Austen’s

Persuasion
1817
An Introduction of the novel
 Austen’s Biography ( 1775-1817)
• Austen was born in 1775 at Steventon, in Hampshire, England, in a period of growing
industrialization, as well as colonial unrest in her country’s history.
• As a parson’s daughter she saw many aspects of life, including poverty and death. Through her
father’s work and her travels with her family, she had a wider variety of experiences in life than
her depiction of herself as an isolated spinster would imply.
• Educated by her father, she began to write as a child and continued this practice throughout her
life.
• Jane had a rich inner life nourished by the many books she read, the plays she attended, and the
people she knew.
• Because life for women was so centred around home and family and community, social activities
held a prominent place in her life.
• Jane was very observant and her keen eye and ear allowed her to capture the intricacies of
human interactions as well as the manners that surrounded those relationships on paper.
• Her work prized the inner lives of women, featuring complicated characters who were flawed
yet likable and whose internal conflicts were as important as their romantic entanglements.
• In 1802 it is thought that Jane experienced a deep love affair, but that the young man died a few
weeks later. Within the year she refused a proposal from a family friend and never married. Jane
gave most of her energy to her large, extended family and to her writing.
 Jane Austen as a novelist
• Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most widely read English novelists. Her novels have been translated into
more than 30 languages.
• She was a great writer, a sharp wit and a wonderful satirist.
• Following the publication of Sense and Sensibility (1811), her popularity grew steadily. Within a five year span,
her six major works had been published and received with moderate enthusiasm.
• Her novels include: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, and
Northanger Abbey
• Persuasion (1817) is Jane Austen’s last completed work. It was finished the year before she died, when her health
was declining.
• Many consider it to be the most moving of her novels and attribute this to its more serious tone and the
emotional evolution of its heroine, Anne Elliot.
• Both of these traits reflect Jane Austen’s greater maturity as a writer and a person. When it was published
posthumously, its title was changed by Jane’s brother, Henry Austen, from The Elliots to Persuasion, which seems
appropriate as different perspectives on the theme of persuasion are presented repeatedly throughout the book.
• In The Eye of the Story, Eudora Welty wrote that Austen’s novels withstand time because “they pertain not to the
outside world but to the interior, to what goes on perpetually in the mind and heart.” Perhaps, for these reasons,
Austen’s work continues to fascinate, entertain and inspire us.
Biography of Jane Austen

Jane Austen is best known for her sharp observations of a small social
circle: country gentry, with a few lower-tier military families in the mix.
Her work prized the inner lives of women, featuring complicated
characters who were flawed yet likable and whose internal conflicts
were as important as their romantic entanglements.
Austen shied away from over-sentimentality, preferring instead to mix
heartfelt emotions with a helping of pointed wit.
 Historical Context
• The Regency era spans the reign of the Prince of Wales from 1811 to 1820. It occurred at
the latter end of the Georgian period when King George III was declared unfit to rule for
reasons of insanity and his son, George IV was appointed as Regent to govern the country.
• The Prince Regent was notable for his lack of restraint in most areas of life. He was a
philanderer who over-ate, over-drank and over-spent. As such he lost the respect of many
of his subjects, including Jane Austen herself.
• In fact, she mocks over-indulgence and vanity of all kinds, while restraint is depicted as a
mark of character strength.
• Nevertheless, his extravagance characterised the period and his patronage of the arts
resulted in marked expansion in the areas of:
• Architecture (typified by the elegant designs of architect John Nash)
• Literature (typified by work of Romantic writers Byron, Shelley and Keats)
• Music (typified by the works of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt).
• The character of Sir Walter in Persuasion could be interpreted as a parody of the Prince
Regent.
 Historical background

