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A CRITICAL EXPLORATION of JANE AUSTEN's PERSUASION Carroll

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A CRITICAL EXPLORATION of JANE AUSTEN's PERSUASION Carroll A CRITICAL EXPLORATION OF JANE AUSTEN'S PERSUASION by Carroll Ann Goon A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Master of Philosophy The Institute for Christian Studies Toronto, Ontario / A,-■ f\ l 55 r-rt There are many judgments that can be made on any artwork, many things that can be said about it. There are even many kinds of aesthe­ tic judgments which can be made. I have tried in this paper to make three aesthetic determinations on a certain novel: 1) its over-all meaning, the way in which the parts contribute to the whole meaning; 2) its relative depth and significance; 3) its contribution to the developing task or calling of the novel. These, although by no means the only ones possible, are the aesthetic judgments I have attempted to make. I have chosen in this paper to work with Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, because it seems complex and interesting in several respects. Published in 1818, it shares as much with the earlier Neoclassical period as it does with its contem­ porary, the Romantic period. It is similar to, but also different from, Jane Austen's previous novels, and seems to move in a somewhat new direction. Finally, although in general it has not fared well in the literature— unlike Pride and Prejudice or Emma, it is often dismissed as a failure--several important modem critics and writers have pointed out its depth and significance. In making these judgments on Persuasion, I would agree with the New Critical emphasis on looking at the artwork itself in its integrity. Aesthetic judgments are impossible unless we understand the work itself, in itself. In Chapter 2, I attempt a close reading of the text of Persuasion. I believe this is possibly a helpful contribution, because Persuasion has not been treated well in the literature. The few arti­ cles explore a single theme, character, or event, without exploring its relation to other parts and the relation of all these parts to the whole. In larger critical works, the chapters on Persuasion usually examine one dimension of the work, like a specific theme or the quality of its diction. One of the few works that does try to grasp the whole seems to misconstrue Persuasion so seriously that it demands a thorough­ going new reading of the work. I have tried to make what I believe are necessary judgments about the central meaning of Persuasion, and I have tried to support this with reference to the cumulative direction of individual parts and dimensions. In doing so, I have tried to draw to­ gether as many aspects of the work as were possible and relevant in the ii context of this paper. This kind of close reading, I believe, must form the basis for any judgments we make on Persuasion. However, it is impossible adequately to treat any artwork simply in itself; we inevitably see it within a certain context or framework which affects the kinds of judgments we are likely to make. For example, if we look at Persuasion in the context of modem novels, we may see it as moralizing and stiff; but if we look at it in the context of 18th-19th century novels, we may see it as precisely the opposite. I have chosen to view Persuasion in its timed cultural context of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, because I believe that the actual context of the writing is very important to any artwork. I am working with the sugges­ tion that there is at a certain time a cultural homogeneity, driven by a cultural spirit, which gives a certain time a definite character. I also work with the suggestion that there is another kind of continuity— of tradition or outlook. In Chapter 1 I try to map out some of the basic coordinates— for example, Rococo, Neoclassical and Romantic. I use the areas of philosophy, art theory, and the novel simply to provide a broader spectrum of different cultural responses that nevertheless manifest the same driving spirit. In Chapter 3 I have tried to locate Persuasion more specifically by examining its kinships— whether closer or more distant— with Richardson’s Clarissa and other works. This kind of comparison forces me to be more precise in my judgments of Jane Austen's novel. The final aesthetic judgment I; make on Persuasion concerns its contribution to the developing task or calling of the novel. Although several critics have interested themselves in this general issue, my formulation of it reflects my own larger perspective and assumptions. I assume that the novel, as one part of our God-given task, is called to praise God and serve our neighbor in its own distinctive way. I suggest that the novel has a peculiar ability to present a fictional story modi­ fied by many different perspectives and attitudes; in fact, the attitudes of the characters and the narrator may be as important to the total effect as the story itself. In Chapter 4 I have tried to make a prelim­ inary judgment on Persuasion that is specific and relative rather than sweeping and absolute. I have chosen to surround a close reading of the work itself iii with these timed cultural contexts because I believe they are central to the aesthetic judgments I am trying to make on Persuasion. However, they are not the only ways; many more comparisons are helpful in illum­ inating a work. For example, I think it would be very interesting to compare Persuasion with Jane Eyre and The Portrait of a Lady. This paper is only a starting-point; I hope it will be provocative in its methodo­ logy and its conclusions, and possibly suggestive of other interesting lines of investigation. Carroll Ann Goon 8 March 1983 Toronto CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE CONTEXTS OF PERSUASION ............................ 1 The Philosophy Context The Art-Theory Context The Novel Context CHAPTER II. THE ANALYSIS OF PERSUASION............................ 46 Thematic Structuring Elements Narrative Qualities Fictional Personae and Interrelationships CHAPTER III. THE KINSHIPS OF P E R S U A S I O N ......................... 84 The Historical Community The Spiritual Community The Personal Situation CHAPTER IV. THE DEVELOPMENTAL CONTRIBUTION OF PERSUASION ........... 122 Survey of Contemporary Views Suggestions Toward a Different View Development from Richardson’s Style Contribution to the Historical Situation NOTES...........................................................149 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 168 CHAPTER I THE CONTEXTS OF PERSUASION Any assessment of the character of Jane Austen's Persuasion and of its contribution to the development of the novel requires at least some general understanding of the historical background and context. Primarily, of course, this context is the development of the novel from mid-century to Jane Austen. But also relevant are the broader contexts of art theory and general philosophy. These contexts provide a multi­ faceted background against which to understand and evaluate Persuasion. They may be viewed as concentric circles, and I shall work from the out­ side in, sketching briefly a few of the relevant aspects of general phil­ osophy, art theory, and positions taken by writers of the novel in the eighteenth century. 1.1 The Philosophy Context English philosophy of the eighteenth century has its roots in the late seventeenth century, particularly in the philosophy of John Locke. Harald Hbffding says that it is Locke who initiates, or at least prepares the way for, "critical" philosophy: If (following Kant) we understand by dogmatism a movement which, without sufficient examination of the conditions and limits of our knowledge, uses our concepts to investigate the nature of things, while critical philosophy investigates the faculty of knowledge itself, before it proceeds to speculate concerning existence, then critical philosophy definitely begins with John Locke.1 Locke wants to investigate the limits and processes of knowledge before concerning himself with the things to be known. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), the result of this beginning of "critical" philosophy is a fundamental empiricism; ideas exist not as innate concepts, but primarily as uJ.niple Ideas arising 1 rum immediate sensations, either external (sensation) or internal (reflection). Knowledge consists of 2 immediate intuition which perceives fundamental relations between these simple ideas, thus resulting in complex ideas, ideas of relation, and abstract ideas. And a series of intuitively-combined ideas is a "dem­ onstration." For Locke, only intuition and demonstration have absolute validity, as HBffding says: Just as Locke's doctrine of the origin of ideas contains a sharp contrast between the passivity in the reception of simple ideas and the activity in the formation of secondary ideas so, in his doctrine of the validity of knowledge, we find a no less sharp contrast between "sensitive" knowledge, which can only give us probability, and intuitive and demonstrative knowledge, which afford complete certainty and necessity. (H, 1:387) In this way Locke is "an empiricist respecting the origin of ideas, and __a rationalist with regard to their application." (H, 1:387) For Locke, empiricism may be the epistemological format, but it is still subordinate to a rationalistic certainty. Despite this emphasis, however, Locke's empiricism is a very important development, as becomes even more evident when viewed in its wider scientific context. As G. S. Rousseau points out, Locke origin­ ally studied medicine at Oxford and read physiology with Thomas Willis, whose Cerebri Anatome (1664) and Pathologiae Cerebri (1667) made "an imaginative leap of the first order" by theorizing that the soul was located in and limited to the brain, and thus linking sensitivity with 2 the working of the soul. That this theory had great imaginative value is evident in the work of Albrecht von Haller's Uber den Ursprung des Ubels (1734).
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