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One writer, however, proved in novel after novel that a change of scene can also inspire a lasting change of mind. It might shake the blinkered out of an unhelpful way of seeing the world, or reveal hidden depths in overlooked friends and acquaintances. It can take people away from those who do not appreciate them, and introduce them into new communities in which they thrive.
Jane Austen’s heroines are a nomadic bunch, by and large. The author is known for psychological development, but the emotional and educational progress of her romantic plot lines is almost always kick-started by a series of more literal journeys. Movements between home, “seasons” in the city and prolonged visits to family and friends map out narrative progress towards love.
Following the footsteps of one Austen protagonist, Anne Elliot of Persuasion (1817), reveals how the different narrative locations she inhabits present different opportunities for her to grow in confidence and reclaim a love that she thought lost forever. At the same time, they also enable Frederick Wentworth, her erstwhile fiancé, to reconsider his false assumptions about her and see her in a more truthful (not to mention more flattering) light.
It’s something I explore in my soon-to-be-published book, Love and Landscape: Iconic Meeting Places in Classic and Contemporary Literature.
When we meet Anne at the beginning of Persuasion, she clearly needs to get out more. She is 26 and unmarried, having been convinced at 19 by her snobbish family to end her engagement to Wentworth.
Now, she is unloved and overlooked by her father and elder sister Elizabeth and, when her family’s profligate spending means they must rent out their home and seek cheaper accommodation, it is a blessing in disguise for Anne.
She goes first to visit her other, married sister in the Somerset village of Uppercross. Mary is as self-centred as Elizabeth and their father, but does at least love and appreciate Anne. Mary’s sisters-in-law, Louisa and Henrietta Musgrove, live nearby with their parents and are fond of her too. Crucially, this kinder branch of Anne’s family is also connected to the now-Captain Wentworth, who has made a good career for himself in the Napoleonic wars and is warmly welcomed into their circle.
Anne’s first move having brought her into better company, she then makes a second journey, with this group, to the coastal town of Lyme Regis. Here, the fresh sea air restores her faded youth, and Wentworth is gratifyingly present when a passing stranger looks at her “with a degree of earnest admiration”.
Continues…
For the full article by Dr Barbara Cooke visit the Conversation.
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