Persuasion Courtship Essay

Fay Weldon’s ‘Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen’ (1984) through the form of an epistolic novel, serves to enrich a heightened understanding of the contemporary issues of Jane Austen’s cultural context. In doing so, the responder is inspired to adopt a more holistic appreciation of the roles of women inherent in Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813). Due to the examination of the shift of attitudes and values between the Regency era and the 1980s, the reader comes to better understanding of the conventions of marriage for a women and the role education had in increasing one’s marriage prospects. Weldon’s critical discussion of these issues transforms a modern responder’s understanding of the role of a woman during the 19th century.

In the nineteenth century, the question as to the foundation and purpose of courtship and marriage emanated. The basis for this analysis was whether relationships should be navigated utilizing emotion and feeling or reason and logic. The literary work of Regency era author, Jane Austen, details such a balance, as it endeavors to convey Austen’s interpretation of true affection between couples of well-examined intrinsic morality. The characters of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice contend with the moral vices of pride and prejudice as they overcome judgements about one another and ultimately experience love.

In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, unlike many of her previous works the protagonists involved are middle aged lovers; Anne and Wentworth, who struggled with love before. The narrator of the story has given up on Anne’s prospective of marriage, and so has Anne; however, knowing the conformist pattern of protagonists in her novels, the reader can expect the outcome of Anne’s relationship. Indeed, as it becomes known that the Crofts are to be chosen as the future residents of Kellynch Hall and the possibility of Wentworth again appearing in front of Anne exposes itself, there is a sense of recurrence in the events that initially led the falling apart of the two before. Persuasion is a suitable title for this novel, as must reconsider her previous

The value given to marriage in the 18th century is examined by Jane Austen in pride and prejudice. These values are further explored and evaluated by Letters to Alice. Pride and Prejudice shows the urgency and importance placed on marriage as a vehicle for getting wealth, social status, and a home for women of the 18th century. Letters to Alice brings new insight into the context surrounding the motives of marriage in Pride and Prejudice, whilst also providing insight into the marriages of Weldon’s own era. Charlotte Lucas is characterised as a woman not ‘thinking higher either of men or matrimony,’ but she still marries Mr Collins

Texts and their adaptations are significant when comparing the paradigms in place in their respective time periods. Throughout history, there has been a drastic change of belief on the importance of marriage. When Frank Churchill, in Emma by Austen, finally announces his hidden engagement to Jane Fairfax, there is a considerable uproar for many reasons. Personally, to Emma, she felt deceived as she thought she was beginning to develop real feelings for Churchill. Although, to everyone else in the town, this engagement was seen as a scandal; particularly as he was seen as much worthier status and finance than his fiancé. Also, this kind of ‘reckless’ behaviour is accentuated by valued character, Mr Knightley, who comments with high modality, “This is very bad. He had induced her to place herself, for his sake, in a situation of extreme difficulty and uneasiness”. With this negative response from the Highbury community,

serve her best work ethic toward being the wife of Collins. Referring to her own statement, "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,”(Austen 30), she has chosen a life of misfortune. Unfortunately, Charlotte and Collins’ marriage was common in 1800s, and still is to our present days. We measure each other’s wealth, not love; we let future to depend on wealth, instead of creating our own pathway; we believe that wealth is the ultimate fame, not happiness. Pride is an empty pleasure that corrupts humans’ primary senses.

Examine Austen’s presentation of what is called in the novel, ‘women’s usual occupations of eye, and hand, and mind’. In Jane Austen’s society, the role of women was controlled by what was expected of them. In most cases, marriage was not for love, and was considered as a business arrangement, in which both partners could gain status and financial reassurance. Though Austen opposed the idea of none affectionate marriage, many

