In
Persuasion, Jane Austen satirizes the
elements of society that pertain to social rank and the ability of people to
move about the social ladder. She uses the Navy, an institution that allows
people to gain power and fortune regardless of their birth, to satirize the
social hierarchy of England.
Two characters that satirize social class
the most are Admiral Croft and Sir Walter. Sir Walter is a baronet, a man born
into wealth and power. Admiral Croft is a sailor and a man of good fortune;
however, he worked hard to achieve his social rank and wealth, while Sir Walter
has his rank by birthright. The two characters are opposites of each other and
show how social class drives English society. Sir Walter declares, “I have two
strong grounds of objection to it. First, as a means of bringing persons of
obscure birth into undue distinction, and raising men to honours which their
fathers and grandfathers never dreamt of; and secondly, as it cuts up a man's
youth and vigour most horribly.,.” (Austen 17). It would follow that Sir Walter
would dislike the Admiral because he lacks social rank and is a hard-working man.
As it turns out, however, the two do respect and like each other, and Sir
Walter even allows him to rent out Kellynch Hall, the home he did not want to
leave at first. Austen uses the two characters to criticize the English social
ladder. She shows that even a man such as Sir Walter who is extremely vain can
appreciate a man who is not of high birth such as Admiral Croft.
However, Austen uses the characters
of Anne and Captain Wentworth to satirize the time period’s discouragement of
women marrying men of lower social status. Even though Anne loves Captain
Wentworth, Lady Russell persuades Anne to not marry the man because he is not
of high enough rank or fortune. Anne, obeying her elder, refuses to marry
Wentworth because of his social status, but he two end the novel happily
married. Austen uses the relationship to show how a marriage is not dependent
on the social standing of the two that marry, but on the happiness the people
have with one another. Mary Elliot marries Charles Musgrove for his respectable
fortune, but their marriage is not the best, for the two do not compliment each
other too well. The marriage of Anne and Wentworth is the opposite because it
is a happy marriage, even though Lady Russell and Sir Walter do not approve of
the match because of social class.
Austen uses characters from the
Navy, who are able to move up in social standing, to satirize the class system
of England. She shows how relationships between some sailors and people of high
social ranking can be good relationships. At the end of the novel, Anne acknowledges
how the Navy can be “more distinguished in its domestic virtues than its
national importance” (Austen 254). Jane is happy with her marriage despite the
fact that Captain Wentworth is not of high birth, and so Austen ridicules the
notion that class rank is a suitable way of life in England.
Work Cited
Austen,
Jane. Persuasion. 1818. iBooks.
I like how you made the comparison between Admiral Croft and Sir Walter, I had not realized how their differences contributed to Austen’s satire overall. I also liked how you used the different marriages in Persuasion to show the reason people married back then compared to how Anne thought by the end of the book.
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