I just finished reading "Persuasion" by Jane Austen. She is my guilty pleasure. As we do while reading literature of this ilk, I found myself identifying with the heroine of the novel, Miss Anne Elliot, in ways I never imagined. As one of the lesser known Austen novels, Persuasion doesn't get the credit it deserves. This is a true tale of romance pushing the boundaries between what is expected from the privileges of rank and what is practiced.For Miss Anne Elliot, at the age of 19, the course of true love was a mystery. She had fallen in love and been proposed to by a handsome, intelligent gentleman who truly valued the worth of a beautiful woman with a kind heart and sweetness of character. She was persuaded by her close friend and only mother figure to deny her own feelings. The future Captain Wentworth, as enamored of Anne as she was with him, wished to marry her before becoming an officer in the British navy. Looking back on the situation 9 years later, both Anne and Wentworth understand the reasons behind Anne's decision. To wait for years on end for a husband to return from war causes strain and heartbreak on both ends. Their love was deep enough to survive their separation, and after 8 long years trying to forget the other they were reunited by chance and lived happily ever after.
Women like to be crossed in love every once in a while, it gives them something to think about. During the time period, an unmarried woman over the age of 26 had little to no prospect of ever marrying and became a burden to their parents. Anne had 8 years to reflect on the tenderness she experienced around Wentworth and to contemplate on how her life would be altered had she run away with him at the opportune moment. The Elliot family was well off, and either daughter would have made a profitable connection. However, Anne's father was not as fond of her as he enjoyed his younger daughter, and Anne would not be treated with the respect or given the fancy baubles her sister received. As such, she was able to blossom into a delicate, caring, kind hearted young woman, as beautiful on the inside as Wentworth (and the rest of the town) found her on the outside.
Women do not move forward as quickly as men, we are not so easily diverted from our past loves. Anne suffered for years on end alone, throwing herself into her humanitarian works rather than developing the pride that would be the downfall of the Elliots. Meanwhile Wentworth compared the merits of each woman who captured his interest to those of Anne and finally declared none other came close to an equal.
The greatest wish I could ever ask would be for a man to love me as Wentworth loved Anne.
"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant."
- Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 23.
