1. Why is the novel called Persuasion? If the novel teaches a lesson about
persuasion, what is that lesson? Can you
use Aristotle’s Ethics to think about this question?
2. How does the estate--Kellynch Hall—function in the novel’s plot?
3. What does Austen imply by having an ancient family replaced by a Naval
family at Kellynch Hall? At what point
does Austen make the implications explicit?
So what? (BTW: Notice that the
book centralized at the Musgrove household challenges the one that is dominant
at Kellynch Hall.)
4. In the opening scenes of the novel, Austen uses irony to convey
the essential character of Sir Walter Elliot.
Then she makes her judgment explicit.
Explain how you think with Austen here.
5. What is irony? How does
irony affect the reader’s thinking?
6. If Aristotle were the director of Core Course, in which quarter
would we read Persuasion?
7. The Elliot family’s central problem is revealed by a
phrase in the book on the Baronetage: “a still-born son, Nov. 5, 1789”
(46). But Austen does not make the male
heir the central problem of the novel.
What is the central problem of the novel, and what are the
implications of Austen’s novelistic choice of de-centering the family problem?
8. Austen creates what I am calling a “satiric field” around her
favored characters. Explain the work
the novel gets done through elements of this satiric field: Sir Walter Elliot’s
vanity, for example, or Mary’s chronic anxiety about her health.
9. What does the word “connexions” mean? Trace its uses. What does Austen imply by these uses of the
term? (See, for example, pp. 66, 106, 108,
161 & 169 and collect other examples).
10. Descartes called for setting aside all habitual or customary or
traditional ways of thinking in order to think new by focusing all
mental attention on the present moment of thinking. What is the status of habitual, customary,
traditional ways of thinking in Persuasion? Does the novel offer ways of thinking new? Which characters are unable to think new?
11. What is the relation of the novel’s characters to the past?
(See, for example, p. 94).
12. When do servants appear in this novel? What sort of work
do they do? What do they say?
13. What does “independence” seem to mean in this novel? See pp. 50 & 93 and be attentive to other
uses.
14. What do you think of the way Wentworth made his money?
15. What is “indirect discourse”? What do you imagine “free indirect discourse” to be? Notice throughout the point of view through which Austen constructs her novel.
16. What do you make of Austen’s treatment of the Musgroves? See, for example, pp. 86 & 101.
17. What do you think is the “thematic” relation between Mary and
Mrs. Croft? What about the relation
between Dick Musgrove and Wentworth? Wentworth and Mr. Elliot? And perhaps
between Louisa Musgrove and Anne?
18. Much of the novel takes place in autumn and winter. What are the signals of that? And why might it be interesting?
19. What do you think of the Harvilles? (See, for example, p. 128 & 140.)
20. What does Captain Benwick read?
21. Does it take a set of sisters like Mary and Elizabeth to create
an Anne?
22. Why are the mirrors in Sir Walter’s dressing room important
(151)?
23. Notice that the transition to
24. What does “the unfeudal tone of the present day” seem to mean
(161)?
25. Why are Sir Walter and Elizabeth delighted with Mr. Elliot, and
why is Anne skeptical (160-3)?
26. Do a thought experiment and imagine this story told from
27. Think about Aristotle’s Ethics:
hitting the mean, excess, deficiency.
Could you make such a table from reading Persuasion?
28. What is Mrs. Clay’s position in the Elliot family? (See pp.
60-1, 72, 166-7.)
29. In the introduction to his The Improvement of the Estate (1971;
rpt. with new introduction, 1994), Alistair Duckworth says--
Mrs. Smith . . . is important as the final embodiment of a fate that
haunts all [Austen's] novels. Here at the last is the entirely
unsupported woman, reduced to bare existence without husband, society or
friends. Though she appears at the end of Jane Austen's writing life,
Mrs. Smith has always existed as a latent possibility in the novelists'
thought, an unvoiced threat, the other possible pole of existence.
Meeting her old friend after twelve years, Anne Elliot comes face to face with
her own possible fate. . . . For this is
the danger facing many of Jane Austen's heroines, that present security may
become total isolation, that residence 'in the centre of their property' in the
enjoyment of 'the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance ' may
be exchanged for life 'in lodgings' without the money even 'to afford . . . the
comfort of a servant.'"
What do you think of this
interpretation of Mrs. Smith? Try
pulling together all the details about her and then ask yourself how you would
interpret her significance to the novel.
(The evidence begins with p. 173.)
30. Captain Benwick and Louisa
Musgrove? What are we to think (185, 200)?
31. Who in this novel is polite? What does politeness mean?
32. There are several occasions of
overhearing: Anne overhears Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove; Anne overhears Mrs.
Clay and Elizabeth and Sir Walter; Wentworth overhears Anne and Captain
Harville. Why might overhearing be
important?
33. Why does Anne compare herself
with Mrs. Larolles? Who is Mrs. Larolles
(206)?
34. What does Mrs. Smith know about
Mr. Elliot (210 ff)?
35. What are Mrs. Smith’s
circumstances and how can Wentworth help her?
36. Analyze the episode in which Anne
and Captain Harville talk by the window (241-244). Which details seem most to invite comment?
37. What do you make of Wentworth’s
letter (245-6)?
38. What is Anne’s one regret at the
end of the novel (257-8)?
39. How would you sum up the
importance of the navy in this novel?
40. Most of these questions and most
of the lecture material involve us in thinking with Austen. What might it mean to think against Austen?