"[A] persuasive character may sometimes be as much in favor of happiness as a very resolute character." (Persuasion, Ch. 12)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. The persuasion seems to rely on the deep division between the two then-contemporary forms of the novel – one form based on Augustan values, in which the rational precedes the irrational, and the second based on romantic taste, in which the inner world of imaginations precedes the external world of evidence. While Austen's previous novels had always asserted an Augustan taste, in Persuasion she seems to grant some validity to the Romantic point of view, and at least leaves the reader pondering an ambivalent answer to the question of whether Anne Elliot has acted correctly in succumbing to Lady Russell's persuasion. , while her initial, instinctive desire for a relationship with Captain Wentworth ultimately remained unchanged. Overall, the question is whether Anne was right to be guided by apparently well-intentioned caution, or whether she would have been better advised to take a risk and follow the dictates of her heart. Midway between these two options, nowhere is this debate more evident than in the final chapters, where Austen delivers a final judgment on the question of romance versus prudence, leaving her readers somewhat perplexed. Anne said, as she had done earlier in Chapter IV, that she had been right to let herself be guided by an almost maternal friend, even if the advice was bad, and that in a similar situation, she would not have taken it. perhaps never given (chapter XXIII): "But I want to say that I was right to submit to her, and that if I had done otherwise, I would have suffered more by continuing the engagement than by even renouncing it , because I would have suffered in my conscience This, as well as the entire context of this sincere statement, comes from a person of the most remarkable moral sensitivity and integrity, but it seems to be directly opposed to this. which had also been an earlier belief, that while defending Lady Russell and herself, "she should still "The final capitulation to natural instinct is, however, a picture of Anne that is markedly different from that presented at the beginning of the novel. (This would also later prove significant in her rejection of William Elliot.) Indeed, Anne had even been prepared to reject Lady Russell's advice two years after following it: in chapter XXIII, Wentworth asks whether, in his returning to England in 1808 with a few thousand pounds, she would then have renewed the estrangement. He says of his response: “Would I!” "" was all his answer; but the accent was quite decisive. He regrets the wounded pride which had held him back from such a step and takes responsibility for it. This kind gesture on Wentworth's part, however, neglects the fact that ultimately, it is only when Anne uses the natural propensity of her heart to lead her to true love that she manages to save her relationship with him. The error in Lady Russell's judgment of character (which in turn led her to advise Anne imperfectly) is made explicit in chapter XXIV, when the narrator says: "There is a quickness of perception in some, a keenness in the discernment of character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal, and Lady Russell had been less gifted in this part of the understanding than her young friend. "It is this same 'speed of perception' that leads Anne to reject William Elliot, even before Mrs. Smith reveals the whole truth to hersubject: “Mr. Elliot was rational, discreet, polite, but he was not open. There was never any outburst of feeling, no warmth of indignation or joy, in the face of the evil or the good of others. For Anne, it was an obvious imperfection. She appreciated the frank, open-hearted and enthusiastic character more than all the others. The warmth and enthusiasm still captivated her. She felt that she could count much more on the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said careless or hasty things, than on those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped. to listen to the human impulse ("She had been forced into caution in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older - the natural continuation of an unnatural beginning"). It is this gradual realization that leads him to repeatedly recall his feelings for Wentworth. This is the most obvious proof of its capacity to lend itself to the romantic exaltation of emotion over reason and the senses over the intellect. Significantly, Anne's most intense efforts also involve understanding and living with her feelings, which are often subdued. in dominant ways. Often, when Anne argues against what she feels, the particular reason turns out to be wrong. When Anne begins to “reason” or when she hopes “to be wise and reasonable in time,” reason means no. being in love with Wentworth. But it is undoubtedly not a novel in which the feelings are “false” and the reasoning is “right”. Anne's reasoning consists of giving herself time. In a sense, through these efforts, Anne aims to be able to feel. She wants to transform her “insane joy”, not into meaning, but into “sensible joy”. This gradual alteration of Anne's character and treatment of her own feelings towards Wentworth implies a certain romantic bipolarity that each initially represented (and which, to some extent, Anne continues to support, perhaps even flaccidly), in the denouement: "I have now, as far as such a feeling is permitted in human nature, nothing to reproach myself for"). While Anne relies to a large extent on the advice given to her "persuasive character" and considers her adherence to this advice her duty, Wentworth reveals himself to be a man "of a very resolute character" with a confident total in himself and in his powers to realize his own destiny. Having earned his money as promised in two years, but only after being turned down by Anne for marriage, Wentworth regretted the fact that Anne had not demonstrated the same degree of confidence in him, nor the same courage to defy his elders , to know his own. thinking or trusting one's own will. “She had demonstrated a weakness of character in doing so, which her resolutely confident character could not bear.” When he returns to the neighborhood and Anne has to listen to snippets of his conversation with Louisa on their walk to Winthrop, she hears him reiterate his faith in himself. Louisa declares that she would rather be knocked down by the man she loves than be driven in the carriage by someone else, and Wentworth "enthusiastically" exclaims, "I honor you!" " Later, when Anne overhears their conversation in the hedge, she hears him using words from an obviously romantic lexicon as he praises "resolution", "decision", "firmness" ”, of “the spirit” and the “powers of the spirit”. As Marilyn Butler notes, "Wentworth's personal philosophy approximates revolutionary optimism and individualism and he is impatient with, or barely acknowledges, these assertions from a mentor which, for him, may be dismissed by the single word “persuasion”. » Inevitably, Wentworth compares his recklessness. faith.