Love and knowledge in Persuasion
Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion is about love and the way the passing of time affects it. The heroine of Persuasion, like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Harriet Smith in Emma, has rejected the man who loves her and his offer of marriage. In the earlier novels, however, the consequences of the heroine’s refusal are fairly short-lived. The lovers, with greater wisdom on both sides, are reunited within a few months of the initial proposal and the marriage finally takes place soon afterwards. In Persuasion, the separation resulting from the refusal lasts for almost eight years. How does this longer separation affect love? In this and in Austen’s other novels, love seems almost synonymous with thorough and appreciative knowledge of the lover and his or her character. Elizabeth Bennet can accept Mr. Darcy because she learns that she judged him too harshly and misunderstood his past. Harriet Smith chooses to marry Robert Martin when she is finally free of the influence of Emma Woodhouse and can recognize the goodness she has sensed in him since the beginning of the novel. An even greater knowledge of the lover develops in Persuasion, as the result of the maturation of love. The form that this knowledge takes seems to change over the eight years of separation, to become a deeper awareness not just of the lover as a person deserving of love, but of the lover almost as a part of oneself.
When Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth, who becomes Captain Wentworth, are young and in love, they are very aware of each other’s emotions. There seems to be little coyness or flirtation between the two. The reader is not given the impression of an extensive courtship, told only that
"They were gradually acquainted, and when acquainted, rapidly and deeply in love. It would be difficult to say which had seen highest perfection in the other, or which had been the happiest; she, in receiving his declarations and proposals, or he in having them accepted. A short period of exquisite felicity followed." (26)
The romance between Anne and Wentworth develops “rapidly and deeply.” It is a relationship filled with many contradictions like this; the limited knowledge of two newly acquainted people of one another’s characters should prevent them from feeling much more than a general impression of each other, but despite this, Anne and Wentworth seem very much in love. They fall in love while becoming “gradually acquainted.” The word “acquainted” implies first meeting someone, the formation of a new and presently shallow relationship. Anne and Wentworth, however, do it “gradually,” rapidly coming to know one another rather than just rapidly coming to know of one another. The contradictions present in the description of their love leave it less satisfying than might be ideal for the reader. There can be little doubt that Anne and Wentworth are in love; in fact, they are so much in love in their youth that the loss of the lover and of possible happiness in a marriage haunts them both for the next eight years. It is, however, a less mature love than the reader might expect to see, and one largely based on a superficial knowledge and appreciation of the lover. The two appreciate the qualities of “highest perfection” in one another, for “He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit, and brilliancy; and Anne an extremely pretty girl, with gentleness, modesty, taste, and feeling” (26). These are the qualities, both exterior and interior, that they discover in their period of becoming “gradually acquainted.” In this description, the reader is put in the place of each lover. Although the qualities listed work well for creating a general outline of each character, it is superficial knowledge. What the reader, and what each character, knows of the lover, is no different from what any other reader would know after being told. The love between Anne and Wentworth, although strong and passionate, seems undifferentiated by the individual perceptions of the lover. Indeed, what makes their love unique seems based in what makes it ordinary, or generalized. Their love is not complicated by knowledge deeper than that resulting from being “gradually acquainted.” They have no reason to see anything other than perfection in the one they love. In the happiness of such harmonious, but perhaps bland, love, they go on in “exquisite felicity.”
It is in the dissolution of their engagement that their knowledge of each other fails. The ease with which the dissolution, and the misunderstandings behind it, occurs suggests how superficial the knowledge between the two was to begin with. Anne’s older friend, Lady Russell, manages to convince Anne that “the engagement [was] a wrong thing” (27). Anne, who is young and is attached to Lady Russell as to a mother, believes that her advice could not possibly be ill-intentioned or ignorant, and breaks the engagement. Anne’s decision, however, is avowedly based in what she believes is a good knowledge of Wentworth, his situation, and his values. She believes that she acts in part, or perhaps mostly for, his sake, and thinks that
"Had she not imagined herself consulting his good, even more than her own, she could hardly have given him up.– The belief of being prudent, and self-denying principally for his advantage, was her chief consolation, under the misery of a parting– a final parting." (28)
Despite her belief that she is acting for Wentworth’s good, Anne’s actions certainly do not bring him good, and it is questionable as to whether or not she actually is acting for his good. Because of her belief in the goodness of her actions, her decision to break the engagement is “not a merely selfish caution” (27). The narrator’s mention of the role of “selfish caution” in deciding her actions at all makes it more difficult to believe that it is not an entirely selfish act. Anne, as the reader sees her in most of the action of Persuasion, is a good person, who cares for and usually understands others. This decision in her youth is one that she regrets for the next eight years. In her maturity and greater wisdom, she knows that her choice to break her engagement to Wentworth was an act of youthful indiscretion. Her judgment, when she is older, is generally sound and fair, although for most of the novel, she still does not fully know or understand Wentworth. She does understand her mistake, however. In her being able to recognize it as a mistake, she also recognizes the greater selfishness that might have been the basis for her decision.
