Persuasion

Persuasion features an opinionated, omniscient third-person narrator who introduces the main characters of the novel before the plot begins. The tone of narration is witty, coy, and sarcastic, with a heavily ironic treatment of the pride and classism displayed by Sir Walter and Elizabeth, who become caricatures of the class of people this novel subtly undermines. Austen is known for her use of free indirect discourse, a literary technique in which the thoughts and feelings of the characters or protagonist are blended with the narrative voice. In this way, Anne’s disdain for her family and anxiety about Wentworth are expressed through emotionally inflected language, not by the narrator stating these feelings explicitly.

The driving narrative force behind this Austen novel, as well as her other novels, is the marriage plot, a generic trope concerning the trials and tribulations of an engagement. Being a woman writer in a highly patriarchal social context, Austen’s witty and sarcastic narrative voice transform the marriage plot into comedic social commentary. When introducing Sir Walter and Lady Russell’s familial relationship, the narrator is quick to point out that the two: “did not marry, whatever might have been anticipated on that head by their acquaintance” (7). Clear boundaries are to be drawn and understood as proper social etiquette. The issue of physical expectations is also introduced as a theme within the marriage plot. Anne’s prospects for marriage are presented as nearly nonexistent now that she is nearing the end of her twenties and looks “faded and thin” (7). Austen immediately engages the social notion of “bloom”—a Regency-era term for the beauty of youth, thought to indicate fertility and make a young woman desirable for marriage. By comparing Anne’s lost bloom to Elizabeth’s enduring good looks, and by contrasting the compassionate Anne with the prejudiced Elizabeth, Austen interrogates the social values of her time.

Lady Russell’s intimacy with the family, and her position as proxy mother for the Elliot girls, is quickly established in these opening chapters. For a young, unmarried woman of the landed middle class during the Regency era, marriage was the only means of securing a place of residence, security, and friends, as aristocratic women did not work or own property. As such, Lady Russell’s desire to secure what she deems suitable matches for the Elliot girls becomes a matter of economy. Lady Russell also aims to protect the reputation of the Elliots girls so that they will be worthy of respect and admiration per the strict social codes of middle class society. Her distaste for Mrs. Clay is entirely classist, as she desires the move to Bath to “bring a choice of more suitable intimates within Miss Elliot’s reach” (17)—“suitable” here not meaning friendly, kind to Elizabeth, or a good companion, but rather someone with connections and, preferably, money to vouch for their propriety. Although Mrs. Clay is later revealed to have designs on Sir Walter’s fortune, Lady Russel’s objections to Mrs. Clay foreshadow the revelation that Lady Russel persuaded Anne out of marrying Frederick Wentworth, due to his inferior wealth and social standing at the time. Austen also foreshadows how the humbling of Anne’s family through their diminished wealth will ultimately allow Anne to rekindle the romance of her youth.