The assumption of money implying the quality of one's past and future is concretely established in this scene. For this very reason, Sir Walter did not want his daughter to marry a working man. He was afraid that if she would settle with someone who was not economically fit, she would be at a disadvantage, which was a common misconception during this time period. “Though every profession is necessary and honorable in any, who can live in a regular way, choosing their own hours... I say, to hold the blessings of health and a good appearance to the utmost” (Austen 20). Austen utilizes this passage to explain the character of Sir Walter and also show how much of an impact his views have on Anne. Although she loves Wentworth, she values her father's opinion much more. Austen goes on to illustrate another important characteristic of a man by creating dialogue between Mr. Shepherd, a family friend who only speaks of non-controversial topics, and Anne. Mr. Shepherd goes on to say, “Wentworth- Oh! Mr. Wentworth, the curate of a Monk-ford. I thought you were speaking of some man of property; Mr Wentworth was a nobody, quite unconnected” (Austen 23). Property was also used as a measurement of one's social class, which made Wentworth “unworthy” of Anne. Wentworth's lower social standing caused anxiety to her family as they were afraid it would hurt Anne if they were to get married. The

In Persuasion, the last of Jane Austen’s works, the readers are immediately intrigued by the autumnal tone of the piece, and the mellowness of the main character, Anne Elliot. Anne, a twenty-seven year old upper middle class woman, met and fell in love with Captain Frederick Wentworth at the age of nineteen. She was however, forced to break off the relationship at the time because Wentworth was deemed an unsuitable match. Eight years later, they meet again and by that time Captain Wentworth has made his fortune in the navy and has become an attractive catch. Anne was now uncertain about his feelings for her. Persuasion examines English society’s view of marriage and

England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage

The failings of not marrying for love are again made apparent by Austen through the account of Lydia and Wickham and their shortfalls. Lydia and Wickham’s relationship was built on a mixture of youthful attraction and naivety. In the letter she sends to Harriet,

Through the use of literary devices, Pride and Prejudice reveals Jane Austen’s attitude towards the novel’s theme of true love through the actions of the suitors; the process of courtship in the 1800s articulates characterization, foreshadowing, and irony. The novel opens with the line, “it is a truth acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife,” (Austen 1) which foreshadows the conflict of finding a significant other . During the Victorian age, men and women courted others of the same education, wealth, and social status; it was considered uncommon for someone to marry beneath them or to marry for love. Jane Austen uses Elizabeth Bennett’s encounters with different characters of varying

In Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion, England is one large family with two distinct branches, the navy and the aristocratic upper class-it is no accident that the two large books consulted in the novel are the Baronetage and the Naval Lists. The naval family poses a threat to the aristocratic family; in fact, undertones of social instability riddle the text, through imagery of death, illness, and accident. The marriages of Anne Elliott, Louisa Musgrove, and Harriet Musgrove reveal a gentry which can only redeem itself through intermarriage with the professional meritocratic class, symbolically taking on their values of utility and social responsibility, and

Elizabeth’s snobbish pride hinders her from understanding her friend Charlotte Lucas’s best interests in regard to her desire to marry Mr. Collins. Elizabeth “prides herself on being a perceptive “studier of character,” as Mr. Bingley calls her, but how well does she really know her very good friend Charlotte…” when she “responds with amazement and horror” upon hearing that Charlotte wants to marry a man who is “dull”, “pompous” and “physically unattractive”. Elizabeth’s excessive pride blinds her from recognizing that Charlotte is “not much interested in men and very much interested in marriage” (Moler, 26). Elizabeth could have ruined the prospects of Charlotte’s marriage because of her self-importance in the way she

Jane Austen’s well-known novel, Pride and Prejudice, discussed multiple social themes in the 19th century. Austen mainly criticized marriage during her era, when she says that, “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 3). As she explains that it was valuable to women since it provided them with security and a social title. The author explored the diverse motives behind matrimony in her time period by using a humorous and romantic plot to discuss the social issues. For instance, Charlotte Lucas’s unreasonable marriage to Mr. Collins is a vital example of how women needed to secure a future and attain social status. To conclude, Lydia Bennet’s meaningless marriage to George Wickham shows that entering the marriage estate could have also been for mainly financial purposes. Contrastingly, Jane Bennet, the heroine’s older sister, marries Charles Bingley for love, security, and a social ranking. On the other hand, Elizabeth Bennet marries Fitzwilliam Darcy after months of misunderstandings and romantic drama for none other than true love. Thus, Austen uses her leading characters’ marriages in Pride and Prejudice to exhibit the various attitudes and reasons for marrying in the 19th century. (Lane 2015)