Persuasion (Criticism)

Criticism

Wendy Perkins

Perkins is an associate professor of English and American literature and film at Prince George's Community College and has published several articles on British and American authors. In this essay, she argues that Austen's novel is a reflection of its revolutionary age.

In an article in British Writers, Brian Southam presents an overview of Jane Austen's work and concludes that her fiction reveals a firm sense of time and place. He argues that Austen's novels "communicate a profound sense" of England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, "when the old Georgian world of the eighteenth century was being carried uneasily and reluctantly into the new world of Regency England, the Augustan world into the romantic." Gary Kelly, in his critique of Austen's works for Dictionary of Literary Biography, notes that British society was influenced by the revolutionary fervor surrounding the American and French battles for independence during this age and finds that zeitgeist was represented "as a progressive dialectic of gentry and professionals."

Austen's novels join this dialectical discussion, for they focus specifically on the changes in the country's social fabric as strict hierarchies of class were being challenged. The sense of this historical moment as a period of transition becomes most evident in her last novel, Persuasion. In her depiction of the members of the Elliot family and their circle, Austen not only chronicles the changes that were occurring in the British class system during this period, but she also appears to support them.

Austen begins the novel with a description of Sir Walter, the patriarch of the Elliot family, and his class obsession, evident in his constant perusal of the Baronetage, where he notes the description of the social standing and history of his family. Sir Walter is a traditional gentleman of the landed gentry, the upper-middle level of the British class system. Through his characterization, Austen records all that she finds pretentious and shallow in the most conservatively rigid members of this group. In her detailed depiction of Sir Walter's manners and fashionable pursuits, Austen lays the ground-work for her critique of the superficialities of the middle class.

In Sir Walter's structured society, the harmony of the group depends on each individual complying with its fixed rules. The appearance of wealth and propriety are sacrosanct in his world, and Sir Walter is a firm devotee of its conventions. As a result, when his extravagant spending habits threaten to bring him to the brink of financial ruin, he cannot come up with a plan to economize. He insists that he can endure no changes to his lifestyle that will compromise his dignity or comfort or that will place him in too close proximity to the lower classes. Fortunately, Lady Russell convinces him to find a less expensive dwelling in Bath, where he can appear to be enjoying a change of scenery and retain his social position.

The shallowness of the upper classes is reflected in the attitudes Sir Walter and his eldest daughter Elizabeth harbor regarding Anne. Unable to place value on her intellectual and moral merit, they find her loss of "bloom" after suffering through her break from Wentworth evidence of her inferiority.

Sir Walter's sense of superiority is epitomized in his overweening vanity, which is "the beginning and the end" of his character, and his arrogant dismissal of anyone from the lower classes who is presumptuous enough to try to gain entry into his circle. This attitude causes his daughter Anne to suffer greatly when it results in his refusal to approve of her marriage to Wentworth, who does not enjoy the benefits of a noble birth nor, initially, of the leisure class.

Austen's critique of this society develops a harder edge in her depiction of William Elliot, their self-serving cousin who reveals himself to be "black and hollow at heart." Austen illustrates the blindness of the middle class to the faults of its own privileged and "dignified" members when the Elliot family quickly allows him back into the family after a troubled past relationship with him. When they permit him to reestablish himself in their good graces, most find his character sterling. Anne, however, with her astute powers of perception that do not depend on social standing, suspects a duplicitous nature, which her friend Mrs. Smith confirms. The narrative soon reveals that he has come to Bath and reintegrated himself with the family only to insure his inheritance.

Austen's illustration of the age's spirit of change is centered in Anne. Her openness reflects the transitional nature of Regency England, when class distinctions began to blur. As the lower-middle classes became more prosperous, successful professionals were eager to share the privileges of the gentry and so began to imitate their manners and fashions. As a result, the traditional distinction between the two groups — a noble bloodline — began to ease. Anne embraces this change when she falls in love with Wentworth, a sailor who, when they first meet, is professionally but not economically successful. She also reveals her democratic spirit when she reestablishes her friendship with Mrs. Smith, an old schoolmate, who has fallen on hard times. Mrs. Smith represents the economic realities of the lower classes, which the gentry successfully ignored.

Anne has suffered from the strict code of manners and tightly defined roles thrust upon her by her social class. Her ties to her family must supersede her own desires, and as a result, they prevent her from marrying the man she loves. She believes, even at the end of the novel when she gains her family's approval for her marriage to Wentworth, that it is her duty to obey their wishes when they initially forbid her union with him. Her sense of duty springs from the moral obligation she feels to her family and to Lady Russell, who has become her surrogate mother. Austen juxtaposes this sense of duty with Anne's struggle for individuality and fulfillment, which she achieves in part, at the end of the novel, due to the changes that were beginning to occur in her world. She is finally able to marry Wentworth, not only because of his change in fortune but also as a result of the relaxed definition of a "gentleman." Wentworth has become socially acceptable through the new respect paid his profession. During the early part of the nineteenth century, England held its navy in high regard as a result of its victories at sea and its protection of trading routes.

