Following the recent post on Revision guides to Persuasion, here are some entry-level notes on Anne and Wentworth (looking only at Volume One in the case of the latter).
Anne
Elliot
1.
Anne Elliot is clearly the heroine of the novel.
Persuasion is the story of a struggle in which she is the protagonist. How does she come to break
with conservative family and social tradition by marrying a naval officer,
without causing a complete rupture with the family circle?
2.
As a heroine, Anne is
·
The moral centre of the novel: she is the
touchstone by which we judge other characters
·
The most fully realized character, whose dilemmas
and feelings we are shown
·
The dominant (but not the only) point of view in the novel.
3.
The novel is a classic self v. society story, with Anne on one side and her immediate
social world on the other.
Anne Society
Romance Prudence
Feeling Judgement
Individual
worth Snobbery
Life
and vitality Materialism
Personal
emotion Social pressure
(persuasion)
These polarities are illustrated
in Vol 1,ch.4 where we are told about her former attachment to Wentworth and
how Lady Russell persuaded her to break off the engagement. There is a basic
difference in how the two evaluate Wentworth as a prospective husband.
Sometimes Anne’s romantic side is
the object of gentle authorial humour, as in her conversation with Mrs Smith in
Vol.2, ch.5, where the more experienced lady undercuts her heightened language.
4.
Anne is introspective – we see a great deal of her
thinking – and thus we witness her internal
conflicts: a key scene in developing her character is Vol 1, ch.7,
describing the meeting with Wentworth. What is the authorial perspective here?
5.
Anne develops
from a largely silent and introspective character into a more talkative and
articulate one. In Bath
6.
Age: Anne is an unusually old Jane Austen heroine. She
represents constancy over the years.
She is a character who has ‘outlived the storms’ – like the nut described by
Captain Wentworth.
7.
Despite being a romantic figure, Anne is also rational and practical: she knows what
is the proper thing to do at Kellynch (though her advice is ignored) and she is
cool-headed and stable in response
to the two accidents – Charles Musgrove’s and Louisa Musgrove’s, in contrast to
the hysterical reactions of the other ladies. Her own dignity is contrasted to
the pride of her father and sisters.
8.
Anne is also a skilful mediator between people (e.g. at Uppercross) and kind to others.
She is particularly sympathetic to those who have themselves undergone
emotional trauma – Captain Benwick and Mrs Smith.
Further
Reading
Richard Gill and Susan Gregory, Mastering the Novels of Jane Austen
(Palgrave)
Vivien Jones, How to Study a Jane Austen Novel
(Palgrave), useful chapter on Persuasion
Captain Wentworth
Volume One
1. Captain
Frederick Wentworth might properly be said to be the protagonist of the novel,
rather than Anne:
• A
protagonist needs to be able to do things. As a woman, Anne does not have
enough opportunity of action to make important events happen. Her role is
passive: she observes, considers, suffers (usually in silence), thinks. Her
active roles are providing harmony between family members, and above all
speaking – articulate and intelligent women can affect events through the power
of persuasion. When she steps forward to Wentworth at the Assembly rooms
‘making yet a little advance’ (p.146), that is a significant action in context.
• Wentworth,
however, is active in the traditional sense of a novel’s hero. Indeed, we might
consider the novel as his story:
A young,
confident naval officer proposes marriage but is turned down because the woman
is persuaded that his prospects are not sufficiently secure. He thinks the
woman lacks courage, goes off and is successful (though neither he nor she
succeed in forgetting their love). When he meets Anne again, he realizes that
she has qualities which he failed to recognize before and reassesses his own
judgments. He learns from all this, becomes morally better, realizes he still
loves her, proposes and they get married. So the novel is about him and his
moral and emotional education. The treatment of the story, however, shows it
all from the woman’s point of view.
2. As the
male protagonist (in conflict with the traditional views of Lady Russel),
Wentworth must have qualities to make him worthy of the virtuous Anne. These
qualities develop over the course of the novel; the key events are those which
educate him. We shall take these in turn.