Wentworth’s knowledge of Anne also fails when the engagement ends. For both Anne and Wentworth, the failure of knowledge of the other begins at the same point. They are both unable to understand why she acts as she does. Anne cannot acknowledge the selfishness of her actions, and mistakenly attributes what she does to a knowledge of Wentworth’s character. Wentworth fails to understand why Anne would end the engagement, and believes that he must have been deceived in his judgment of her character. When she tells him that the engagement must end, she is forced to confront “opinions, on his side, totally unconvinced and unbending, and of his feeling himself ill-used by so forced a relinquishment” (28). Wentworth is completely right, of course, in knowing that something is wrong in the situation. He has indeed been “ill-used,” in being encouraged by a woman who then decides to break off the engagement, believing that it is to his advantage. He is so indignant and offended about this end to the relationship, however, that he never tries to understand why Anne acts as she does. Perhaps if he had reasoned with her, she would have changed her mind again. The reader is never told exactly what Anne tells Wentworth, but he does know that Lady Russell has played a pretty important part, and he notes that it is “so forced a relinquishment.” Rather than seeing that Anne is genuinely concerned about financial status and uncertain security, he believes only that she has behaved badly in being so easily persuaded and evincing such a weak will. Later, he confesses to her, “I did not understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not understand you, or do you justice” (231). Perhaps the reason that their knowledge fails at the point of Anne’s decision is that it fails to be one between the two of them. She does not understand her own reasons, largely because they are not her own; they are due to the advice of Lady Russell. When Anne listens to Lady Russell and allows her to make her decisions for her, her personality as known to Wentworth becomes adulterated. The simplicity and superficiality of their knowledge is tainted by an outside force, and they can no longer exist in “exquisite felicity.” It is unfortunate, however, that the complexity necessary to make their love interesting should result from an outside and negative force.
After eight years have passed, the two still have a damaged knowledge of one another and the question arises of how they can restore and perhaps enhance that knowledge. The two must communicate their thoughts to one another as they did in their youth, to restore security in one another’s love, and then examine the status of their knowledge. When they meet again, this communication seems unlikely to happen, as they both believe that their lovers have fallen in love with other people. After Louisa Musgrove has had her accident, Anne sees Wentworth “as he sat near a table, learning over it with folded arms, and face concealed, as if overpowered by the various feelings of his soul, and trying by prayer and reflection to calm them” (104). Wentworth was partially responsible for Louisa’s accident, and only seems to be experiencing relief for Louisa’s well-being. Anne, however, reads his physical expression as being a manifestation of the deepest love and pain. What she actually sees before her and what she thinks that means, reality and her interpretation of that reality, are integrated together by the narrator in this sentence. Wentworth tells her later, however, that she was wrong, and “He persisted in having loved none but her” (227). Wentworth, similarly, refrains from declaring his love for Anne because of jealousy. Anne’s knowledge of his character is surprisingly astute here, for she guesses and then discovers that truthfully, “Jealousy of Mr. Elliot had been the retarding weight, the doubt, the torment” (226). When Anne begins to sense the continuing existence of Wentworth’s love, her knowledge of his character in its more mature and comprehensive stafe manifests itself. Anne is never truly interested in Mr. Elliot, because she is always aware of the slight he made to her family and the hopes he gave her sister Elizabeth while she was still young. When her friend, Mrs. Smith, tells her about Mr. Elliot’s immorality and the trouble that he was to her and her husband in the past, Anne is truly convinced that she could never marry Mr. Elliot, although she acknowledges some danger in perhaps being persuaded into the marriage. The two lovers, then, misunderstand where their affections lie. It is a misunderstanding only corrected when Anne makes a speech to Captain Harville about the inconstancy of men and the constancy of women. Wentworth overhears and writes a letter to her, confessing his love and hoping that she will choose, for a second time, to accept his proposal. He writes to her,
"Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. [...] You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan.– Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes?– I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. [...] A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening, or never." (222-23)
He admits that he does not understand her, but believes that she must understand him. Anne has had moments of believing that he must still love her, but they are always defeated by sensing his jealousy of Mr. Elliot and remembering Wentworth’s seeming affection for Louisa Musgrove. This letter, a confession of what must be understood for a greater understanding to occur, results in knowledge of Wentworth’s character for Anne. Her understanding of him is restored, and their love may proceed from that moment without further obstructions.
