The Struggle between the Traditional and the Progressive, the Old and the New in Jane Austen’s Novel Persuasion
The Struggle between the Traditional and the Progressive, the Old and the New in Jane Austen’s Novel Persuasion

Summary/Abstract: Two hundred years since her death Jane Austen’s literary legacy keeps provoking the interest, curiosity and fantasy of both readers and experts. The more time has passed since 1817, the more new aspects seem to be found in her novels, the more references to the state of the society in her novels seem to be surfacing. In this paper we wanted to have a detailed look at Austen’s last completed and most serious novel, Persuasion, as this particular novel seems to reflect most the changes in the society she was familiar with. This novel is the only one which reflects the decline of the old aristocracy and its impact on individuals as well as on the society in a broader sense. We tried to provide arguments which could help refute the opinions of many who claim that Austen was detached from what was going on in the world she lived in. To support our claim we compared certain aspects found in Persuasion with parallel motives in some of her other novels, more particularly Pride and Prejudice and Emma. One relatively new topic is dealt with in Persuasion as well as in Emma and that is the topic of gender issues at which we tried to have a closer look too. We tried to point out the paradoxes inherent to most of the characters and the way these paradoxes influence their conduct and behaviour, as well as Austen’s objectivity in treating her characters.

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