Anne & Lady Russell

After finishing Persuasion, I decided to re-visit the connection I saw between Anne and Lady Russell in the first half of the novel.  In the very beginning of the novel, Jane Austen seems to make a very obvious effort to align Anne’s character with that of Lady Russell, but this relationship gains complexity through the end of the novel.  We see that Anne’s judgment has begun to diverge from that of Lady Russell with her impression of Mr. Elliot: “It was now some years since Anne had begun to learn that she and her excellent friend could sometimes think differently; and it did not surprise her, therefore, that Lady Russell should see nothing suspicious or inconsistent, nothing to require more motives than appeared, in Mr. Elliot’s great desire of a reconciliation” (Austen 168).  The reader gets a sense of Anne’s keener, deeper sense of people contrasted with Lady Russell’s agreement with the majority’s consensus about Mr. Elliot by looking at him on paper.  Lady Russell’s consideration of societal standards doesn’t harm her genuine care for Anne, it simply makes it slightly misguided by shallow objectives.  She still has good intentions for Anne in desiring Mr. Elliot to prefer Anne over Elizabeth, but her insistence on Mr. Elliot brings into question how well she really understands Anne.  We see Anne as much more interested in love than in the socially acceptable “matching” that often dominates the marriages in this time, contrasting with Lady Russell’s by-the-book (The Baronetage, perhaps?) interpretation of matchmaking. 

Though Lady Russell is the cause of the initial persuasion that leads Anne to her current situation, she largely escapes blame in the end.  Anne doesn’t necessarily take on responsibility for being so easily persuaded against her true feelings but instead deflects blame from Lady Russell by saying that she was following her sense of “duty.”  It would have been a little more romantic had Anne instead blamed herself for their separation, but I guess that was too much to ask for.  At least she doesn’t blame it all on Lady Russell; that would negate any sense of personal autonomy we get in understanding the decision as singularly Anne’s.  Lady Russell escapes blame in the eyes of Wentworth also when he blames himself for not persisting to win Anne’s heart: “a question has suggested itself, whether there may not have been one person more my enemy even than that lady? My own self” (Austen 253).  Personally, I don’t blame Wentworth for not pursuing Anne further after a rejection.  If I had been him, I would probably harbor a significant amount of resentment for Lady Russell, but I guess forgive and forget is the best course of action for a healthy future relationship.