• The Austens were members of the landed gentry, part of the hereditary ruling class of
England along with the aristocracy.
• Although many of the landed gentry simply lived from the profits of their estates,
younger brothers did not inherit and often had to turn to careers in the army or navy or
to respectable occupations in banking, law, or government.
• Identity was not based on occupation, but on class.
• Although Jane Austen recognized some of the flaws of her society, many aspects of it go
unquestioned. The right to be part of the gentry and to have privileges simply by virtue
of birth is never raised as an issue.
• Also unquestioned is the belief that Englishmen and English institutions were superior
to any others in the world.
• War is also taken for granted as one way to make a fortune—no questions are ever
raised about whether or not this is ethical.
• People’s place in society was also viewed differently. Humans were not seen as
individuals, but rather as social beings judged by their conduct toward each other.
Individual desires and accomplishments were not of major importance.
• Manners were looked upon as another aspect of morals, and politeness
was elevated to a virtue.
• Social interaction was the expression of 18th-century society much as
individualism is the expression of 20th-century society.
• Being civilized and having good sense were vitally important attributes.
The emphasis on being part of society carried over into views of family
life.
• Family duties were especially emphasized because the family was seen
as the natural unit around which society was built and maintained.
• The common view was that women were in charge of private life, while
men were in charge of public life. Because women were not in public
life, they could not own property or inherit from their fathers—they
had no legal rights. Thus the only route to financial stability open to
women was through marriage.
 Social Context :Marriage

• At the beginning of the nineteenth century, English social structure afforded few rights and no
independence to women. They did not have the vote, had no career options and any property
they inherited became the possession of their husband on marriage.
• Marrying well was generally a woman's sole hope of financial and legal security:
• A single woman legally belonged to her father and was financially dependent on him
• When married, a woman's dependence transferred to her husband
• A married woman needed her husband's consent to do anything officially, such as purchasing
property or writing a will
• If a woman was wealthy, her husband had to be selected (usually by her father) with caution as
her money would become his after the marriage. (The Married Women's Property Act 1882)
• Jane Austen lived during (and was well aware of) the burgeoning Women's Rights movement.
Through the clever use of plot and character, Jane Austen's novels subtly expose the plight of
women with their limited rights and lack of autonomy.
• In Emma and Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen shows the vulnerable position that financially
dependent women of her time were in. Mrs. and Miss Bates and Miss Smith descend into relative
poverty due to the deaths of the men who support them.
 Social Context: Education
• Despite the relatively egalitarian sentiments expressed in John Locke's influential Some
Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), the education of women was undervalued. Girls
were usually taught at home by their mother as generally it was only boys who went to
school.
• There was an emphasis on girls' accomplishments in music, language and the arts, with the
goal of making young women more marriageable. Also, the wide reading of conduct books
such as:
• John Gregory's A Father's Legacy to his Daughters (1774)
• Thomas Gisborne's An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex (1797)
• Jane West's, Letters to a Young Lady (1806)
• was encouraged, to make young women aware of their duties, obligations and conduct.
• Jane Austen clearly challenges the views of these conduct book writers with the creation of
her energetic, active, intelligent heroines.
• She undermines their injunctions to girls to be physically inactive, emotionally passive and
to display their physical charms rather than their intelligence.
War in Austen's novels

