Matriarchal Assertiveness in Jane Austen's Persuasion by Dr. V
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International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-7, August 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 Matriarchal Assertiveness in Jane Austen’s Persuasion Dr. V. Asokkumar M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, E.R.K. Arts & Science College, Erumaiyampatti – 636 905, Pappireddipatti (Tk), Dharmapuri (Dt). India [email protected] cognitive qualities with in her. She is also Abstract compared with Elizabeth Benet in Pride and Prejudice that Elizabeth is In Jane Austen’s persuasion Anne representative of women being capable and Eliot develops as this individual of her own worthy to reason in the world of men, as well as shifts from passive to active. She whereas Anne’s individualism gives women finally marries Wentworth at the end of the something even more important in Austen’s novel, the marriage is not needed to assertion of the validity and worth of female complete her because she has already made emotions. Persuasion represents the her emotional transformation independent maturity of Austen’s work and more than of the marriage proposal. Persuasion is her other Novels. Austen’s more radical novel, because it account for and endorses a philosophy Introduction Jane Austen wrote “Men have had where action is based up on emotion, every advantage of us in telling their own instinct and interest for one’s own personal story”. Moers reveals, “Education has been happiness. In persuasion, Austen theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen dramatically shifts from creating her has been in their hands. Now women seized heroine as governed by propriety and the pen; and female self – consciousness reason to being permitted and encouraged brought heroinism to literature. As literary to respond and act based up on emotion and women have always been grateful to say, it instinct and assertion virtually unheard of all went back to the first heroine of letters, in the male dominated sphere of polite Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, not because society. Anne’s character serves to of her virtue but because; as she says elucidate and cement this shift in Austen’s herself. I have got such a knack of writing, tone and feminist worldview. Among the that when I am by myself, I cannot sit heroines of Austen Anne receives different without a pen in my hands”. Margaret A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON AES, DES AND HYBRID ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM ON VPN NETWORK Dr. V. Asokkumar P a g e | 1145 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-7, August 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 Kirkham points out that, together with spendthrift, who lavishly over spends and Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen inherited he has brought the family into great debt. a common tradition of feminist By contrast Anne is completely free from development”. In the canon of British the snobbery which afflicts her father and literature Jane Austen occupies a high rank her sister Elizabeth. Anne’s judgments are among novelists. She is a realist and a correct because they are the outcome of practitioner of the domestic novel. Among earlier experience, and experience which her novels Persuasion represents the has involved her in much personal maturity of her vision and portrayal of her suffering. Moreover although she is female protagonists. ignored, she does not sit there feeling sorry for herself. Predicaments of Austen’s Heroine Portrayal of the Challenges in Persuasion is a story about the Persuasion Elliot’s family. Anne Elliot, the protagonist Jane Austen’s final novel, of Persuasion, is witty, clever and Persuasion, is an insightful portrayal of the considerate. At the age of nineteen Anne challenges faced by women in the 1800s. Elliot’s had fallen in love with Frederick The Story seen through the eyes of the Wentworth, but Anne disapproved to marry heroine, Anne Elliot. Her character him by accepting the words of Lady changes from passive to active over the Russell. Later Anne feels for her course of the novel. She holds both submissiveness to Lady Russell. This traditional and modern ideals to her should not be regarded as a weakness of character. Anne can be seen as the typical character. She acted passively no doubt, ‘sentimental core’, but at the same time she but as she later explains she thought it part is very headstrong. She can be seen as the of her duty to act in accordance with the emotional centre of the family. However advice of a woman whom she regarded as she is not always caring, she can also take her mother. Though Anne is on the whole on a more masculine role in certain a passive type of girl, she is capable of situations. This paper argues that Anne taking initiative when faced with a crisis. Elliot overcomes conventions as well as Sir Walter’s wife, the mother of shifts from passive to active. Through the Anne, died fourteen years ago and left him novel, Anne develops as this individual on with three daughters. Sir Walter is a A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON AES, DES AND HYBRID ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM ON VPN NETWORK Dr. V. Asokkumar P a g e | 1146 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-7, August 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 her own, and by the time she finally marries witty, clever, and considerate. Austen Wentworth at the end of the novel. referred to her in one of her letters as “a heroine who is almost too good for me”. Austen heroine she will make a Though Austen very frankly notes that the conscious effort to reject an inadequate bloom of youth has left Anne, and that she father, who is, in essence, a representative is not the prettiest of the young ladies in the of authority. Gilbert and Gubar also novel. Anne becomes most decidedly more maintain that this heroine will be fulfilled attractive when her better qualities are and a conclusion to the plot will be achieved noted. Anne is proud of her appearance, when the girl becomes a daughter to a and she is deeply hurt after overhearing that husband whereas becoming a man means Captain Wentworth thinks her appearance relinquishing achievement and much changed for the worst. Unlike her accommodating oneself to men. By a brief father, Anne also takes pride in practicality, exploration of Jane’s Austen’s Persuasion. intellect, and patience. Anne is feminine Anne Elliot seeks make approval in an while possessing none of what Austen attempt to complete a circle hat will bring clearly sees as the negative characteristics her from her ineffectual and effeminate of her gender. Anne is neither catty, flighty, father to realising her relationship with nor hysterical. On the contrary, she is level- Captain Wentworth. Miss Elliot conforms headed in difficult situations and constant to Gilbert and Gubar’s profile of a in her affections. Such qualities make her submissive female trying to survive, this the desirable sister to marry; she is the first survival id dependant on gaining male choice of Charles Musgrove, Captain approval and protection. Persuasion offers Wentworth, and Mr.Elliot. us such a heroine but one who acts submissively not only out of a sense of duty That Anne has her own mind is clear but also unconsciously. Lady Russell, from the way she rebels against the vanity although misguided at times, is allowed to of her father and elder sister. But Anne is truly dominate those around her, especially not one to avoid her responsibility and duty Anne. Though Persuasion dramatises a as a member of the upper class. She female’s herself for survival, it does allow understands and respects the importance of for a sense of quiet rebellion. making a “suitable” match, and is offended Anne Elliot, the protagonist of by the prospect of someone as low as Persuasion, is, like most Austen heroines, Mrs.Clay entering into her family through A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON AES, DES AND HYBRID ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM ON VPN NETWORK Dr. V. Asokkumar P a g e | 1147 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-7, August 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 marriage. She is conscious of the social a more masculine than woman normally did structure in which her relations operate, and in that time. through she may seek a bit more flexibility, she by no means wishes to seriously challenge notions of class. MATRIARCHAL ASSERTIVENESS IN JANE In the end, Anne concludes that she AUSTEN’S PERSUASION Persuasion has rightly been is right to have been persuaded by Lady described as a serious comedy. The serious Russell, even if the advice itself was problem for Jane Austen lay in managing misguided. The conclusion implies that the pssychological terms on which the what might be considered Anne’s flaw, her lovers could come together again. Anne, ability to be persuaded by others, is not really a flaw at all. It is left to the reader to who was responsible for breaking off her relations with Wentworth, must play an agree or disagree with this. But overall, she must be highly regarded; for in her respect active part in the healing of the breach. It is in this light that the cancelled chapter in for duty and with and independent mind, Anne balances passion and practicality. Persuasion must be seen. Jane Austen found something wrong in the way she had However, Anne is not always brought the lovers together in that chapter. In it there is rather artificially contrived in caring. She can also take on a more masculine role in certain situations. When incident when Admiral Croft compels Captain Wentworth to give Anne a message Louisa falls from the wall, Anne is the most calm out of everyone in the party. She is which assumes that she is to marry Mr.Elliot.