Posted: March 5th, 2022

Persuasion

Assignment help – Discussion Prompt
Persuasion, Vol. 1, Chapter X through Vol. 2, Chapter V (pgs. 76-152)

Although Persuasion is not as long as some of Austen’s other books, its cast is surprisingly large, and it is easy for a modern reader to get lost among the characters and their relationships. It may help to have a family tree for Persuasion to consult, so I am providing a link below to one from Wikimedia commons. But be forewarned! The family tree contains spoilers, and if you’re enjoying the suspense around the question of who, if anyone, Anne Elliot (to say nothing of some of the other characters) will end up marrying, the tree will ruin the surprises Austen has in store. Maybe better to assemble your own tree, however uncertain or incomplete.

One of the characteristic aspects of Austen’s novels is this very quality of suspense—her ability to sustain possibility as her protagonists and their surrounding circle of friends flirt with potential pairings, one with another. Will Anne and Captain Wentworth find their way back to each other? Or, will Anne end up with Captain Benwick? Or, will it be the mysterious Elliot cousin that she encounters in the inn at Lyme? Importantly, each man represents a different possible future for Anne (just as, more generally, each prospective man represents a different future for any woman in Austen’s worlds). The character of the husband will have everything to do with the wife’s long-term prospects, both material and emotional. Conversely, the women chosen by the men imply something about the men’s characters. And so, Captain Wentworth’s apparent interest in Louisa Musgrove, whose high spirits and comparative lack of maturity are what bring about her accident at Lyme, seems to say something about Captain Wentworth. Lady Russell takes Wentworth’s interest in Louisa as proof that she had guided Anne rightly when she persuaded her not to marry him:

Lady Russell had only to listen composedly, and wish them [Wentworth and Louisa] happy; but internally her heart revelled in angry pleasure, in pleased contempt, that the man who at twenty-three had seemed to understand somewhat of the value of an Anne Elliot, should, eight years afterwards, be charmed by a Louisa Musgrove. (116)

Lady Russell feels vindicated. Captain Wentworth, so Lady Russell seems to conclude on the basis of his interest in Louisa, was not what he promised to be when he took an interest in Anne. If Lady Russell is culpable for having steered Anne away from her happiness, she was also only performing what might be called “due diligence”: the stakes are high, and a wrong match can entail a lifetime of unhappiness.

But the choice, circumscribed as it may be, as well as the novel, was and is ultimately Anne’s, even if she was subject to the persuasion of Lady Russell eight years before. So, on another level, Anne’s own developing maturity and self-reliance provide the through-line of the story. The mark of that development is in the difference between her judgment of William Elliot and Lady Russell’s: “It was now some years since Anne had begun to learn that she and her excellent friend could sometimes think differently; and it did not surprise her, therefore, that Lady Russell should see nothing suspicious or inconsistent, nothing to require more motives than appeared, in Mr. Elliot’s great desire of a reconciliation” (138). Where Lady Russell sees Mr. Elliot as naturally wanting to reconcile and reconnect with the head of the Elliot family (i.e.: Sir Walter, Anne’s father), Anne sees Mr. Elliot as having designs on her sister, Elizabeth (138).

Lady Russell even offers Anne the image of herself (Anne) as Mrs. Elliot and (consequently) mistress of Kellynch Hall (remember that this mysterious cousin, Mr. Elliot, is going to inherit Kellynch Hall). Anne is nearly tempted by the image, but the temptation evaporates as she reviews her impressions of Mr. Elliot:

Mr. Elliot was rational, discreet, polished,—but he was not open. There was never any burst of feeling, any warmth of indignation or delight, at the evil or good of others. This, to Anne, was a decided imperfection. Her early impressions were incurable. She prized the frank, the open-hearted, the eager character beyond all others. Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still. She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped. (151)

By contrast, Lady Russell has no doubts about Mr. Elliot:

Lady Russell saw either less or more than her young friend [Anne], for she saw nothing to excite distrust. She could not imagine a man more exactly what he ought to be than Mr. Elliot; nor did she ever enjoy a sweeter feeling than the hope of seeing him receive the hand of her beloved Anne in Kellynch church, in the course of the following autumn. (151-152)

Again, while, on one level, the drama of the novel is in the sorting out of the marriages, Anne’s marriage first and foremost among them, on another, it is the story of Anne outgrowing the persuasive influence of an older and well-meaning, but somewhat domineering friend. The drama of the novel is also about Anne’s increasing ability to trust and act on her own perceptions and judgments. How, after all, can one adult, however well-meaning, ever really know what is best for another adult?

For this week’s discussion, take up this matter of Anne’s perceptions and judgments. Find and discuss a passage of your choice (other than those I have written about here) in which we can see Anne taking stock of one or more of the characters around her. What is her estimation of that character and why? On the basis of this, see if you can also say something about what Anne seems to value in other people generally and what she finds unattractive or suspicious. How does Austen make these values known in the passage or passages you discuss?

Finally, here is that link to the family tree:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Persuasion_by_Jane_Austen_family_tree_by_shakko.jpg

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