More Distinguished in His Domestic Virtues: Captain Wentworth Comes Home (2004)

THE FINAL LINE OF Persuasion identifies the navy as profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its than in its importance (252). This description is provocative. What exactly is Austen saying? A surface reading would be that sailors make good men. A biographically informed reading might be that Austen was intending a loving compliment to her two sailor brothers. In addition, by referring to Anne as belonging to the naval profession, the passage implies that marriage to a sailor is a profession in itself. Going a little deeper, the juxtaposition of virtues against national importance invites the reader to reflect on the relationship between the domestic and the national. (1) This relationship is a complex and often tense one because it hinges on the paradox that to promote interests--to provide for their families--sailors must distance themselves from their homes for long periods of time. Thus any assertion about the virtues of sailors implicitly demands an examination of the ways in which life at sea both promotes and inhibits the development of relationships. Furthermore, such an examination must take into account not only the differences between civilian and naval experience but between the lives of men and women. It is a large topic. Indeed, examining all the questions raised by the conclusion of Persuasion could fill several volumes--or take several conferences--so I will content myself here with addressing some of the ways in which the tension between the domestic and the national, between the world of female feeling and male action, manifests itself in the reintegration of Captain Wentworth into civilian society. In particular, I want to look into the role that Wentworth's lack of civilian experience plays in his initial emotional distancing from Anne. As I read Persuasion, the eight-year separation between Anne and Wentworth is caused as much by Wentworth's own unrealistic expectations as by Anne's having listened to Lady Russell's advice. Although the novel ends with praise for sailors' virtues, the text of the novel initially calls into question Wentworth's readiness to participate in a relationship. Because Wentworth usually appears to the reader through Anne's eyes, and because so much of the novel is dominated by Anne's regret for the that separated her from Wentworth, it is easy to overlook the ways in which Wentworth's limited understanding of women, caused in part by lack of experience, is responsible for much of the separation. Yet a central strand in the novel is the account of Wentworth's growth as a person, as he comes not only to recognize Anne's real value, but, by extension, to revise his views about women in general. Although he consistently shows the ability to take care of other people that marks him as a good man--it is Wentworth, for example, who took the news of Fanny Harville's death to Benwick and never left the poor fellow for a week (108)--Wentworth has difficulty seeing women as equals. Both his condemnation of Anne's feebleness of character (66) and his admiration for what he sees in Louisa as decision and firmness (88) are grounded in a patronizing view of women which doesn't take into account how women's lives require a different sort of strength than men's lives. The way in which men's and women's lives require different kinds of strengths is articulated explicitly in the famous scene where Anne explains to Captain Harville that women are more constant in love than men because women 'live at home, quiet, confined' (232). By basing her claim for greater constancy among women on the restricted circumstances of their lives, Anne is pointing to the connection between external conditions and the development of romantic relationships. Kept 'at home, quiet, confined,' women like Anne must wait for men who go out into the world where 'continual occupation and change' may transform them--or at least keep them from reflection about their feelings. …