CBR16 BINGO: Liberate, because Anne liberates herself from her ridiculous family and finds love
Double BINGO! Diagonal: Détente, Fiasco, Dreams, Horses, Liberate
Four corners and center square: Bananas, Détente, Rings, Liberate, Dreams
Poor Anne Elliot is saddled with a vexing family. Her father and older sister, Elizabeth, are snobs of the highest order, while her younger sister, Mary, does her best to make herself the center of attention and whines about every minor inconvenience. Anne is, by any sane person’s standards, practically perfect in every way, though of course that means nothing to her family. “Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way–she was only Anne.” Only Lady Russell, Anne’s godmother and dear friend to Anne’s late mother, feels tenderly for her and watches out for her interests.
At the start of the novel, the Elliots are “distressed for money” (meaning they are broke, thanks to Sir Walter Elliot’s profligate spending), necessitating them to rent out their manor, Kellynch Hall, and find cheaper accommodations. They decide to go to Bath over Anne’s objections, because nobody cares what Anne wants. In spite of having reservations about Naval men not being classy or attractive enough to live in his house, Sir Elliot rents out Kellynch Hall to an Admiral and his wife (Elliot has some very weird hang ups). Rather than go to Bath straight away, Anne spends some time hanging with her younger sister Mary and Mary’s family and thus gets to know the new tenants. It turns out Admiral Croft’s wife Sophia is the sister of one Captain Frederick Wentworth–to whom Anne had been secretly engaged eight years earlier!
WHAT?? Perfect Anne was engaged? What happened? Well it turns out, Sir Walter and Elizabeth didn’t think Wentworth was good enough for their family (big shock). Even Lady Russell was opposed, mainly because she felt, at age 19, Anne was too young to get married to a man with an uncertain future. Under pressure from the trio, she broke off the engagement, breaking both their hearts in the process. Eight years later, Anne is still very much in love with Wentworth, who is now successful, ready to marry, quite a dish, and considered a “catch” by all the families in the area.
After a few awkward encounters with Wentworth, Anne recognizes that he’s still angry with her for how things went down, and she can’t really blame him. “She had used him ill, deserted and disappointed him; and worse, she had shewn a feebleness of character in doing so, which his own decided, confident temper could not endure. She had given him up to oblige others. It had been the effect of over-persuasion. It had been weakness and timidity.” As the local ladies vie for Wentworth’s attentions, Anne conducts herself with dignity and kindness.
For her part, don’t think for a second that Anne’s an “old maid” at this stage–she’s got several suitors herself, including William Elliot, Anne’s cousin and future heir to Kellynch Hall (don’t forget that women couldn’t inherit property); and Captain Benwick, Wentworth’s brooding friend and fellow officer. Even Mary’s sisters-in-law confide in Anne that they wish their brother Charles had married Anne instead of Mary. Clearly Anne is a woman with options!
When I started reading Persuasion, I was worried it was going to be a drag. The first two chapters, about Anne’s terrible family and their money woes, felt tedious. However, it quickly won me over with its marvelous heroine and stellar cast of supporting characters. At one point, while spending time with the tenants at Kellynch Hall and some of Wentworth’s other associates, Anne bemoans to herself that, not only did she lose Wentworth when she broke the engagement, she lost the opportunity to become friends with this wonderful group of people. That sentiment struck me. Most of us have experienced that feeling of having to let go of the “peripheral people” when a relationship ends, and these peripherals in particular are genuinely lovely. Anne is also not a perfect heroine, but she is self aware and owns her mistakes. Finally, the story’s climax comes in the form of a letter designed to make a reader swoon. In Jane Austen’s own words: “Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from.”
From a slow start, Persuasion rose to become one of my favorite Austen novels. It contains all the commentary on class, society, and gender that one expects from Austen, with some delightful humor and a predictably happy ending. Enjoy!