• Throughout Jane Austen's life there was war and unrest throughout the Western world, as European
powers manoeuvred for control. In fact, her life was book-ended by war:
• She was born the year of the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775)
• She died two years after the allies defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (1815).
• As a well-read and educated woman, Jane Austen was well aware of wars going on in the world at
large, as well as being personally affected by them:
• Her sailor brothers Frank and Charles fought in the naval campaigns against France
• Her brother Henry was a member of the Oxford militia which protected England against the threat of
French invasion
• Her cousin Eliza married a French count who was guillotined during the French Revolution.
• Nevertheless, Jane Austen has been criticised for not depicting the impact of war on Regency society
in her novels. In fact, she does depict it as it would have affected the lives of those she was committed
to representing in her novels. Soldiers and sailors move in and out of the pages of her novels:
• The presence of the militia in Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Persuasion is crucial to plot
development, and provides a vehicle for Jane Austen to comment on its effect on societal mobility
• In Sense and Sensibility, Colonel Brandon's travels during his military career have widened his
knowledge of the world
• In Emma, Jane Fairfax's father is killed serving in the military
• In Northanger Abbey, General Tilney and his son Frederick are military men.
 The impact of the Napoleonic wars
• The Napoleonic Wars grew out of the French Revolution (1789-1802) and were a series of conflicts fought
by various European allies against Napoleon's French Empire.
• They began in 1803 and ended with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Britain was involved in the
conflict throughout the Napoleonic Wars, but was specifically at war with France from 1803-1814. This
long period of war sent ripples of dissatisfaction and unrest throughout British society:
• The British middle and lower classes had been inspired by the American War of Independence (1775-1783)
to demand freedom from the restrictions that the class structure imposed.
• Some were boosted further by the egalitarian sentiments at the root of the French Revolution - Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity - and agitated for political reform
• Others were disenchanted with the awful bloodshed of the Terror and their enthusiasm for reform was
dampened whilst nationalism increased.
• There were opposing views on the French Revolution and the ripples it was sending out across Europe.
These were reflected in political treatises written toward the end of the eighteenth century:
• Edmund Burke wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) in opposition to the French
Revolution. He defends the model of a ruling class of nobles
• Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men in response to Edmund Burke, supporting
the French Revolution and arguing against aristocracy, monarchy, and the established church
• Thomas Paine wrote The Rights of Man (1792), supporting popular revolt as a way of putting pressure on
the government to safeguard the rights and interests of its people.
 Introduction of the novel
• Persuasion is the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen. It was published at the end of 1817, six
months after her death.
• The story concerns Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman of 27 years, whose family moves to Bath to
(retrench) reduce their expenses and get out of debt. They rent their home to an Admiral and his wife.
• The story of Persuasion showcases patience for the waiting and hurting heart.
• Persuasion tells the story of a second chance, the reawakening of love between Anne Elliot and Captain
Frederick Wentworth, whom seven years earlier she had been persuaded not to marry.
• As a young woman, Anne Elliot was persuaded by her godmother Lady Russell that marriage to Captain
Wentworth, a naval officer with uncertain prospects, would be imprudent and inappropriate.
• Now Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic Wars with prize money and the social acceptability of
naval rank.
• He is an eligible suitor acceptable to Anne’s snobbish father and his circle, and Anne discovers the
continuing strength of her love for him.
• As usual, Austen handles social critique deftly; but the book’s tone is also sober and thoughtful, the
fruit of mature reflection.
• The author engages the readers with a dilemma: should one marry for love or for financial security and
status?
Introduction of the novel
• Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen’s most adult heroine. Eight years before the
story begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she
precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that
such a match is unworthy.
• The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth
returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne’s family on the brink of
financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate.
• All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be
reunited in their love?
• On the most basic level Persuasion is a love story, both interesting and entertaining, rich
in intrigue and romance. On a deeper level it examines human foibles and societal flaws.
The question of the importance of propriety is raised frequently, as is the issue of
appearance versus reality.
• Readers of Persuasion will discover Austen’s talents on full display: her skill for delicate,
ironic observations on social custom, love, and marriage nor her ability to apply a sharp
focus lens to English manners and morals.
 Characters :The Elliots

• Jane Austen's portrait of the Elliots, the Musgroves and the Naval officers gives support and direction
to her development of the theme of social mobility.
• The degree of appeal that each group has to us and to Anne, signifies Jane Austen's views on the
movement of society toward placing a person's worth on their abilities and actions over their ancestry.
• The Elliots are members of the country gentry, and Sir Walter's title pushes them to the top of this
group. With the exception of Anne, all the Elliots (Elizabeth, Mary, Sir Walter and William) are primarily
interested in wealth, social position, and property.
• These characters do not grow and change through the course of the novel, but remain static. In
Persuasion they represent the worst habits that arise from the traditional structure of a society based
on hierarchy, heredity and patronage:
• They are not responsible with their wealth. They live beyond their means and are in debt (Ch.1)
• They are not responsible landowners. It is Anne we see paying the farewell visits while Elizabeth and
Sir Walter are on their way to Bath without a backward glance (Ch. 5)
• Their concern for appearance over substance results in manners that are only skin-deep and a
shallowness of character
• They are prejudiced against any self-made man and closed to societal change.
The Musgroves

• The Musgroves are a likeable, warm and down-to-earth family in

the lower echelons of the gentry. They are rather parochial, but
harmless nevertheless.
• They represent the transitional nature of society in Jane Austen's
time
• Mr. and Mrs. Musgrove are described as being in the ‘old English
style', while Henrietta and Louisa are ‘in the new' (Ch.5)
• They are not opposed to the social mobility offered to those
willing to work hard, and enjoy the society of Captain Wentworth
and the other naval officers
• The manageable chaos that they live in is akin to the confusion
that occurs as a society undergoes the upheaval of change.
 The naval group

