attempting to "improve" Sir Walter, and her life becoming thoroughly miserable as a result.[28] But the possibility of such a marriage seems to exist for Captain Benwick and Louisa Musgrove, as the narrator notes, "he would gain cheerfulness and she would learn to be an enthusiast for Scott and Lord Byron."[28] According to Irvine, Benwick and Anne are similar characters, who have a profound sense of loss. Anne's heart still belongs to Wentworth, but Benwick is described as "younger in feelings, if not in fact; younger as a man. He will rally again, and be happy with another".[28]

Irvine writes of the differences between the Elliot sisters and Austen's other sibling relationships. In contrast to the Dashwood sisters (Sense and Sensibility) and the Bennet sisters (Pride and Prejudice), Anne is not close to her sisters.[29]

Lady Russell persuades Anne to reject Wentworth's first offer of marriage.[29] Lady Russell never expresses any guilt about breaking up Anne's relationship with Wentworth: "her heart revelled in angry pleasure, in pleased contempt." But Lady Russell does reflect that Wentworth, who had once seemed to appreciate Anne's superior qualities, now appeared to be attracted to Louisa Musgrove, who, although pleasant, is vastly inferior to Anne in character.[24]

John Wiltshire notes that Wentworth is a man of action as opposed to words, which makes Anne the novel's only self-reflective character.[24] Anne becomes steadily more assertive, telling Mr Elliot at one point, "My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company."[30]

Irvine writes that, unlike in Austen's other novels, a "non-event" at the beginning of Persuasion—Anne does not marry Wentworth—shapes the rest of the plot, as the hero and heroine defeat the consequences of their shared history.[10] Irvine also says that Persuasion's plot depends upon the main characters remaining the same, and the need for the characters to remain true to themselves, to cherish the memory of the ones they love, is emphasized by the signs of social decay around Anne; the gentry characters neglect their estates and treat the values they are supposed to uphold. Anne's love for Wentworth is the only fixed point in an otherwise fluid world.[31]

For Irvine, Persuasion's key moments come when a third party overhears somebody's else conversation, whereas conversation is a means for members of the elite to confirm their membership of a common group in Austen's other novels.[32] Louisa Musgrove discusses Admiral Croft's carriage driving with Wentworth, which leads her to say, "If I loved a man, as she loves the Admiral, I would be always with him, nothing should ever separate us, and I would rather be overturned by him, than driven safely by anybody else."[32] According to Irvine, overhearing this conversation brings back Anne's memories of her love for Wentworth and brings her sorrow as she fears that he is falling in love with Louisa.[33] Another overheard conversation occurs during the novel's climax, when Anne debates with Captain Harville the respective capacity for faithfulness of men and women, which Wentworth overhears.[34] Not realising that Wentworth is listening, Anne says, "All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it) is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone."[35] The narrator notes that, after saying this, "She [Anne] could not immediately have uttered another sentence; her heart was too full, her breath too much oppressed."[35] As Wentworth fears a second rejection by Anne, John Wiltshire, known for his work on psychoanalysis and literature,[36] feels that much of the novel is concerned with incidents that bring the two together and relies upon relating Anne's psychological state as she comes close to the man who once proposed marriage to her, making it more of a psychological study.[37]

In the introduction to the Penguin Classics edition, Persuasion is called a great Cinderella story. It features a heroine who is generally unappreciated and to some degree exploited by those around her; a handsome prince who appears on the scene but seems more interested in the "more obvious" charms of others; a moment of realisation; and a happy ending. It has been said that it is not that Anne is unloved, but rather that those around her no longer see her clearly: she is such a fixed part of their lives that her likes and dislikes, wishes and dreams, are no longer considered, even by those who claim to value her, like Lady Russell.


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