A Serendipitous Progression of Events: Historical and Personal Circumstances in 'Persuasion' Anonymous College

The party line for Jane Austen’s Persuasion traditionally emits the idea that true love can combat all obstacles despite what menacing circumstances present. This romantic notion gives the implication a person is in control of his/her own fate. Persuasion uses this idyllic claim most readily observed in the relationship between Captain Fredrick Wentworth and Anne Elliot. The two characters are written as falling madly in love with each other from a tender age but ultimately break ties due to buriers of birth and finance. Austen begins the narrative eight years later when Captain Wentworth comes back into Anne’s world, and the two fight circumstantial battles to ensure a romantic end. Though the novel is commonly read as a triumphal battle in the name of love where brute persistence endures circumstances of the past and present, the opposite reasoning is actually true. The relationship of Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth does not owe its success to a romantic fortitude exerted by both individuals, but in actuality owes credit to the set of mere circumstances which are a result of the historical setting, the actions of surrounding characters.

The setting of Persuasion was written in a historical time period where Britain was at...