Persuasion
Anne Elliot
The heroine
The quiet, observant middle daughter of a vain baronet, who gave up the man she loved at nineteen and has spent eight years believing it was the right choice.
Anne Elliot is the second daughter of Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall. She is gentle, intelligent and self-controlled, with more elegance of mind than anyone in her family gives her credit for. Her father and her elder sister barely notice her, while her younger sister Mary leans on her for every small complaint. Anne is the one people send for when something needs doing.
Eight years ago she was engaged to a young naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, and was persuaded to break it off. She has lived since then with a quiet grief and the belief that she could never love another. Anne wants very little for herself, and the story is largely about what happens when she finally lets herself ask.
“All the privilege I claim for my own sex... is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
When the Crofts take Kellynch Hall, Anne learns that Wentworth has returned. At Uppercross he treats her with distant politeness, and she hears he thinks her much altered. At Lyme, when Louisa falls from the Cobb, Anne is the only one who stays calm and gives clear directions, and Wentworth begins to look at her again.
In Bath she resists Mr. Elliot, with help from Mrs. Smith’s warning, and defends women’s constancy in a conversation with Captain Harville that Wentworth overhears. His letter, which she reads at the White Hart Inn, ends their long silence. They marry, and Anne takes pride in being a sailor’s wife.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