This letter results in the return of an even greater “exquisite felicity” than existed before. Their love is still greatly selfish, in that they have noticed the lack of the lover for the last eight years and know what pleasure and happiness that presence could bring to them. However, it also becomes more selfless, as the lover becomes less the image of an ideal partner and more the essential of life, as necessary to existing as the self is. In their first courtship, Anne understands Wentworth as a man she thought would make the ideal husband, with good looks, good manners, and breeding. In her maturity, she can think of him as more than that. Now that her understanding of his emotions and motives has been restored, she need not be concerned with “selfish caution” any more. He is so well-known to and beloved by her that knowledge of him is as dear to her as knowledge of herself. When she meets Wentworth again, it is while she and Charles Musgrove are
"in Union Street, when a quicker step behind, a something of familiar sound, gave her two moments preparation for the sight of Captain Wentworth. He joined them; but, as if irresolute whether to join or to pass on, said nothing– only looked. Anne could command herself enough to receive that look, and not repulsively. The cheeks which had been pale now glowed, and the movements which had hesitated were decided. He walked by her side." (224-25)
The letter has made it possible for this communication without the mediation of language. Rather than “a word,” she chooses “a look” to communicate her love to Wentworth. Wentworth’s response is equally indicative of his understanding, and communicates his happiness and love to Anne. Communication between the two does not need to be mediated by language any longer; they can understand each other’s looks because they know one another’s thoughts. There is a physicality of knowledge, of being acquainted with another in the same way that one is acquainted with one’s own body. Anne knows Wentworth’s step, and it is now a “familiar sound.” The movements of his body are distinct from those of any other, because she loves him. That night, at her father’s, Anne is pleased to have “with Captain Wentworth, some moments of communication continually occurring, and always the hope of more, and always the knowledge of his being there!” (230) Because they now know each other’s love, they are secure in each other’s future presence. It is as secure a knowledge as the belief that as long as long as individual consciousness exists, one’s self will always be there.
Persuasion is a novel of mature love; it is a love extending beyond an initial courtship to a later and more uncertain stage. Anne and Wentworth have a passionate relationship in their youth, one defined by mutual appreciation of each other’s good qualities and joyful communication of their love. The passing of eight years allows this love to become richer and deeper, less about the gratification of the self and more about the replacement of the self with the beloved. Eight years pass in which they are both aware of loving one another and feel that they will never be able to repair the breach of their youth. When they are finally reunited, it is with a gratitude, pleasure, and knowledge of one another that they could not experience in their youth, when they did not know the pain and insecurity of being parted from the one you love forever.
WORKS CITED
Austen, Jane. Persuasion. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
When Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth, who becomes Captain Wentworth, are young and in love, they are very aware of each other’s emotions. There seems to be little coyness or flirtation between the two. The reader is not given the impression of an extensive courtship, told only that
"They were gradually acquainted, and when acquainted, rapidly and deeply in love. It would be difficult to say which had seen highest perfection in the other, or which had been the happiest; she, in receiving his declarations and proposals, or he in having them accepted. A short period of exquisite felicity followed." (26)
The romance between Anne and Wentworth develops “rapidly and deeply.” It is a relationship filled with many contradictions like this; the limited knowledge of two newly acquainted people of one another’s characters should prevent them from feeling much more than a general impression of each other, but despite this, Anne and Wentworth seem very much in love. They fall in love while becoming “gradually acquainted.” The word “acquainted” implies first meeting someone, the formation of a new and presently shallow relationship. Anne and Wentworth, however, do it “gradually,” rapidly coming to know one another rather than just rapidly coming to know of one another. The contradictions present in the description of their love leave it less satisfying than might be ideal for the reader. There can be little doubt that Anne and Wentworth are in love; in fact, they are so much in love in their youth that the loss of the lover and of possible happiness in a marriage haunts them both for the next eight years. It is, however, a less mature love than the reader might expect to see, and one largely based on a superficial knowledge and appreciation of the lover. The two appreciate the qualities of “highest perfection” in one another, for “He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit, and brilliancy; and Anne an extremely pretty girl, with gentleness, modesty, taste, and feeling” (26). These are the qualities, both exterior and interior, that they discover in their period of becoming “gradually acquainted.” In this description, the reader is put in the place of each lover. Although the qualities listed work well for creating a general outline of each character, it is superficial knowledge. What the reader, and what each character, knows of the lover, is no different from what any other reader would know after being told. The love between Anne and Wentworth, although strong and passionate, seems undifferentiated by the individual perceptions of the lover. Indeed, what makes their love unique seems based in what makes it ordinary, or generalized. Their love is not complicated by knowledge deeper than that resulting from being “gradually acquainted.” They have no reason to see anything other than perfection in the one they love. In the happiness of such harmonious, but perhaps bland, love, they go on in “exquisite felicity.”
