Jane Austen For Beginners

by Robert Dryden

  The most significant way that Sophia influences Anne is that she married the admiral for love, not for status or money. In concert with each of Austen’s major novels, marriage for money and status is looked down upon, but marriage for love is the prize. Anne was persuaded eight years earlier to reject Wentworth’s proposal of marriage because his value on the marriage market wasn’t adequate. For Lady Russell, the fact that Anne was in love with Wentworth had no bearing on the decision. Love was superfluous—a plus if the suitor was rich and landed, but by no means the priority. Now Austen, through the character of Sophia Croft, is emphasizing to her reader that marriage for love is the priority—the key ingredient that must be present in order for the couple to coexist successfully. And now Anne is lucky enough to get a second chance.

  • • •

  The year is 1814, the Napoleonic War has just ended, and officers of the victorious Royal British Navy are returning home. Some of them have become wealthy through the incentive system of naval prize money. Such was the case for both Admiral Croft and Captain Wentworth (Austen notes that Wentworth is now worth £25,000, which translates in modern-day U.S. currency to $2,500,000). Austen depicts Wentworth as handsome, honorable, heroic, and a most eligible bachelor. In tune with his brother-in-law Frederick, Croft is heroic, a loving husband, and a jovial man with a witty sense of humor. Hence we find them all together, because Croft, a native of Somersetshire, desires to return with his wife to his old stomping ground. He rents a country estate from the baronet, Sir Walter Elliot.

  Austen opens the novel with vain, pretentious, and wasteful Sir Walter Elliot, who when we meet him is admiring his name in a Who’s Who collection listing the many baronets of England. The 54–year-old gentleman is selfish and shallow, thinking more of his physical appearance than anything else. He has three daughters: the vain, mean, and self-consumed Elizabeth, hypochondriac and pathetic Mary, and our heroine Anne, who is sweet, shy, routinely wounded by her father and sister Elizabeth, honorable, generous, and good. We discover in the first chapter that Sir Walter’s late wife, Lady Elliot, had adeptly managed household affairs, but since her loss thirteen years earlier, Sir Walter has made a mess of the family finances. And we witness early on the social-class climbing of naval officers, who are well monied, in need of places to live, and can afford a country estate. In contrast we see the removal of improvident members of the gentry, who must relocate because they can no longer afford their grandiose homes and extravagant lifestyles. Sir Walter’s lawyer suggests that the family relocate to Bath, where they can enjoy a life of luxury at reduced cost.

  Anne is the character who links the Elliot family to the sailors, in particular Captain Wentworth. Since rejecting Wentworth’s proposal of marriage eight years earlier, she has never ceased loving him. In fact, Anne, now 27 and quickly approaching eternal spinsterhood, was the first choice for marriage to Charles Musgrove but rejected him because of feelings she still harbored for the captain. Charles in turn married Anne’s sister Mary. Now that Wentworth is back on the scene, life for Anne has become awkward and uncomfortable. Wentworth remembers the way he was spurned and wants nothing to do with Anne. And to make matters worse for our heroine, Wentworth is fawned over by every unmarried girl who sees him.

  As Sir Walter and Elizabeth depart for Bath, and Admiral Croft and his wife move in to replace them, the Elliots’ plan is that Anne will visit her sister Mary at the Musgrove estate and join her father and sister later in Bath. As a result, Anne is forced to spend much uncomfortable time watching Charles Musgroves’ sisters Louisa and Henrietta (the latter engaged to a country curate named Charles Hayter) flirt shamelessly with Wentworth. Anne is understandably depressed, but endures the difficult situation with grace. This in spite of the fact that the entire Musgrove family is impressed with Wentworth for his looks, heroism, eligibility as a bachelor, and pocketbook. Even Charles is awestruck by Wentworth! The Musgrove brother and sisters are happy to welcome Wentworth to the neighborhood, and for some days they all spend time together walking the countryside, hunting, and socializing. During all these social visits, Anne is like a shadow. She feels like an outsider and tries to cope as well as she can, but she’s not the object of anyone’s attention.

