Austen Post--*gasp* a major plot hole!
Major spoilers for Persuasion below.
How many times have I read Persuasion? Reveling in details to the extent that I, a strictly visual sort of reader and writer, can almost quote swathes of the text? I can certainly provide enough visual details to bore an army: Charles switching nettels on the walk back from the Hayters', pretending to hunt a weasel so he can drop Mary's arm. The sailor-like innovations and snugness of Harville's humble home. Mary playing with her keys and coins in the window at the White Hart Inn.
So . . . how, after all these years, and close readings, could I miss a major plot hole?
I do know that Austen had not considered the book finished. We have a completely different chapter ten, written in her version of first draft short hand. The ending we have now is polished, but evidence seems clear she would have gone over it once again if she'd had time, and I'll bet she would have caught herself. Coincidences were an acceptable, some have maintained even a respectable, part of 18th Century literature and drama. But Austen made fun of them clear back when she was a teen, writing satires on all the tropes of the literature she'd so avidly read.
Coincidences do occur in her books, though they are rare, and she worked very hard to provide reasonable explanations. I wonder if coincidences, even if she despised them, were just too much a part of the novel she was busy reinventing to be avoided. Mrs Gardner happening to grow up near Darcy's Pemberley is probably the most famous one. Austen satirizes others in Northanger. There are several coincidences in Persuasion but for the most part Austen smooths them into being reasonable. The Crofts renting Kellynch can be explained by Mrs. Croft's brother, the Wentworth who was in religious orders, having lived in the area and probably recommended it. Another coincidence is Mr. Elliot happening to stay at the inn at out-of-the-way Lyme the very weekend the Musgroves, Wentworth, and Anne are there. But Mr. Elliott never speaks, only looks--and they only find out his name after he is gone, which keeps the dramatic focus squarely on the ongoing relations between the Lyme party, Mr. Elliott's identity being touched on just long enough for Anne to be acknowledged as being in looks again (and any gentleman's admiring glance would do) and Mary making an ass of herself by maundering on about the 'Elliott countenance.'
The biggest coincidence in Persuasion is that Anne's former teacher, Mrs. Smith, once knew Mr. Elliott--in fact, she praised Anne to him when he was her husband's buddy, before he dumped the Smiths when they went bankrupt. It's through Mrs. Smith we learn of Elliott's perfidy. Yet earlier, despite the disapproval of Sir Walter and Elizabeth that Anne avoids dangling at the Dalrymples' coattails for yet another tedious party in favor of visiting her friend, Lady Russel tells Mr. Elliott where Anne is, the news seemed to have quite delighted Mr. Elliott. He thought her a most extraordinary young woman: in her temper, manners, mind, a model of female excellence.
So the question is, if Lady Russel told him that she's visiting an old school friend in reduced circumstances named Smith, and Elliott himself later teases Anne by quoting this same woman's praise of Anne, why isn't he worried about what might be said against him? He doesn't seem to give the dangers of the past a single thought--and supposedly he's become both cagy and careful. Even if Lady Russel didn't actually name the friend (and people were reticent about bandying ladies' names in public) how many widows in reduced circumstances could Anne be expected to know?
I'm sure Austen would have caught that, had she had time--and I wonder how she would have smoothed it away. What astonishes me is that I managed not to see it all these years. Wow, talk about a tin-plated reader!
How many times have I read Persuasion? Reveling in details to the extent that I, a strictly visual sort of reader and writer, can almost quote swathes of the text? I can certainly provide enough visual details to bore an army: Charles switching nettels on the walk back from the Hayters', pretending to hunt a weasel so he can drop Mary's arm. The sailor-like innovations and snugness of Harville's humble home. Mary playing with her keys and coins in the window at the White Hart Inn.
So . . . how, after all these years, and close readings, could I miss a major plot hole?
I do know that Austen had not considered the book finished. We have a completely different chapter ten, written in her version of first draft short hand. The ending we have now is polished, but evidence seems clear she would have gone over it once again if she'd had time, and I'll bet she would have caught herself. Coincidences were an acceptable, some have maintained even a respectable, part of 18th Century literature and drama. But Austen made fun of them clear back when she was a teen, writing satires on all the tropes of the literature she'd so avidly read.
Coincidences do occur in her books, though they are rare, and she worked very hard to provide reasonable explanations. I wonder if coincidences, even if she despised them, were just too much a part of the novel she was busy reinventing to be avoided. Mrs Gardner happening to grow up near Darcy's Pemberley is probably the most famous one. Austen satirizes others in Northanger. There are several coincidences in Persuasion but for the most part Austen smooths them into being reasonable. The Crofts renting Kellynch can be explained by Mrs. Croft's brother, the Wentworth who was in religious orders, having lived in the area and probably recommended it. Another coincidence is Mr. Elliot happening to stay at the inn at out-of-the-way Lyme the very weekend the Musgroves, Wentworth, and Anne are there. But Mr. Elliott never speaks, only looks--and they only find out his name after he is gone, which keeps the dramatic focus squarely on the ongoing relations between the Lyme party, Mr. Elliott's identity being touched on just long enough for Anne to be acknowledged as being in looks again (and any gentleman's admiring glance would do) and Mary making an ass of herself by maundering on about the 'Elliott countenance.'
The biggest coincidence in Persuasion is that Anne's former teacher, Mrs. Smith, once knew Mr. Elliott--in fact, she praised Anne to him when he was her husband's buddy, before he dumped the Smiths when they went bankrupt. It's through Mrs. Smith we learn of Elliott's perfidy. Yet earlier, despite the disapproval of Sir Walter and Elizabeth that Anne avoids dangling at the Dalrymples' coattails for yet another tedious party in favor of visiting her friend, Lady Russel tells Mr. Elliott where Anne is, the news seemed to have quite delighted Mr. Elliott. He thought her a most extraordinary young woman: in her temper, manners, mind, a model of female excellence.
So the question is, if Lady Russel told him that she's visiting an old school friend in reduced circumstances named Smith, and Elliott himself later teases Anne by quoting this same woman's praise of Anne, why isn't he worried about what might be said against him? He doesn't seem to give the dangers of the past a single thought--and supposedly he's become both cagy and careful. Even if Lady Russel didn't actually name the friend (and people were reticent about bandying ladies' names in public) how many widows in reduced circumstances could Anne be expected to know?
I'm sure Austen would have caught that, had she had time--and I wonder how she would have smoothed it away. What astonishes me is that I managed not to see it all these years. Wow, talk about a tin-plated reader!