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“I am afraid, ma’am, that it is not perfectly understood
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” (Persuasion) Explore Austen’s presentation of the difficulties of
communication in Persuasion
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Sometimes insidiously and sometimes innocently, the
persuasion blurs almost all dialect within the novel, therefore making all real meaning and
thought of each character only available through crucial internal monologues
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The separate
spheres presented in this novel not only aid the temporary end of Anne and Wentworth, but
also present an idealistic couple within Admiral and Mrs Croft
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The first dialogue between characters in the novel is that of Lady Russell and Anne
acknowledging the potential difficulties of persuading Sir Elliot to rent the Kellynch Estate
‘If we can persuade your father to all this…much may be done
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Austen’s subtly
subversive and somewhat satirical tone is left to the reader’s interpretation throughout the
novel ‘the author’s voice returns in a variety of tone… its irony is perhaps a little more
muted…speak for themselves through demure narrative
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3)
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 P
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9  All  further  references  
will  be  given  in  the  body  of  the  text
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178  

Lady Russell will undertake, and this may bring into question if Lady Russell’s intentions are
pure or ignorant
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The second is his youngest daughter, Mary, making even Anne speak
her mind to her sister ‘And indeed, Mary, I cannot wonder at your husband
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A sick child is always the mother's property, her own
feelings generally make it so
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38)
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Lady Russell has a pivotal role in the novel, but it is undeniably difficult to judge whether the
actions she encouraged were for the best, and whether she was being selfish in advising Anne
against marrying Wentworth
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5)
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10) and because we trust Anne we wish to feel her faith, however, when
in Austen uses free indirect speech to allow free reign through Lady Russell’s thoughts when
recounting Anne and Wentworth’s end, the decision of the way one views Lady Russell’s
actions becomes completely subjective
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19)
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Perhaps
Austen is hereby presenting the fact that any communication with any person of a different
mind to you is difficult, unless you are a person of substance who can hold your own mind
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Anne
coolly rationalises her decision to take Lady Russell’s advice to Wentworth himself ‘If I was
wrong in yielding to persuasion once, remember that it was to persuasion exerted on the side
of safety, not of risk
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163)
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163) may
have been the wrong one, but that does not matter, because she followed the advice of a
trusted friend
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5)
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5), as well as being seemingly controlled or influenced by Lady
Russell
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165), and with this Anne stays silent about her own judgments
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The presentations of these difficulties of communication with
others happen frequently throughout the novel, ‘Up to Persuasion she (Austen) has been
concerned with the dangers of the imagination, but Persuasion shows us the perpetual and
common difficulty of being human
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She was still in the astonishment…by her friend’s penetration’ (p
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Although Austen writes about marriage, her novels are not always compliant with the typical
romance novel of the Romantic era
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192  

a marriage is to be successful, and this is something positive that Anne has absorbed from her
Father and Lady Russell, ‘a strong sense of duty is no bad part of a woman’s portion’ (p
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This necessity to feel that Wentworth’s financial success and class is imperative may seem a
frustrating reason to end pure love to the modern day reader, however the separate spheres
presented in the novel is a strong theme of foreshadowing that mirrors the attached and more
equitable relationship that could be, if the difficulties of communication did not exist between
Anne and Captain Wentworth
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Croft, who defy the expected domains of life for a naval man
and his wife ‘by coolly giving the reins a better direction herself, they happily passed the
danger…Anne…imagined no bad representation of the general guidance of their affairs’
(p
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This image of the couple steering the carriage together over danger is symbiotic of
their relationship, and defies any potential difficulties of communication; such an ideal is
particularly progressive for the time
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Within the Croft’s marriage, it seems as though they are in their own world, without separate
spheres or other opinions there to affect them, however one can feel how differently Anne
and Wentworth’s relationship is presented throughout the novel ‘it is in public that Jane
Austen’s men and women have to get to know each other, and have to endure the hazards and
inconveniences of social encounters’
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Austen throws the whole illustration of Wentworth into question when Anne overhears
                                                                                                                       
4

 Barbara  Hardy,  A  Reading  of  Jane  Austen    (London:  The  Athlone  Press,  1979)  p
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 Horwitz,  Jane  Austen  and  the  Question  of  Woman’s  Education  (New  York:  Peter  Lang  Publishing,  
1991)  p
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59) and although Wentworth is clearly touching on a topic very close to his heart; that
of a person with a strong mind, the satire presented here is clear
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59)
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Austen’s
distinctive irony is important within this passage, due to the ridiculousness of the comparison
of an absolute mind to that of ‘a beautiful glossy nut’ (p
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At this point in the novel, it still
is not clear if the firmness of mind described does indeed intensify happiness
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The doubt in Wentworth’s mind is
called into consideration when Anne is the only one of a stable enough mind to call for a
surgeon or ‘rub her hands, rub her temples’ (p
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In another internal monologue, Anne, who
had been stung by Wentworth’s overheard words ‘wondered whether it occurred to him now,
to question his own previous opinion’ (p
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77)
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Walking is
employed in this novel as a signal of character development, either to strengthen or change
the readers’ opinion of them, clear in this example of Wentworth
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The indirect actions between Wentworth are not only touching to read but also necessary to
highlight, as they say so much
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She is so affected, she does
not know if she is feeling “pleasure” or “pain”
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Overheard conversations of course are a huge way of presenting the difficulties of
communication, especially in the definitive conversation held between Captain Harville and
Anne; Anne finally speaks of her feelings of love ‘yours may be the strongest… ours are the
most tender
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155) One knows that Wentworth can hear, but still Wentworth can only then
reveal his love still at one remove by using a letter ‘I can listen no longer in silence
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’(p
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There is a kinder tone in
Persuasion, and certainly Emma, and one can only presume that Austen has found a softness
in her heart for women who are past their bloom, who may still find happiness ‘Jane Austen
never married and most of her life was part of the family life… Much of it was given to
family service- as daughter and niece, as sister, as aunt
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The
presentation of these difficulties; the lack of the communication between Anne and
Wentworth, Anne’s isolation, the separate spheres, the intruding and constant persuasion
within the dialogue and the family that do not see Anne only add to the eventual joy of
overcoming of these difficulties
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 Horwitz,  Jane  Austen  and  the  Question  of  Woman’s  Education  (New  York:  Peter  Lang  Publishing,  
1991)  
7
 R
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 Chapman,  Jane  Austen,  Facts  and  Problems  (London:  Oxford  University  Press,  1949)  p

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