Literary+Devices


 * Point of View**: //Persuasion// has a point of view with a narrator that has a limited omniscient third person who narrates tends to sympathize with Anne and follows Anne for the majority of the story.

The reader can easily tell that Anne is the main character of the story because the narrator follows her for the good majority of the story. There are very few passages in the story where Anne is not present, like the introduction describing Sir Walter Elliot and few other passages throughout the rest of the novel. By following Anne throughout the novel, the reader gets a good sense of Anne’s character and the situation that Anne is in, mainly through the narrator’s sympathy demonstrated towards Anne.

“Such opposition, as these feelings produced, was more than Anne could combat. Young and gentle as she was, it might yet have been possible to withstand her father’s ill-will, though unsoftened by one kind word or look on the part of her sister; but Lady Russell, whom she had always loved and relied on, could not with such steadiness of opinion, and such tenderness of manner, be continually advising her in vain. She was persuaded to believe the engagement a wrong thing…” (p.24).

This quote speaks of the previous engagement Anne had to Captain Wentworth and explains why Anne broke off the engagement. By saying things like it was ‘more than Anne could combat’ and describing Anne as this young and innocent girl, the narrator shows sympathy towards Anne and implies that Anne really had no other choice in her situation. The narrator describes a complete opposition to Anne and feels as though it was too hard for Anne to face all the opposition.

The most interesting part of the narrator’s point of view, however, is the fact that the narrator is detached for the whole story until the final chapter of the book in which the narrator says “This may be in bad morality to conclude with, but I believe it to be truth…” (p.223) and then goes on to give her opinion. This sudden inclusion of the narrator in the story sheds a new light on the story and there is a realization that the narrator is more connected to the story then the reader had originally and up until this point assumed. While the narrator never identifies her connection to Anne or Elliot’s story, there is not sufficient evidence to say that the narrator played a significant role in Anne or Elliot’s story. The reader is left to decide for himself what the narrator’s connection is and why she waited until the concluding chapter to reveal that she had a connection.

**Juxtaposition:** Austen uses juxtaposition throughout the story to develop the characters and to develop her themes. Juxtaposition is first introduced when the narrator describes Sir Walter Elliot’s relationship with each of his daughters. “Elizabeth had succeeded…to all that was possible of her mother’s rights and consequence; and being very handsome, and very like himself (Sir Walter Elliot), her influence had always been great, and they had gone on together most happily. His two other children were of very inferior value” (p.5). Austen juxtaposes the daughters early on to show that the relationship and personalities of each the daughters and their father would play an important role. Because Anne is one of ‘very inferior value,’ she does not have her father’s approval as easily as Elizabeth would, and therefore Austen uses the comparison to show the difficulty that Anne has in fulfilling her duty to her family when she receives a tremendous deal of opposition and disapproval. By comparing the daughters Austen develops her characters and the reader also gets a sense that Anne is not as petty as her sisters and that she is more logical in thinking. Austen uses juxtaposition to develop her themes as well. Throughout the novel, Anne struggles with fulfilling her obligations to her family and being with the one that she loves. But juxtaposing these struggles, Austen creates a very troubling situation for Anne who must decide if persuasion or independence is the right path for her—which is one of the themes throughout the novel.