Jane Austen composed Persuasion, her final completed novel, between 1815 and 1816; it would be published posthumously in 1818. Unwell and forced to return to Bath, a location she had celebrated in her younger years, Austen produced a story with marked autobiographical aspects, as often remarked by 19th-century critics. Their attitudes proved common regarding women’s fiction, as many believed women lacked the intelligence to write about topics outside their own personal environment. This work is celebrated in the 21st century through the display of its original manuscript on Austen’s writing desk in the British Library rare collection room.

Austen’s last novel supplied an unusual focus on social and political conditions, supported by the change in land ownership taking place around her. That alteration in the landscape, noticed by Persuasion’s protagonist Anne Elliot, was one reason that Austen did not enjoy her return to Bath as much as she had her visit decades before. Her novel took the gentry to task for problems caused small farmers by the change in land division, as conglomerates began to consume property.

Long a fan of clergyman and amateur artist William Gilpin, whose ideas she borrowed for her novels, she embraced his idea that country scenes should be viewed as a picture, with appreciation for foreground, background, and framing by natural formations and plant life. She satirized her own culture for sacrificing natural beauty to the artificial tastes that claimed aesthetics of her era and criticized the aristocratic class for judgments based on materialistic, rather than spiritual or ethical, values.

Most important to reviewers of the day, Persuasion was marked by a passion and romance not previously present in Austen’s work. For later critics, the power and skill involved with her rhetoric, resulting in skilled understatement, proved her creative intellect.

The plot focuses on one of three daughters of the foolish and egotistical Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall, 27-year-old Anne Elliot. Raised by a father who delights in reading his own entry in The Baronage with equally vacuous sisters Elizabeth and Mary, Anne was the neglected daughter. Elizabeth’s ego matched that of her father, thus giving them common ground, while Mary’s condescension even toward her own husband, Charles Musgrove, son of a neighboring squire, unites her with her opinionated father and sister. Although more sensible, sensitive, and intelligent than the other members of her family, Anne is excluded from all decisions and adheres to the others’ wishes.

Due to financial embarrassments, Anne’s father must rent his estate to Admiral and Mrs. Croft, allowing Anne to again meet Mrs. Croft’s brother, Captain Frederick Wentworth, a previous suitor. Anne loved and would have married Wentworth, but yielded to her godmother’s wishes and refused his offer eight years earlier. Her godmother, the honorable but biased Lady Russell, felt Wentworth to be beneath Anne’s aristocratic station. Anne still loves Wentworth, now worth a solid £20,000 per year, but must keep her feelings secret.

Anne likes and admires the Crofts, feeling their marriage to be one of the few sound unions she has observed. Anne’s sister Mary enjoys Wentworth’s company as does her husband Charles, and they ensure the presence of Charles’s sisters Louisa and Henrietta whenever possible, in hopes that Charles might be drawn to one. He seems to choose Louisa, made clear by his concern over a head wound she suffers in a fall. Anne loses hope of regaining his affections.

Anne travels to Bath to reunite with Sir Elliot and Elizabeth and meets a cousin, William Elliot. Austen incorporates one of her favorite themes, that of the inheritance through the male line; William is Sir Elliot’s heir, rather than any of his offspring. A heartless schemer, William pretends to romance Anne, who learns of his true character from a widowed invalid and Anne’s friend, Mrs. Smith, enabling Anne to avoid his attentions.

Suddenly the Elliots learn that Louisa will marry Captain Benwick, not Captain Wentworth, who travels to Bath in hopes of reuniting with Anne. Through the coincidence so common to romance, Wentworth overhears Anne speak of a woman’s love. She characterizes it by adopting a wayfaring metaphor as “capable of bearing most rough usage, and riding out the heaviest weather.” He is filled with hope that her love has survived their separation, confesses his feelings for her, and the two at last reunite with plans for marriage.

While Anne previously allowed herself to be persuaded to reject her passions, neither she nor Wentworth, both wiser and more mature, can be dissuaded to abandon their love.

Critics have long held that Austen created Admiral and Mrs. Croft as predictors of Wentworth and Anne’s future positions, with feminist critics paying special attention to the Crofts’ childlessness, as well as to Mrs. Croft’s role in the “guidance” of their movements. She even accompanies her husband aboard ship. However, Austen never indicates that Anne will do the same, choosing instead to emphasize the separate natures of the younger couple’s interests and activities.

Austen’s nephew, J. E. Austen-Leigh, published a now famous biography of his aunt in 1871 in which he supplied canceled chapters from Persuasion that she had removed due to its weak contrivance. Critics felt this helped prove Austen a witty and intelligent writer. The chapters, which Austen pulled from her text, represent the sole manuscript containing all editing marks still existing today, housed in the British Museum.

Analysis of Jane Austen’s Novels

Bibliography

Ross, Josephine. Jane Austen: A Companion. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

Rzepka, Charles. “Making It in a Brave New World: Marriage, Profession, and Anti-romantic Ekstasis in Austen’s Persuasion.” Studies in the Novel 26, no. 2 (Summer 1994). Expanded Academic ASAP. Infotrac. Triton Col. Lib. Available online. URL: http://web3.infotrac.galegroup.com/. Downloaded April 12, 2024.

Wilkes, Joanne. “Song of the Dying Swan?: The Nineteenth Century Response to Persuasion.” Studies in the Novel 28, no. 1 (Spring 1996). Expanded Academic ASAP. Infotrac. Triton Col. Lib. Available online. URL: http://web3.infotrac.galegroup.com/. Downloaded April 13, 2024.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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