• The group of navy officers and their wives is hard-working, active and adventurous. They
represent the deliverance of English society both from the threat of invasion, and from
the suffocation of the class system.
• The Crofts and Captain Wentworth demonstrate that an improvement in social and
material status is possible through their own efforts as opposed to through birth.
• The Crofts, although not gentry, are able to afford to live at Kellynch because of Admiral
Croft's skill as a sailor and Mrs. Croft's good financial sense.
• In Anne's opinion, ‘Kellynch-hall had passed into better hands than its owners'.' (Ch. 13 )
• The openhearted generosity and hospitality of the Harvilles is a breath of fresh air to
Anne in contrast to the coldness of her family and the ‘formality and display' of their
hospitality (Ch. 11)
• The service and self-sacrifice which the Harvilles extend to Louisa after her fall is
reminiscent of the navy's service and self-sacrifice to their country
• Anne chooses Captain Wentworth (a self-made man) and rejects William Elliot (along
with his old money and ancestry).
Characters
 Setting
• Persuasion is set in the Somerset countryside, Lyme and Bath in the summer of 1814. As
usual, the focus is on the upper-middle-class.
• Location representing change - The heroine of Persuasion moves from place to place
more than any of Jane Austen's other female protagonists:
• Anne's movement echoes the increasing mobility of society: professional people could
hope to improve their status by adapting to new locations.
• Anne's physical movement reflects her inner journey as she gains the confidence to
express and follow her instincts. Each location has a particular effect on Anne.
• Four different locations as the setting of the novel
• Kellynch Hall (Chapters 1-5)
• Uppercross (Chapters 6-10, and 14)
• Uppercross Cottage (Chapters 6-10)
• Lyme (Chapter 11and12)
• Bath (Chapters 15-24)
 Themes
• Persuasion
• Love & Marriage
• Gender roles :The changing role of women
• Social mobility
• Wealth
• Parenting
• Morality and manners
• Appearance vs. reality
• There are some dualities in Persuasion. Consider how Jane Austen presents the following dualities :
• Extravagance and restraint
• Credit and debt
• Past and future
• Change and stagnation
• Vanity and virtue.
Synopsis of the novel
• Chapter [1] ~ The history of the Elliots and their financial status
• Chapter I [2] ~ Mr. Shepherd suggests that Sir Walter should move to Bath
• Chapter [3] ~ A tenant is found for Kellynch Hall
• Chapter [4] ~ Anne remembers the summer of the 1806.
• Chapter [5] ~ The Elliots depart for Bath, and Anne goes to Uppercross
• Chapter [6] ~ The Crofts take possession of Kellynch Hall; Meet the Musgroves; the tale of Poor Dick
• Chapter [7] ~ Captain Wentworth arrives at Kellynch; young Charles Musgrove has a fall; Captain
Wentworth visits the Cottage
• Chapter [8] ~ Captain Wentworth goes to a dinner party at the Great House
• Chapter [9] ~ Charles Hayter is jealous; Captain Wentworth helps Anne with the Musgrove children
• Chapter [10] ~ The Long Walk to Winthrop
• Chapter [11] ~ The trip to Lyme Regis; Anne comforts Captain Benwick
• Chapter [12] ~ Mr. Elliot is seen in Lyme; Louisa has an accident
Synopsis of the novel
• Chapter [13] ~ Waiting at Uppercross and Kellynch Lodge for word of Louisa; Admiral Croft discusses his
improvements at Kellynch
• Chapter [14] ~ Charles and Mary return to Uppercross; the Musgroves return for Christmas; Anne and Lady
Russell remove to Bath
• Chapter [15] ~ Sir Walter and Elizabeth are very happy in Bath and have many acquaintances; Anne meets Mr.
Elliot once again
• Chapter [16] ~ Our Cousins, The Dalrymples; a discussion of good company vs. the best
• Chapter [17] ~ Anne calls on Mrs. Smith, to Sir Walter's disgust; Lady Russell reveals her dearest wish to Anne
• Chapter [18] ~ A letter from Mary; Anne meets Admiral Croft
• Chapter [19] ~ Anne sees Captain Wentworth; later, they meet
• Chapter [20] ~ The concert
• Chapter [21] ~ Anne and Mrs. Smith discuss Mr. Elliot
• Chapter [22] ~ Charles and Mary come to Bath; Miss Elliot plans a party; Anne sees Mr. Elliot speaking to Mrs.
Clay
• Chapter [23] ~ Anne has a conversation with Captain Harville at the White Hart; The Letter
• Chapter [24] ~ Who can be in doubt of what followed? The novel ended on a happy note.
Text of the
novel:
persuasion

• A 1995 movie on Persuasion

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7j7Ey-cM0
• https://www.janeausten.org/persuasion/persuasion-online.asp