Paper Summary:

This paper compares the letters in Jane Austen's novels "Pride and Prejudice" and "Persuasion," focusing on those from the suitors of the two heroines, and discusses how they enable us to see these correspondents as they truly are, and shed light on the attitudes of the readers of their letters as well. The writer discusses how the true characters of the suitors Mr. Wickham in "Pride and Prejudice" and Mr. Elliot in "Persuasion," both charmingly and deceptively open in their social manners, are revealed in their letters, and how Darcy's revelatory and confessional letter to Elizabeth Bennet is the turning point in their relationship. The writer explains how Austen in her last novel, "Persuasion," originally planned in epistolatory format, demonstrates an even deeper understanding of all of the capabilities of the letter, and how Wentworth's letter to Anne reveals not only the equality that he and Anne reach at the end of their courtship, but also the extraordinary way in which a letter can capture a single moment, to change all the moments that follow thereafter.

From the Paper:

"There are other letters from Mr. Elliot that Mrs. Smith shows Anne that we do not see, but they are enough to impress upon Anne "a dreadful picture of ingratitude and inhumanity"(169). Of course, we cannot help but compare the damning letter of Mr. Elliot to the letter Anne receives from her other, more favoured suitor: that of Captain Wentworth. The fact that these are the only two letters by men shown in their entirety in the text can be no accident. By these letters, we are able to compare the written epistles to the manners of the people who wrote them, especially if we maintain the assumption of the inherent revelatory aspect of letter writing, and the way in which the writer's manner contrasts, or does not contrast, with his style of writing."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Robert P. Irvine. Peterborough: Broadview, 2002.
• Austen, Jane. Persuasion. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
• Brown, Lloyd W. Bits of Ivory: Narrative Techniques in Jane Austen's Fiction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Press, 1973.
• Favret, Mary. Romantic Correspondence. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.
• Gaylin, Ann. Eavesdropping in the Novel from Austen to Proust. Cambridge: Cambridge UP., 2002.

Visitors who viewed this Comparison Essay also liked these:

• Comparison Essay # 3927 : "The Romantic Fates of Jane Austen and Anne Elliot"
• Analytical Essay # 150757 : "The Importance of Letters in "Pride and Prejudice" - An Analysis"
• Analytical Essay # 141344 : "Jane Austen's "Emma"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: