Telling her own story: Narrative technique in Jane Austen's Persuasion

The novel is about the ways in which Anne moves from being persuaded by the opinions of her family and friends, from seeing herself through the opinions of her friends, to being persuaded of her own perspective and opinions and affirming her own value. But the title might refer also to how the novel is persuasive of the reader. As Anne becomes more convinced of her own perspective, her story becomes increasingly persuasive to the reader as well. As the superior position adopted by the narrator early in the book begins to fade and the irony of the narrator's tone melts, the novel represents to a greater and greater degree Anne's mind. The reader becomes more deeply rooted in her perspective. When Anne says that "Men have have had every advantage in telling their own story," the comment may be so resonant to the reader because it reaches outside the story and shows or reminds her how what she herself is reading has become Anne telling her own story. While Anne's difficulties may be representative of those women encountered in the early nineteenth century and perhaps even historically. Persuasion is most deeply concerned with her growth as an individual. In this sense the comment need not be limited to the issue of gender, but is descriptive of the process of growth which belongs to every individual and which lies at the heart of Austen's novels.