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   kplhardison Student
   Graduate School

   eNotes Editor

   Persuasion is a departure from Jane Austen's previous works. It has a mellower tone that broadens its popular appeal. Ann and Captain Wentworth are as carefully characterized as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice but there is a despondency to each of their characters because, unlike Austen's other characters, they begin the novel with burdens of unhappiness. One of the pleasures of Persuasion is to see them each come into a "second bloom" and attained an understanding of each other though they had each despaired of ever doing so.

   Another departure from Austen's past novels that adds to Persuasion's popularity is that it is set in the autumn of the year, we don't arrive in the autumn as the story begins to enter its heightened conflicts. We begin in the autumn. This projects a sense of being made a confidant to a larger story than is told beginning on page one: The reader feels emersed in Ann's life from the very introduction of Persuasion.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/persuasion/

   http://www.enotes.com/persuasion/anne-elliot

   http://www.enotes.com/persuasion/themes

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   Posted by kplhardison on Wednesday October 28, 2009 at 6:51 PM