From Nobody to Somebody: Romantic Epistemology in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Abstract

The aim of this article is to substantiate the thesis that together with the development of the plot of Persuasion, the cognitive power of the principal heroine expands, and she becomes a highly sensitive reader of human minds. This thesis is supported by references to the new ‘Romantic’ psychology, emphasizing the close links between the innate aspects of the mind and the body. Psychological insight demonstrates the fragmentation of Anne Elliot’s mind, the role of the unconscious, and the division between the interior and the exterior. There is also analysis of the significance of Anne’s frequent change of transitory lodgings, along with interpretation of the narrative strategy, especially free indirect speech and mediated speech (the function of eavesdropping) and the important role of body language.