Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A Polished Ending
I found an interesting contrast between the actual ending and the other ending found in the appendix. The original ending that Austen wrote felt very contrived kind of like the endings most of her other novels. It happens because of a very odd circumstance that just happens to befall the characters. In the other ending Anne accidentally runs into Admiral Croft who forces her upstairs where (guess who!) is Captain Wentworth. This time alone forces a confession from Anne that she is not engaged. This ending is very similar to her other endings in which characters are forced into improbable and random situations to get what they want. Her final ending is much more polished and for once has a character acting out for himself. Captain Wentworth hurriedly writes a note confessing to Anne his attraction for her rather than waiting for someone else to put them in a situation. He confesses that he has purposely been after her since Lyme. I love that finally an Austen ending has a character acting for himself and not waiting for some random happenstance. This makes the ending to this novel not seem like a hurried tying up of loose ends like her other novels. Her final novel shows a more sophisticated realism that still results in her happy ending. I think, by far, this has become my favorite Austen novel.
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I agree about the overall improvement of the actual ending. As we mentioned in class, it was astounding to note the number of contrivances that were originally required to push Anne and Wentworth together! I think my favorite part was the agency in Wentworth that you noted, but not only because it was someone taking action for themselves. My favorite reason why this was more suitable was because it fit Wentworth's character. A man of action like Wentworth who values strength and captures ships for a living would be much more likely to tell Anne himself about his affections rather than waiting until he happened to stumble upon a good moment to let her know. The opportunity came, and he took it. It seems like a very Wentworth-ish thing to do and actually makes me like him more as a character for being a man and getting the girl himself.
ReplyDeleteI found Persuasion refreshing because of Wentworth's character. We talked in class about how Wentworth values hard work and honorable conquest. Anne is the one who first ended things with Wentworth because he was not up to her social standards. In many of the other novels we've read, the men have been subpar in character when compared with the females. In Sense and Sensibility, Edward is privately engaged to another woman, and Willoughby leads Marianne on and ruins other women's reputations. In Mansfield Park, Edmund is desperately in love with the foolish Mary Crawford and ignorant of his compatibility with Fanny. In Persuasion, Austen provides a male character who actively pursues a girl, and for the right reasons. I think Wentworth serves as a great example to Victorian men -- and boys today, for that matter -- of a man who has the agency to honorably go after the woman he loves. Austen also uses him as a generic example of good upward masculine mobility. I enjoyed reading about a male character with a good head on his shoulders and a positive influence over the female protagonist.
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