Life Lessons from Jane Austen's Persuasion

The reason that I love Jane Austen novels and films made from the novels is that she so accurately depicts human nature. A few weeks ago I found myself at the library without my long list of books to read but knew that I was desperate for something good to read, and I knew Miss Austen would not let me down. I decided on Persuasion because I had not yet read it and because I thoroughly enjoyed 2 different film adaptations of it. My two favorite parts are both in the second volume, so the first volume was a little work to get through, knowing how exciting the ending was going to be, but maybe that it had to be that way so the ending would be as exciting.
My first favorite part is at the concert when they finally talk again after eight and a half years and Anne learns that he really doesn't/didn't have feelings for Louisa and that it was that easy for them to fall into an easy conversation and that despite the noise in the room they can still communicate intimately. I love the subtlety of their conversation. His leaving in a fit of jealousy and her realizing it, first relishing it then realizing the danger of him not knowing her true feelings for him only intensifies the reader's desire to read on.
My other favorite part is when he is sitting writing a letter and she is talking to his friend about the differences in the natures of men and women, and he is actually writing a letter to her expressing is love to her. I just love it. I love how they can't talk of their feelings directly to each other so they have to orchestrate a way to say what they mean to say, like how he brought up his friend Benwick's loosing his wife to say,"A man does not recover from such a devotion of the heart to such a woman!" meaning, "I will never get over you. My feelings for you will never change!" And Anne when she is talking with Captain Harville at the window answers him by saying that Fanny Harville, Benwick's deceased wife, never would have forgotten him so soon, because it is not in the nature of a woman, telling Wentworth that, "I will never get over you either!" And she goes further to illustrate that she has actually suffered more than him making grand generalizations about the nature of men and women. All of which leads Wentworth to declare his never ending love in a letter thus opening the lines of communications and allowing her an opportunity to respond openly.

I think the life lesson to learn is to be true to your heart. If she had not been persuaded to turn him down eight and an half years ago, because of his station, and had been true to her heart, she could have avoided a lot of misery for them both. Another lesson is don't try to advise other people who to fall in love with or who to marry, because you will never know the other person's heart. I remember my mom saying something similar when Rebekah first got engaged. She said that she would neither say that she liked nor disliked the person her child was going to marry because if she said she didn't like them and it was actually the person they were supposed to marry, she wouldn't want to have ruined that and on the flip side, she didn't want to say that she liked the person so her child would feel any pressure to marry the person if they were having second thoughts.