LECTURE 7

Persuasion (1817) ... continued

1. Last Thoughts on Reading
5. Louisa and Captain Benwick [II:6, 135]
6. Anne is a better reader than Lady R?
--Reading Mr. William Elliot [II: 119, 129, 130-131, 160, 168, 170]
-- literal and interpretive reading [II: 200]

Effect:
JANEITES/Followers of JA: we are drawn into a community of likeminded readers

2. Reconfiguring Marriage: From Feudal Exchange to Companionate Partnership
(from aristocratic to middle-class power) .
a. Elizabeth & Sir Walter Elliot's view (I: 1--12-13)
b. Henrietta Musgrove & Charles Hayter (63-4)
c. Admiral & Mrs. Croft (24, 60, 61, 104)
d. Charles & Mary Musgrove (39, 175)
e. Captain & Mrs. Harville (83, 93 & 94)
f. Captain Wentworth & Anne Elliot (202)

Does the novel suggest that social power should be earned or inherited? Are its leanings liberal or conservative?

3. The question of firmness of purpose, steadiness of principle, constancy:
--Wollstonecraft: N 183/179
--Male literary tradition: P 187-88;
--Anne's pronouncement: 189
--Wentworth: 54, 97, 195.

4. Was Anne right to be persuaded to give up Wentworth?
198-199: Duty and resolve vs. Pride