  After receiving a letter of invitation from a sailor friend of his, Captain Harville, Wentworth talks the group into visiting the coastal town of Lyme, where some of his navy friends are living. Captain Harville is another heroic sailor, but he differs from Wentworth in that he had been injured in war leaving him lame, and he was not financially lucky in war. Due to these hardships, he appears much older than Wentworth even though the men are approximately the same age. He and his family live humbly in this seaside town. Captain Benwick is also with them. He was lucky financially in the war but unlucky in marriage; he is presently mourning the loss of his wife, Captain Harville’s sister.

  This contrast between lucky and unlucky captains provides the reader with a telling depiction about just how uncertain and tenuous the naval profession was during that period in British history. Wentworth had been “lucky” in his profession. This is not to say that he wasn’t a capable leader and officer, but still, he was lucky to have connections in the navy that allowed him to move up in rank, lucky to gain command of good ships, and lucky to see action that proved to be financially lucrative. Prize money functioned as an incentive during wartime, but distribution could be anything but fair. As history bears out, captains were well aware that enemy merchant vessels were worth a great deal more in the prize system than enemy warships. This is not to say that Wentworth was guilty of the practice, but there were countless cases where captains in the Royal Navy would duck out of battle with an enemy man-of-war in favor of attacking a defenseless merchant ship. Since there was no way for the admiralty to keep track of locations of ships and no ability for ships to communicate with one another when they were not in sight of each other, the temptation to choose profit before patriotism was a common enough choice and rather easily gotten away with. Wentworth laments that Harville’s “luck” in the Mediterranean was not nearly as good as his own, but the reader can only begin to assess the world of meaning that exists between these lines.

  During the visit to Lyme, a bond between Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove is blossoming. They play together like children, and Anne is forced to watch. When they approach the high seawall, the flirtatious Louisa insists that Wentworth catch her when she jumps off a stair partway up. To her delight, Wentworth does so. Her giddy emotions then get the best of her as she implores Wentworth to catch her from the very top of the seawall. Wentworth pleads with her to stop because the distance is too great, but his warnings fall on deaf ears. Louisa misses her target and is badly hurt. Beside himself with guilt and anguish, Wentworth notices that Anne keeps her head in the midst of all the confusion and panic. In a telling turn of events, Wentworth looks to Anne for guidance. In that moment he recognizes the depth of substance in Anne Elliot. Anne is capable in a way that the other women are not. She has the attributes of an early feminist character. Wentworth is attracted to her strength of character and ability to keep cool in times of crisis, characteristics that a naval captain would certainly admire in anybody.

  While Louisa is on the mend in Lyme, Anne receives a letter from her sister Elizabeth stating that their cousin, William Elliot, has appeared in Bath. The William Elliot link to the story is that though he is a distant family relative, he is the closest male heir to Sir Walter—hence, in accord with the medieval landed-estate law the entail, he is in line to inherit the baronet’s property (a situation we’ve also seen in Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility).

  Although Anne dreads going, she finally makes her way to Bath to be with her father, sister Elizabeth, and Mrs. Clay, the widowed daughter of Sir Walter’s lawyer. Upon arrival, Anne cannot escape the talk about William Elliot, who had embarrassed the family years earlier by marrying a woman who was beneath him (and the Elliots) strictly for her fortune. The woman had since died, and now
William has been “pardoned” by Sir Walter. Much of the gossip surrounds his eligibility in marriage for either Elizabeth or Anne. In truth, William is one of Austen’s more toxic characters, who is (as we shall see) entirely motivated by greed. He represents the part of the gentry that is the target of Austen’s scorn. Everyone but Anne is enamored with him; she alone can see through his charm to his diabolical intentions.

