LECTURE 6

Persuasion (1817, posthumous publ.)

[See Lecture 5 for first two sections on Persuasion]
1. Was Anne Eliot foolish to yield to Lady Russell's persuasion?

Consider:
I:C1, 10; C2, 15-16; C4, 29—Lady Russell
Is she just a snob? Too unreflecting and confident? Notice the balance between the issues of moral integrity as opposed to prejudice.

I:C4, 26-27--Wentworth:
1.intelligence, wit, spirit, life and ardour, confident, optimistic [personal attributes]
2. no fortune, free spender, no connections
3. an uncertain profession in unstable times
To Lady Russell he seems headstrong, imprudent, risky.

I: C4, 28 Anne's view [at nineteen years old :
1. gentleness, modesty, taste and feeling [personal attributes]
2. second daughter of a Baronet
3. prudent and self-denying
Her reward? A life of duty, self-denial, and under appreciation.
I: C7: 54 Wentworth's view.

Reading as a resource:
Wordsworth "these beauteous forms"
Wollstonecraft "exercise of mind and body"
Austen reading as internal nourishment that enables conversation as sociability

Examples:
1. Sir Walter Elliot [I:1,9] the Baronetage
2. Louisa and Henrietta [I: C5-6, 38-39]: not readers; [C8, 56-7]--the naval list
3. Anne: mixed diet [I: C4, 29] naval list; [I:C10,71] Poems about autumn; [C11, 85] prose too.
4. Capt. Benwick [I:11, 84] Romantic poets: Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron
5. Read on to [II:6, 135 and chapter 18]

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

NEXT: Reconfiguring Marriage: From Feudal Exchange to Democratic Companionate Partnership.