Interiority and Narrative Temporality in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Authors

Margaret Flahery, College of the Holy CrossFollow

Abstract

Jane Austen’s last completed work, Persuasion, explores protagonist Anne Elliot’s female agency through use of free indirect discourse and time shifts. In the novel, published in 1817, Austen mediates between different time periods — the present day and seven years prior — to demonstrate Anne’s maturity and the evolved perspective of a woman’s status in society. Anne’s shifting interiority reflects what it means to be a woman in the Regency era, and, perhaps, across time, as she breaks out of the mediated and subjective perceptions placed upon her by herself and other characters. The result is a revolutionary conception of marriage for Austen’s 1817 audience and modern audiences alike; Anne’s reunion with her past love Captain Wentworth is a result of their newfound intersubjectivity and reconciliation of the past. Austen’s last completed work, therefore, uses point of view and temporal shifts to celebrate female agency and redefine the understanding of a partnership.

Recommended Citation

Flahery, Margaret (2020) "Interiority and Narrative Temporality in Jane Austen’s Persuasion," The Criterion: Vol. 2020, Article 4.
Available at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/criterion/vol2020/iss1/4