  Demonstrating Anne’s thoughtfulness and humility, she tracks down an old school friend, Miss Hamilton (now Mrs. Smith), who has been convalescing in Bath. Anne had been very close with the future Mrs. Smith while away at school at age fourteen, a time of loneliness and grief for her late mother. Mrs. Smith’s husband, who died two years earlier, had made some money in the colonies, but because he lived in an extravagant manner, he left his affairs in disarray. When Anne finds her, Mrs. Smith is in bad shape. She has practically no income, no servant, is suffering from rheumatic fever, and is temporarily unable to walk. She has come to Bath to take in the therapeutic and healing waters, but because of her situation and her poverty, she has been shunned by Bath society. Therefore, Anne’s visit to Mrs. Smith is telling. Anne is a compassionate person, genuine, with no loftiness about her financial status or social ranking. Honorably, she cares for her old friend in need, in spite of the jokes her father and sister make about Anne’s former schoolmate who is a nobody to them. Like most of Austen’s heroines, Anne has qualities that raise her high above the social-class boundaries that entrap so thoroughly members of her society.

  Meanwhile, William Elliot’s advances towards the family are on the increase, and it is the opinion of Lady Russell that his intentions are honorable and that his goal is to pursue Anne and not Elizabeth. Lady Russell is correct in her assumptions about William’s ambition, but she is dead wrong about his honor. We discover this when gossip about the connection between William and Anne reaches Mrs. Smith through her nurse, Ms. Rooke. Mrs. Smith protects her old friend by informing Anne that she and her husband have had considerable dealings with William Elliot in the past and her assessment of him is that he is a selfish, evil, and completely greedy human being. William was the “trusted” friend of her late husband. At that time, he was rather poor but tried to keep up appearances as a gentleman. Mrs. Smith’s husband Charles was generous with William, and the couple treated him as a member of their family. In addition, William was introduced to Sir Walter Elliot, and the latter tried to take William under his wing. Sir Walter had hoped that William would marry Elizabeth, but William slighted Sir Walter and shied away from the connection. As Mrs. Smith tells it, he was looking for a faster route to fortune, and he found it through marriage to an inferior woman who had riches. William Elliot married for money alone. As proof of her assertions, Mrs. Smith produces a twelve-year-old letter from William to her husband where William is extremely disrespectful.

  The gossip then transitions to William’s present motives. Mrs. Smith relates that William is worried Sir Walter might form an attachment to the widowed Mrs. Clay, who is spending time with the Elliots in Bath. If Sir Walter and Mrs. Clay were to marry and have a male child, William would be out his inheritance. Mrs. Smith also clarifies that where William did once want nothing to do with the prospect of gaining the title of baronet, he has now changed his opinion and desires to become Sir William Elliot. Furthermore, Anne learns that Mr. Smith was financially ruined by William Elliot’s extravagant influence and imprudent encouragement. Mr. Smith had died before he realized that his finances were in ruin. Mrs. Smith had then asked William to be the executor of the will, but he would not assist her. Additionally, Mrs. Smith’s husband owned property in the West Indies, but legal issues prevented her from making use of it for profit. She had hoped that William would assist her in sorting out the details, but again he would not help.

  After learning all of this poisonous information about William Elliot, the novel takes its final turn and closes in on the climactic moment. A group of characters—including captains Wentworth and Harville, and Mrs. and Admiral Croft—has just arrived in Bath. Emphasizing the way in which Anne and Captain Wentworth have been unable to share their true (and long-repressed) feelings for one another, Anne finds herself in a shop conversing with Captain Harville while Wentworth is nearby composing a letter. The covert letter represents the unspoken love Anne and Wentworth have maintained for each other these eight long years since the captain’s first proposal of marriage. Anne doesn’t suspect it, but what Wentworth is doing is writing her a second proposal of marriage. He is secretive about his intentions because he lacks confidence in the outcome. Additionally Wentworth is aware of William Elliot’s recent advances towards Anne, and fears she might reciprocate his feelings. But Wentworth’s love for Anne has increased in her absence, and now he must let it be known.

  Captain Wentworth may have been a hero in naval battle, but in his love for Anne Elliot he is timid and awkward. When he finishes the letter, Wentworth and Harville leave the room briefly, but then Wentworth returns claiming shyly that he has forgotten his gloves. Nervously he completes his mission by extending the letter to Anne. When they meet again outside the shop, Anne gives the captain the affirmation he seeks. The couple will indeed be married. In their reunion, they can exult in the love and respect they have for one another—a love that has been building for many years in spite of the social prejudices that temporarily stood in their way.

