Monday, April 9, 2012
Plot
I agree with Elise's post below that the speed of the plot in Persuasion is quite slow. We have only finished the first volume of Austen's final novel and yet Anne has not even made it to Bath. I believe there are three reasons for this lack of speed in the plot. The first reason is that Persuasion, unlike the rest of Austen's novels, spends a considerably large amount of time recalling the past through both narration and dialogue. Unlike novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion doesn't give all the background information in the first few chapters; rather, Austen laces the past of Anne Elliot into myriad chapters as information becomes more relevant to the present plot. While recalling the past certainly puts the present plot in context within Persuasion, it does little to advance the plot further along. The second reason the plot seems slow is the massive amounts of dialogue. At least it seems, to me, that Austen has inserted more dialogue than usual. This dialogue functions primarily for character development and interpersonal subplots; nevertheless, the dialogue rarely advances the plot. Finally, the reason the plot isn't moving in Persuasion is that there are simply too many characters. Because Austen has to spend so much time developing all of the characters that she introduces, she can't focus as much on making them do significant things.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am interested in your first reason for the plot moving so slowly. Usually Austen sums up all the past in a confusing first few paragraphs of a novel. For instance, in Sense and Sensibility we are given a quick family history of death and inheritance and then the plot zooms forward into the present time and we stay there. In this novel we start in the present and are slowly given bits and pieces of the past as they come up. I wonder what changed for Austen in this book. Perhaps this is her becoming more subtle as she advanced as a writer. Either way I find the pace of this novel interesting. I do feel that there is at least one burst of energy at the end of Volume I and I am curious to see if there will be any more of those in the next volume.
ReplyDeleteI think chapter IX in Volume 2 is a great example of this style that you've pointed out. Austen uses dialogue to present the significant backstory of Mr. Elliot. This is very similar to how Brandon reveals Willoughby's past story in Sense and Sensibility. However, it's interesting to note that this time it is a poor, frail woman who reveals the past rather than a wealthy man. Perhaps by this time, Austen wanted to give the frail woman a powerful voice in the story. I wonder what it would have been like if Eliza had been able to tell Willoughby's tale.
ReplyDelete