It is in the dissolution of their engagement that their knowledge of each other fails. The ease with which the dissolution, and the misunderstandings behind it, occurs suggests how superficial the knowledge between the two was to begin with. Anne’s older friend, Lady Russell, manages to convince Anne that “the engagement [was] a wrong thing” (27). Anne, who is young and is attached to Lady Russell as to a mother, believes that her advice could not possibly be ill-intentioned or ignorant, and breaks the engagement. Anne’s decision, however, is avowedly based in what she believes is a good knowledge of Wentworth, his situation, and his values. She believes that she acts in part, or perhaps mostly for, his sake, and thinks that
"Had she not imagined herself consulting his good, even more than her own, she could hardly have given him up.– The belief of being prudent, and self-denying principally for his advantage, was her chief consolation, under the misery of a parting– a final parting." (28)
Despite her belief that she is acting for Wentworth’s good, Anne’s actions certainly do not bring him good, and it is questionable as to whether or not she actually is acting for his good. Because of her belief in the goodness of her actions, her decision to break the engagement is “not a merely selfish caution” (27). The narrator’s mention of the role of “selfish caution” in deciding her actions at all makes it more difficult to believe that it is not an entirely selfish act. Anne, as the reader sees her in most of the action of Persuasion, is a good person, who cares for and usually understands others. This decision in her youth is one that she regrets for the next eight years. In her maturity and greater wisdom, she knows that her choice to break her engagement to Wentworth was an act of youthful indiscretion. Her judgment, when she is older, is generally sound and fair, although for most of the novel, she still does not fully know or understand Wentworth. She does understand her mistake, however. In her being able to recognize it as a mistake, she also recognizes the greater selfishness that might have been the basis for her decision.
Wentworth’s knowledge of Anne also fails when the engagement ends. For both Anne and Wentworth, the failure of knowledge of the other begins at the same point. They are both unable to understand why she acts as she does. Anne cannot acknowledge the selfishness of her actions, and mistakenly attributes what she does to a knowledge of Wentworth’s character. Wentworth fails to understand why Anne would end the engagement, and believes that he must have been deceived in his judgment of her character. When she tells him that the engagement must end, she is forced to confront “opinions, on his side, totally unconvinced and unbending, and of his feeling himself ill-used by so forced a relinquishment” (28). Wentworth is completely right, of course, in knowing that something is wrong in the situation. He has indeed been “ill-used,” in being encouraged by a woman who then decides to break off the engagement, believing that it is to his advantage. He is so indignant and offended about this end to the relationship, however, that he never tries to understand why Anne acts as she does. Perhaps if he had reasoned with her, she would have changed her mind again. The reader is never told exactly what Anne tells Wentworth, but he does know that Lady Russell has played a pretty important part, and he notes that it is “so forced a relinquishment.” Rather than seeing that Anne is genuinely concerned about financial status and uncertain security, he believes only that she has behaved badly in being so easily persuaded and evincing such a weak will. Later, he confesses to her, “I did not understand you. I shut my eyes, and would not understand you, or do you justice” (231). Perhaps the reason that their knowledge fails at the point of Anne’s decision is that it fails to be one between the two of them. She does not understand her own reasons, largely because they are not her own; they are due to the advice of Lady Russell. When Anne listens to Lady Russell and allows her to make her decisions for her, her personality as known to Wentworth becomes adulterated. The simplicity and superficiality of their knowledge is tainted by an outside force, and they can no longer exist in “exquisite felicity.” It is unfortunate, however, that the complexity necessary to make their love interesting should result from an outside and negative force.