3. Before
the action of the novel starts, at the time of the engagement. Wentworth is
introduced in Vol 1 , ch. 4. In 1806 he was ‘a remarkably fine young man, with
a great deal of intelligence, spirit and brilliancy’ (26) – the inner qualities
which Anne prizes. However, as Lady Russel sees it, he has ‘nothing but himself
to recommend him, and no hope of attaining affluence … without alliance or
fortune’ (27). How could he support Anne?
What future could he give her? He is ‘confident that he would seen be rich’ and
‘full of life and ardour’ (27), but this only makes Lady r more suspicious, and
Anne yields to her advice. We might see Wentworth as a ‘new man’, making his
way in a new profession, impatient of traditional expectations, and perhaps
unfair in expecting Anne to join him when the future is so uncertain.
4. Wentworth
takes it badly. He is ‘totally unconvinced and unbending’ and feels he is
‘ill-used by so forced a relinquishment’ (28). He leaves the country. How do we
judge this reaction? Is it fair to Anne?
5. He goes
on to enjoy great success (29), making Anne’s refusal seem over-cautious in
retrospect.
6. Anne
learns, in great agitation, that Wentworth is to visit Uppercross (45). He is
made to seem more attractive in contrast to the pathetic story of Richard
Musgrove.
7. Louisa
and Henrietta give delighted reports of Wentworth (48), a very eligible bachelor.
8. I.7: the
meeting between Anne and Wentworth after 8 years (52-53). We see this entirely from Anne’s
point of view. The language expresses her violent agitation (‘She had seen him.
They had met’). She learns that he has found her altered beyond recognition
(53). At last we leave Anne’s perspective and learn what Wenworth thinks: ‘He
had not forgiven Anne Elliot. She had used him ill; deserted and disappointed
him; and worse, she had shewn a feebleness of character in doing so, which his
own decided, confident temper could not endure’ (54). Notice the return of that
key word confident. Wentworth is a man of strong will and strong opinions. We
learn that he is on the lookout for a wife. He has tried toconvince himself
that his earler feelings for Anne are dead.
The stage is set for a psychological novel about how Anne and Wentworth
come to learn more about themselves and each other.
9. I.8
starts with a description of how they get on after the 8-year gap, from Anne’s
perspective. Pages 59-61 is the scene in which Wentworth declares he would
never take women on board (decided), although he has (inconsistent), and
describes his exploits. He’s very reserved towards Anne: ‘His cold politeness,
his ceremonious grace, were worse than anything’ (62).
10. I.9. Key
scene: Wentworth relieves Anne of the child Walter (compassionate, strong,
resolute), p.68-69, with Anne’s reaction on 69.
11. I.10 – the
visit to Winthrop. Anne overhears Wentworth’s conversation behind the hedge
with Louisa. (73-75). Here we learn what kind of qualities Wentworth admires
(my italics): ‘Woe betide him … when it comes to things of consequence, when
they are placed in circumstances, requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if
she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference in such a trifle as
this.’ Louisa, he says, has a character of ‘decision and firmness’. Wentworth
dislikes ‘too yielding and indecisive a character’. Presumably he found Anne
wanting in resolve to stand up to Lady Russel all those years ago. His speech
on the nut, though, hints that he may yet come to appreciate Anne, whose beauty
of character is hidden under a kernel, and who has ‘outlived all the storms of
autumn’ (74).
12. I.10 p.77.
Wentworth makes sure Anne has a place in the carriage. Her interpretation of
this act: ‘It was a remainder of former sentiment …’.
13. I.12.
Louisa’s accident at Lyme. This is the central episode of the whole novel, for
the light it casts on the various characters. As Wentworth comes to see later,
Louisa’s strength of will can just be irrational stubbornness. In contrast to
her sisters, Anne is quick, practical and helpful. Anne overhears Wentworth
again:’ if Anne will stay, no one so proper, so capable as Anne’ (95). This
change of attitude brings Volume One to an end.
