Austen is using “free indirect discourse” in alliance with
Lady Russell on her reasoning and ultimate persuasion as to why Captain
Wentworth is not suited for Anne in Chapter 4, 3-4 paragraphs in.
Rewrite in alliance with Anne:
“Anne
Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty , and mind to have found true love
at nineteen; be able to commit herself to an engagement with a young man with
nothing but himself and his love for her, at her young age. What a rare, unpredictable thing! It may not be ideal, for he does not have the
fortune that he promises to the lady with time, Miss. Anne is unable to resist. The two love birds have fallen hopeless,
blindly, devoted to each other at an alarming pace. Anne Elliot, so young; known to very few,
swept off her feet by her soul mate without his alliance or fortune…yet. He has pulled her from a state of ever
wearing, or state of anxiety because he promises to covet his lady and make
sure they see brighter and always delightful days in each other’s company, of
course. It is said that if Anne had her
mother’s influence and love she would know better than to fall for sly Captain
Wentworth but it is impossible to meddle with fate, only post-pone it. If Captain is the one, Anne will find herself
by his side, cherishing each other’s love, in due time.
Captain
Wentworth does not yet have his fortune.
He has since been lucky in his profession, spending freely what has come
to him. Anne is not worried because she
is familiar with this behavior to be the same as her own father and often associates
males with unruly spending. She prides
herself on her abilities to be frugal.
She finds comfort in Captain’s confidence and believes she may be able
to monitor and ultimately control his spending habits if she is lucky enough to
marry the man she believes to be the “one.”
It is undeniable to Anne that Lady Russell disapproves of her courtship
to Captain. She cannot bear to ignore
her judgment, finding Lady Russell and her motherly influences dear to Miss
Anne’s heart. For Lady Russell finds the
same qualities Anne admires in Captain to be troublesome. Such confidence, fearlessness of mind and
powerful in his own warmth the boy has, so intriguing and beautiful to
Anne. Qualities she hopes her love will
instill in her with time. Anne believes
herself to be the luckiest young lady in town as her life falls together right
before her own eyes. Yet something, or
quite possibly someone, she does not know what makes her feel her completeness
and happiness may be too good to be true.”
I think your post really sheds light onto how ridiculous Lady Russell's reasoning is for Anne to not be with Wentworth. I love how you basically say, "All they will have is their love...how tragic!" like that isn't enough reasoning for two people to be together. I think it's interesting that you incorporated the bit about associating males with unruly spending and that, even though Wentworth has the same habits, it's fine because Anne thinks she can change him once they're together. I think that goes along with the age-old thinking of 'marriage equals sacrifice' and to show that Anne thinks that and is willing to adhere to that shows a lot of her character as well. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI like that you picked to re-write this scene in the novel. I think it does a good job of foreshadowing how Anne and Captain Wentworth are going to fall apart for eight years. Even though Anne is falling for him, this scene shows how Lady Russell (followed by other people) end up talking Anne out of loving Wentworth, until they eventually connect again eight years later. I thought you did a good job of writing the scene in the way that Jane Austen writes, too.
ReplyDeleteCorinne, you point out that Ashley's re-write has demonstrated how absurd Lady Russell's position is--and you're right about this, but I might also focus on a really strategic way in which she (Ashley) does it--just like Austen does. Here, Anne remains very fair-minded and generous toward Lady Russell; she doesn't sharply disagree or even claim that Lady R is wrong. Rather, she says: "It is undeniable to Anne that Lady Russell disapproves of her courtship to Captain. She cannot bear to ignore her judgment, finding Lady Russell and her motherly influences dear to Miss Anne’s heart." This allows Anne to retain the high ground and not appear disagreeable, but at the same time it enables the *reader* to make the harsher judgment against Lady R's classist and snobbish position. So Austen (and Ashley) get to have it both ways: an upstanding heroine with whom readers are supposed top identify, but a broader critical position on the part of the reader. The genius thing here is that the reader's position *disapproves* of Lady R's classism, but also allows Anne to remain a "good girl" who doesn't rock the boat or destabilize social hierarchy. So Austen gets to critique the social order while maintaining it at the same time. So Chris, you're right that Ashley is writing like Austen, but not just at the level of the sentence, but at the level of a larger didactic strategy.
ReplyDelete