Luck and Fortuitous Circumstance in Persuasion: Two Interpretations
1965; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2872215
ISSN1080-6547
Autores Tópico(s)Psychology of Social Influence
ResumoA striking feature of Jane Austen's Persuasion is the way the action so frequently leads to the brink of disaster. Often the characters face situations whose only results, seemingly, can be misery, waste, and suffering. Other commentators of course have noticed this dark, menacing quality of the novel. Joseph Duffy, for example, points out the frequency of symbols of death and decay,' asserts that the heroine, Anne Elliot, comes face to face with what James called the mysteries abysmal, 2 and defines the novel's world as one in which life is precarious, the consequences of apparently reasonable choice are sometimes unreasonable, [and] benign forces do not lavish on the well-intentioned person fabulous and fortuitous rewards. ' Yet, though the novel borders on tragedy, the events invariably take a happy turn, and Jane Austen leads the reader eventually to the felicitous conclusion he expected all along. It is true that the ending does not result from the reasoned and well-intentioned choices of the characters; yet, by the end of the novel, everyone is appropriately rewarded, and the rewards seem, to a great extent, to be fortuitous. Andrew Wright emphasizes this point in his discussions of Persuasion: Anne almost loses him [Captain Wentworth] forever [the dark possibility]; it is a set of very fortunate (and fortuitous) circumstances-the renting of Kellynch to his sister's husband, his own remarkable success in the Navy, the fall of Miss Musgrove at Lyme-that finally brings them together again.4 Wright, however, never analyzes thoroughly these fortuitous circumstances,
Referência(s)