  • • •

  As she does so consistently in all of her novels, in Persuasion Austen demonstrates the emergence of a portion of the middle class in England when Wentworth, through marriage, is able to increase his social standing. He transitions from the middle class in a “most uncertain profession” to a well-monied naval captain, and now he will increase his social standing all the more by marrying the daughter of a baronet. Writes Austen: “Captain Wentworth, with five-and-twenty thousand pounds, and as high in his profession as merit and activity could place him, was no longer nobody. He was now esteemed quite worthy to address the daughter of a foolish, spendthrift baronet.” Austen’s Romantic hero has achieved a marriage that is both ethically sound, monetarily healthy, and of a rank which places him in the lower echelon of the gentry.

  In addition Wentworth is able to act for Mrs. Smith in settling her legal entanglements involving her property in the West Indies. This is an important detail as it positions Wentworth as someone who now has authority both at home in England and abroad in the colonial arena. He is a new breed of Englishman. A century earlier he would have been looked down upon in society. But now that money is competing with social rank, Wentworth finds that his agency is waxing, while that of members of the lower level gentry (someone like William Elliot, for example) is waning. Austen demonstrates the emergence of this new and valuable category of man in society when she describes Wentworth’s efforts in helping Mrs. Smith: “[Mrs. Smith] was their earliest visitor in their settled life; and Captain Wentworth, by putting her in the way of recovering her husband’s property in the West Indies, by writing for her, acting for her, and seeing her through all the petty difficulties of the case, with the activity and exertion of a fearless man and a determined friend, fully requited the services which she had rendered, or ever meant to render, to his wife.” Such active language and sense of authority demonstrate a changing of the guard. Wentworth is able to accomplish for Mrs. Smith what the “gentleman” William Elliot can’t do. Wentworth is heroic and part of a new England where connections, actions, and monetary success in the colonial realm are now of valued importance.

  The union between Wentworth and Anne also provides an example of a new kind of marriage that is based on love and partnership rather than status and finances. The couple will be extremely comfortable with Anne’s dowry and Wentworth’s prize money in the bank; however, in Austen’s world, material gain is icing on the cake. The true reward for the couple will be their companionable marriage. The 1995 Sony Pictures film version of Persuasion starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds concludes with Anne accompan
ying her husband on a voyage at sea. Presumably Wentworth is involved in some kind of colonial administration. Although Austen doesn’t end her novel in the same manner, the moment echoes Sophia Croft’s conversation about accompanying her husband on many of his voyages at sea. This favorable depiction applauds husband and wife for their adventurous natures and their intense desire to be together. More so, however, we can applaud the husband for his open-minded willingness to have his wife accompany him in a world that is still repressively patriarchal. And we can applaud even louder the wife for her pioneering desire to expand boundaries for early nineteenth-century women. Indeed, this couple will live happily ever after.

  Chapter 8

  Jane Austen’s Legacy

  Jane Austen is arguably the most widely popular literary author studied today in the academic classroom. Feminists have identified with the strength of her female characters, literary historians have explored Austen’s England and its relationship to empire, and other critics have paid close attention to the provocative social-class issues that are woven into each of her plots. Yet beyond these academic perspectives for accessing Austen, her novels are simply entertaining, and modern audiences identify with her characters and situations. For these reasons, Austen has been embraced beyond the hallowed halls of academe. In their collection of essays entitled Jane Austen and Co.: Remaking the Past in Contemporary Culture, Suzanne R. Pucci and James Thompson refer to the proliferation of Austen-related films, remakes, spinoffs, web resources, tourism, and Janeite products as “Austenmania,” a “virtual industry” of Austen production and money-making in the United States, Great Britain, and around the world. Since Austen’s novels are so preoccupied with money and the rise of the middle class, Austen herself would likely enjoy the knowledge that her work has generated such a frenzy of material production. There is no other literary novelist who is appreciated by such a wide spectrum of fans.