Persuasion

"Persuasion" appropriately encapsulates the themes of Jane Austen’s novel. All of the characters are constantly trying to change someone else’s opinion or even their own opinion. Many of the...

A running theme in the novel, one that Anne Elliot vigorously disputes, is that women are inconstant: it is what Wentworth believes about Anne for breaking off their engagement seven years ago....

The central theme of this novel is that a young person in love must weigh the feelings in her heart against the prudent advice of a trusted elder. The message is that love matters, and one must...

Technically, Persuasion is told by an omniscient, third-person narrator who can get into the heads of all the various characters. However, practically speaking, the novel is almost entirely told...

Persuasion, as the title (not chosen by Austen) indicates, deals centrally, with how people make decisions regarding relationships, and the forces, including social forces, that contribute to the...

The 2007 version of the movie Persuasion is different from the book in several ways. The filmmakers adapted some things because of the changes in societal norms since the time of the original...

In Persuasion, Anne must stay with her sister, Mary, at Uppercross Cottage in the village of Uppercross when her father and sister, Elizabeth, retire to Bath. While Uppercross Cottage is the home...

A few literary techniques are used by Austen to highlight both Mary and Anne's characters. Austen tells us that Mary is a rather unattractive character: She had no resources for solitude; and...

The novel mentions the word "foolish" particularly referring to people who make ridiculous and counter productive choices that ultimately affect their future. Wentworth called himself a foolish man...

In the exact same way that Austen's other titles indicate her novels' central themes, the title Persuasion indicates that Austen's central theme deals with Austen's perspective on a person's...

This novel, like many of Austen's works, acts as a social commentary on marriage and courtship in society. In many ways, this novel concerns itself with the vexing question of how we choose a...

One central theme in Austen's Persuasion depicts the virtues and vices of being easily persuaded. Vices are brought out much more frequently than virtues. For instance, when earlier in her life...

Almost all the characters in Persuasion are negatively affected by holding rigid views on English social hierarchy. Jane Austen lived in a time of great flux, when commerce (especially...

One way that Romantic ideals manifest themselves in Persuasion is in the undermining of the traditional importance of social rank. Romanticism was subversive of existing social structures in its...

As in all of Austen's novels, women are presented differently depending on the character and nature of the woman. According to Austen's view, while high class women are confined to the home, not...

I will begin with long engagement. At nineteen, Anne Elliot takes her aunt, Lady Russell's advice, to avoid the necessarily long marriage engagement she would have had with Captain Wentworth. At...

The 2007 version of Austen's Persuasion is similar to the novel in following its general plot of a woman, Anne Eliot, and her once fiance, Captain Wentworth, reuniting and falling in love years...

Death is rebirth, as portrayed by Austen in Persuasion. It is through both literal and figurative deaths that the characters gain new opportunities to achieve success and happiness. Beginning...

More than in any of Austen's other novels, there is an autumnal, melancholy, plaintive tone through much of this last completed work. Unlike in Austen's earlier novels—which capture the heroines...

The main popular element in Persuasion is its love story. Almost every one loves a "second chance at love" theme, and the main action of the novel involves the rekindling of the romance between...

Sir Walter Elliot certainly thinks there is a connection between appearance and identity. His deep distresses are the little crows-feet line about Lady Russell's temples and Mary's coarse skin:...

Anne Elliot of Persuasion is a member of the noble class. Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice is also a member of the upper class, but a rank lower than Anne as Elizabeth is a landowning...

Jane Austen, through her characters, makes some rather indirect conclusions about aristocracy and the unfair role that she felt they held in society. Being an aristocrat did not make you a good...

Persuasion is a novel about second chances. It was Jane Austen's last work. She wrote it during her illness which led to the end of her life at the young age of 42.Jane Austen, was perhaps...

Austen's characterizations help to show that what she considers an attribute of high social class, is not necessarily physical beauty, but beauty in mind and character.In the cases of Sir Walter...

As is always the case in her novels, Austen uses narrative point of view to direct how we understand the story that unfolds. In this case, she tells the story largely through the eyes of Anne...

One parallel we see between Jane Austen's own life and her heroine of Persuasion, Anne, is with respect to love and marriage. Similar to Anne, early in life, Austen fell in love with a man named...

Since the novel's title, "persuasion", implies that people are being persuaded, or made to change their opinion or actions by others, the development of characters is the major preoccupation of...

Throughout Persuasion, Anne Elliot observes just how irrational others are around her, regardless of how rational the characters think they are. We especially see rationality, or irrationality,...

It is clear from the opening chapter of this book that class and social mobility are key concepts that govern the actions of the characters and in particular are massively important when related to...

All three of these women are influenced by the opinions of others, and it is much to their detriment throughout the novels. Anne Elliot is influnced by her friend and mentor to not accept her...

The Crofts are portrayed as one of the few happily married couples in the novel. Unlike so many of the others who have married because it is the expedient thing to do or for financial reasons, they...

One of the key aspects to realise about Jane Austen as a writer is that she is a narrator who insists on being there right along with the action, and putting a good or a bad word in for a number of...

Sir Walter Elliot has had a long and steady friendship with Lady Russell that dates back to his wife's lifetime. Indeed, Lady Russell was the particular friend of Lady Elliott and through that...

Austin's treatment of class and social mobility reflect the attitude of the times, yet also seem to challenge these standards. Sir Walter exemplifies the snobbery of those in a certain social...

A syllogism can play a role in persuasion, but they have to be worded carefully. The general formula is: 1. Major Premise 2. Minor Premise 3. Conclusion Example: 1. All humans are mammals. (All A...

If you're looking for articles on Persuasion, what you're really looking for is literary criticism. Literary criticism is any "evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary...

The vision of domesticity that Jane Austen presents in Persuasion relates almost exclusively to upper-class English people. There is a clear separation between male and female worlds in regard to...

Those characters whom Austen designs to be living by folly are certainly consistent at it! Yet there are other characters who combine elements of folly with sense who, from a casual reading, may...

Both of these characters are used by Austen to parody the upper classes and their pretension, hypocrisy and arrogance. From the very first paragraph of the novel, Sir Walter Elliot is shown to be a...

Similar to her other novels, in Persuasion, Austen pinpoints differences in gender roles that were accepted in her society. However, she also points out that some people, regardless of gender, are...

Captain Harville is distressed in Chapter 23 of Persuasion because of Captain Benwick's change of affections from Miss Fanny Harville to Louisa. In this state, he invites Anne to stand beside him...

In Persuasion, as in her other novels, Austen offers up an ideal of gentility based on character, ethics, taste and behaviour rather than simply birth. For her, a person with a well-informed mind,...

Mrs. Clay is wily and sufficiently flattering to Sir Walter that she deceives him (and Elizabeth) into thinking she is trustworthy as well as worthy of the family's attention. She is also the...

Class mobility--moving between classes--might work in both directions in the period covered in Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion. People from lower classes might move to higher classes...

Sir Walter Elliot was borne three daughters by his wife, Elizabeth, Lady Elliot. The pair were married in 1784, and Elizabeth produced four children: one of these was a boy, who was dead at the...

In terms of the plot, Mrs. Smith is vital in providing some much needed background information on the other characters. She is the one to let Anne know the dealings with the younger Mr. Elliot,...

Anne is a more intelligent and less naive character than Harriet. She understands, at this point in her life, the deceptive nature of many of her friends, as well as the traps that can result from...

Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion is one centred on the concept of place, both social and geographical. In the rural upper class society that Austen describes, social place was associated with...

In most Austen novels we see how the characters who are less important are also described as "plain" or "not as beautiful" as the characters that serve as ornamental balances in contrast to the...