The Social Upheaval in Persuasion by Jane Austin

In the novel Persuasion, Jane Austin presents a story about the marriage of the main character Anne Elliot. In doing so she paints a picture of British society in the early 1800s when Britain was ending it’s war with France. She writes of the British Empire, which is characterized by the Navy officers returning home, and she writes of the social divisions of the time in the form of the distinction between the different classes of society. The major change that seems to be occurring in the novel at this time is the social upheaval caused by Navy men returning from war with enough prestige and money to associate with (and even marry) those of the old landowning class. This is characterized by Anne’s reunion with Frederick Wentworth, a Navy officer.
Before the major upheaval occurs Jane Austin gives us a glimpse of what social life, the class distinction, was like through the perspective of Ann Elliot. Ann is the second out of three daughters to Sir Walter Elliot, the proud head of the family (Austen, 2). The Elliots are an old landowning family that seems well known in the upper echelons of British society. The most important piece of background we are presented with as central to the plot of the story is that eight years prior to the setting Ann was engaged to a man she loved, Frederick Wentworth. They were soon engaged, but her family along with mother-like figure, Lady Russell, soon persuaded Ann that the match was unsuitable because Frederick Wentworth was essentially unworthy without any money or prestige (Austen, 30). This piece of background echoes exclusivity among the upper classes of Britain. In that time it would seem unacceptable for a girl like Ann with a family like hers to marry or even associate with someone not of ...

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...n their success and accomplishments, elicited social changes to British society that could be deemed more valuable than further militaristic expansion. Men like Captain Frederick Wentworth brought an end to the exclusive status of landowning gentry like Sir Walter Elliot. Anne believed Captain Wentworth possessed better values than the vain Sir Walter Elliot. His social status was earned through achievements in the Royal Navy rather than being set by birth. The historical picture one can conclude from Persuasion then is that joining the Royal Navy allowed men greater social mobility in the early 1800s than ever before. Frederick Wentworth started out as nobody, but then became a rich Navy officer married to Anne Elliot, who was before too high in the social hierarchy for him to be associated with.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Persuasion. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Electronic.