After eight years have passed, the two still have a damaged knowledge of one another and the question arises of how they can restore and perhaps enhance that knowledge. The two must communicate their thoughts to one another as they did in their youth, to restore security in one another’s love, and then examine the status of their knowledge. When they meet again, this communication seems unlikely to happen, as they both believe that their lovers have fallen in love with other people. After Louisa Musgrove has had her accident, Anne sees Wentworth “as he sat near a table, learning over it with folded arms, and face concealed, as if overpowered by the various feelings of his soul, and trying by prayer and reflection to calm them” (104). Wentworth was partially responsible for Louisa’s accident, and only seems to be experiencing relief for Louisa’s well-being. Anne, however, reads his physical expression as being a manifestation of the deepest love and pain. What she actually sees before her and what she thinks that means, reality and her interpretation of that reality, are integrated together by the narrator in this sentence. Wentworth tells her later, however, that she was wrong, and “He persisted in having loved none but her” (227). Wentworth, similarly, refrains from declaring his love for Anne because of jealousy. Anne’s knowledge of his character is surprisingly astute here, for she guesses and then discovers that truthfully, “Jealousy of Mr. Elliot had been the retarding weight, the doubt, the torment” (226). When Anne begins to sense the continuing existence of Wentworth’s love, her knowledge of his character in its more mature and comprehensive stafe manifests itself. Anne is never truly interested in Mr. Elliot, because she is always aware of the slight he made to her family and the hopes he gave her sister Elizabeth while she was still young. When her friend, Mrs. Smith, tells her about Mr. Elliot’s immorality and the trouble that he was to her and her husband in the past, Anne is truly convinced that she could never marry Mr. Elliot, although she acknowledges some danger in perhaps being persuaded into the marriage. The two lovers, then, misunderstand where their affections lie. It is a misunderstanding only corrected when Anne makes a speech to Captain Harville about the inconstancy of men and the constancy of women. Wentworth overhears and writes a letter to her, confessing his love and hoping that she will choose, for a second time, to accept his proposal. He writes to her,
"Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. [...] You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan.– Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes?– I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. [...] A word, a look will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening, or never." (222-23)
He admits that he does not understand her, but believes that she must understand him. Anne has had moments of believing that he must still love her, but they are always defeated by sensing his jealousy of Mr. Elliot and remembering Wentworth’s seeming affection for Louisa Musgrove. This letter, a confession of what must be understood for a greater understanding to occur, results in knowledge of Wentworth’s character for Anne. Her understanding of him is restored, and their love may proceed from that moment without further obstructions.
This letter results in the return of an even greater “exquisite felicity” than existed before. Their love is still greatly selfish, in that they have noticed the lack of the lover for the last eight years and know what pleasure and happiness that presence could bring to them. However, it also becomes more selfless, as the lover becomes less the image of an ideal partner and more the essential of life, as necessary to existing as the self is. In their first courtship, Anne understands Wentworth as a man she thought would make the ideal husband, with good looks, good manners, and breeding. In her maturity, she can think of him as more than that. Now that her understanding of his emotions and motives has been restored, she need not be concerned with “selfish caution” any more. He is so well-known to and beloved by her that knowledge of him is as dear to her as knowledge of herself. When she meets Wentworth again, it is while she and Charles Musgrove are
"in Union Street, when a quicker step behind, a something of familiar sound, gave her two moments preparation for the sight of Captain Wentworth. He joined them; but, as if irresolute whether to join or to pass on, said nothing– only looked. Anne could command herself enough to receive that look, and not repulsively. The cheeks which had been pale now glowed, and the movements which had hesitated were decided. He walked by her side." (224-25)
The letter has made it possible for this communication without the mediation of language. Rather than “a word,” she chooses “a look” to communicate her love to Wentworth. Wentworth’s response is equally indicative of his understanding, and communicates his happiness and love to Anne. Communication between the two does not need to be mediated by language any longer; they can understand each other’s looks because they know one another’s thoughts. There is a physicality of knowledge, of being acquainted with another in the same way that one is acquainted with one’s own body. Anne knows Wentworth’s step, and it is now a “familiar sound.” The movements of his body are distinct from those of any other, because she loves him. That night, at her father’s, Anne is pleased to have “with Captain Wentworth, some moments of communication continually occurring, and always the hope of more, and always the knowledge of his being there!” (230) Because they now know each other’s love, they are secure in each other’s future presence. It is as secure a knowledge as the belief that as long as long as individual consciousness exists, one’s self will always be there.
Persuasion is a novel of mature love; it is a love extending beyond an initial courtship to a later and more uncertain stage. Anne and Wentworth have a passionate relationship in their youth, one defined by mutual appreciation of each other’s good qualities and joyful communication of their love. The passing of eight years allows this love to become richer and deeper, less about the gratification of the self and more about the replacement of the self with the beloved. Eight years pass in which they are both aware of loving one another and feel that they will never be able to repair the breach of their youth. When they are finally reunited, it is with a gratitude, pleasure, and knowledge of one another that they could not experience in their youth, when they did not know the pain and insecurity of being parted from the one you love forever.
WORKS CITED
Austen, Jane. Persuasion. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
posted by Joey at 3:08 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home