Austen supports this transitional spirit through her depiction of other characters. While Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove have the breeding that insures their inclusion into Sir Walter's circle, their unconventional behavior strains the boundaries of their class. The Musgroves' unpretentious nature emerges in their encouragement of their daughters' independent spirits and in their lack of concern for traditionally proper mates for them. Anne notes that they live an unordered life and that, "like their houses," they always seemed to be "in a state of alteration."

At first Anne seems put off by their disorder. However, as she gains experience and maturity, she accepts and promotes the relaxation of social norms. When she discovers and comes to an appreciation of the Musgroves' warm hearts and openness, she embraces their differences and includes them in her circle of friends. She welcomes them with open arms when they arrive in Bath, especially after having to suffer the company of her stuffy and dull cousins, Lady Dalrymple and Miss Carteret. Anne's new openness becomes apparent in her distrust of William Elliot and in her decision that she appreciates spontaneity over formality. She concludes 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."

The Harvilles and the Crofts also help educate Anne about the possibilities of a world free from rigid class structures. Although they have cramped accommodations, the Harvilles warmly welcome Anne and her group to Lyme, and after the accident, they insist on nursing Louisa back to health. Anne also appreciates Mrs. Croft's unconventional behavior in her relationship with her husband. Mrs. Croft has redefined the limiting roles for women in her position, as noted when she responds to Captain Wentworth's assertion that naval vessels are no place for ladies. She corrects him sharply, noting, "But I hate to hear you talking so, like a fine gentleman, and as if we were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures."

Austen promotes the concept of women being "rational creatures" as she emphasizes Anne's "strong, mature mind," qualities that become evident in her behavior throughout the novel. Through Anne, Austen challenges traditional notions that fashionable women should only concern themselves with learning to sing and play the piano and to memorize English verse and passages from novels. Women who could present this shallow display of the arts became perfect social ornaments and wives. As a counter to these limited women, Austen presents Anne as rational and witty, able to think for herself. She has developed an interior life independent of those in her class and strives to make her own choices concerning her relationships and her destiny.

Austen reinforces her social critique and her support of change at the end of the novel. Even though Anne admits that she was right in following her father's and Lady Russell's advice in not marrying Wentworth, citing her sense of duty, Austen underlines the fact that Anne and Wentworth have lost several years of happiness due to the narrow-mindedness and overly cautious opinions of others. After Anne and Wentworth reunite, however, Lady Russell also shows signs that she has become more open to new social standards. She admits that because Wentworth's "manners had not suited her own ideas, she had been too quick in suspecting them to indicate a character of dangerous impetuosity." Now, she concedes that "she had been pretty completely wrong" and determines "to take up a new set of opinions and of hopes." Sir Walter, ever the symbol of the old world, remains at the end of the novel "a foolish, spendthrift baronet, who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himself in the situation in which Providence had placed him." Kelly notes Sir Walter's static nature in contrast to the transformations occurring around him when he comments that at the conclusion, his estate, "dangerously overextended morally, socially, and financially, is not so much reinvigorated as superseded by an estate acquired entirely on merit and able to take into itself the neglected best of the older estate."

Persuasion participates in the revolutionary spirit of its age through Austen's penetrating critique of the sacred ideals of the British class system and her documentation and support of the changes that were emerging at the end of the Age of Reason. Through her characterization of her heroine, Anne Elliot, she presents a wise and sympathetic portrait of one woman's shifting perspective of her relation to society and her understanding of herself.

Source: Wendy Perkins, Critical Essay on Persuasion, in Novels for Students, The Gale Group, 2002.

Compare & Contrast

• Late 1700s:Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft is published in 1792. The book chronicles the growing sense of dissatisfaction women feel about the unequal treatment they receive in the home and in other institutions.
  Today: American women have made major gains in their fight for equality with the passage of many pieces of legislation. Although some notable pieces of legislation, including the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment bill, have not been passed, discrimination against women is now against the law.
• Late 1700s: One of the most popular forms of literature during this period is the sentimental novel — a didactic work that promotes and rewards its characters' "proper" moral behavior.
  Today: The most popular forms of literature for the general reading public are thrillers and memoirs.
• Late 1700s: The American War of Independence is waged from 1775 to 1783. As a result, British domination of America comes to an end.
  Today: Catholics in Northern Ireland, backed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), continue their struggle to break free from English rule.