《勸導》中的身體 - 政大學術集成

全文

(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士論文. 指導教授: 吳易道先生 Advisor: Dr. Yih-Dau Wu. 中文題目《勸導》中的身體. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. ‧. 英文題目. n. er. io. al. sit. y. Nat. Bodies in Persuasion. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生: 翁詩涵 Name: Shirley Shih-Han Wong 中華民國一 O 八年六月 June 2019. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(2) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(3) BODIES IN PERSUASION. A Master Dissertation Presented to. 政治大. Department of English,. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. National Chengchi University. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. i n U. C In h ePartial hi n g cFulfillment. v. of the Requirments for the Degree of Master of Arts. by Shirley Shih-Han Wong June 2019. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(4) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(5) To Dr. Yih-Dau Wu 獻給我的指導老師吳易道先生. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. iii. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(6) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. iv. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(7) Acknowledgement. Within the long days of working on the dissertation, I would like to give my deepest thanks and apologies to my advisor, Dr. Yih-Dau Wu. Because of my work, I cannot spend all my complete time on the dissertation. My adviser gives me the most of his patience and kindness to encourage me not to give up. Because of my unique way of thinking, he spends a lot of time marking and trying to give me his advice. My. 治政大of insufficient time, he really dissertation. The most touching thing is that, because 立 special logic does not make him kick me away, but patiently help me finish the. makes all his efforts to help me as fast as possible. Without his kindness, I may. ‧ 國. 學. already sink in the most terrible emotion. Without his patience, I may not try until the. ‧. last minute. Without his help, this dissertation will not appear here.. sit. y. Nat. Some other helpers for my dissertation are professor Yau-Ling Hsieh, professor. io. er. Tsui-Fen jiang, and professor Li-Min Yang. They read my dissertation carefully and. al. give me their advice to make my dissertation as good as possible. Professor Jiang. n. v i n even tries to comfort me notC to h be too nervous during e n g c h i U my presentation. Their kindness and encouragement lead me to the end of the journey. I really appreciate them. Thanks to the professors in NCCU and the school itself as well. During the long time in the campus, I have learned a lot from the classes and all the activities. Especially from the MA classes, this is the first time in my life that I feel I am really learning something. I also make a lot of friends here and gain many happy memories. Many of the friends I make here are my true friends and will keep the friendship for a whole life. Of course here are the thanks to my family. The reason is not only because of v. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(8) spending much money to help me finish the study but also the care about my health. There are so many nights during which I cannot sleep but try to finish the term papers or one section of my dissertation. My family tries to help me to let me only need to focus on my study as much as they can. Especially my mother and my aunt, they give me all their care and help. My friends and my co-workers are another group that I want to thank. They cheer me up and give me all their patience to wait for me to finish my dissertation. They always use a funny way to express their worries, their care for me, and the. 治政大 when I just ask them spend their time to help me on my work. They sub for me even 立. annoyance about how long they should wait to have a meal with me. The co-workers. only one day before. I would like to thank to Xin-Pei Liu, Jia-Xuan Cai, Yan-Zhen. ‧ 國. 學. Chen, and Yan-Ya Chen here especially. Jia-Xuan and Xin-Pei are the ones who give. ‧. me their encouragement the most. Yan-Zhen helps me to figure out the format and. sit. y. Nat. rules of the dissertation. Yan-Ya is the one who give me all his advices on how I can. io. er. rearrange my plan to graduate.. al. Special thanks to my co-worker Blair Price and Patty, my friends Jia-Xuan. n. v i n C hWu, and my senior,UYun Chen. Blair spends his Cai(again), James Chao and Zong-Rui engchi time checking my grammar although he is also very busy. Patty always allows my ask for absence and encourage me on my dissertation instead of getting mad at me. Without Jia-Xuan’s, James’, Zong-Rui’s and my senior’s help, I cannot get the books I need, especially the one which is only available abroad. Finally, I want to have a unique thank to my favorite band, Mayday. Their music always accompanies me to pass the most painful days in my life. Their songs always encourages me to try one more time when I already lose my faith and confidence. Their concerts give me the chance to relax and get the energy back. I am vi. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(9) very lucky to be their fan and was born in the time in which they were also born. This dissertation is written with all my tears, my blood, and my liver. And these are the most exhausted and painful days I have in my life. I hope all my efforts and my adviser’s efforts make it an acceptable and enjoyable dissertation. Once again thanks my adviser, Dr. Wu. I am sorry to let you have the same painful days as I do. With your kindness, you must will have a very bright and happy future.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. vii. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(10) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. viii. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(11) Table of Contents. Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………..v Chinese Abstract…………………………………………………………………….....x English Abstract………………………………………………………………………xi. 治政大 Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 立. Chapter. 1. Bodies and Social Significance………………………………………………..7. ‧ 國. 學. 2. Bodies and Emotions………………………..………………………………..21. ‧. 3. Sick Bodies and Happiness…………………………………………………..39. sit. y. Nat. Conclusion…………………………….………………………………………...51. io. n. al. er. Works Cited……………………………………………………………………..……53. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. ix. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(12) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士班碩士論文提要. 論文名稱：《勸導》中的身體指導教授：吳易道先生研究生：翁詩涵論文提要內容：. 政治大. 奧斯汀的小說並非以對身體的描敘聞名。相反地，由於奧斯汀對道德與禮. 立. 節等抽象概念的重視，她的作品似乎甚少著墨於具體的身體描寫。但在奧斯汀. ‧ 國. 學. 最後一本完成的小說《勸導》中，我們卻可以發現各式各樣對身體的移動與狀. ‧. 態的描寫。本論文旨在分析小說中對身體的描敘與說明奧斯汀藉由它們所傳遞. sit. y. Nat. 的文化訊息。. n. al. er. io. 本論文第一部分將討論《勸導》中男女主角的身體狀態為什麼(不)受到其. i n U. v. 他角色重視，並解釋身體與社會地位的關係。第二部分分析小說中身體與情感. Ch. engchi. 的連結。小說中女主角受到侷限的身體，其實是和她壓抑的心理息息相關的。透過檢視女主角身體受到的種種桎梏，我們可以發現奧斯汀對當時女性無法自由表達情感的看法。論文第三部分將著重於疾病與幸福的連結，我會將奧斯汀在小說中對於幸福的相關描寫做分類，以找出對於奧斯丁來說理想的幸福型態。. 關鍵字：珍˙奧斯汀、《勸導》、身體、社會地位、感情、疾病、幸福. x. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(13) Abstract Jane Austen’s novels are not especially renowned for representations of bodies. In fact, specializing in dramatizing such abstract notions, morality and propriety, Austen’s novels seem to show little interest in discussing with concrete details the role bodies play in her characters’ daily life. But Austen’s last finished novel, Persuasion, frequently draws our attention to various bodies, their movement and their conditions. This dissertation seeks to analyze the representations of bodies in Persuasion and. 政治大 Chapter One examines the extent to which the physical presence of the novel’s 立. uncover the messages Austen invest in them.. ‧ 國. 學. hero and heroine is noticed or ignored by other characters. I argue that bodies in this novel carry social significance, in the sense that one’s social status can be inferred. ‧. from the degree his/her body attracts attention. Chapter Two examines the relationship. sit. y. Nat. between bodies and emotions in Persuasion. By demonstrating how Anne Elliot’s. io. er. circumscribed physical movement mirrors the inability of her feeling to travel to. al. Wentworth and vice versa, I show how social expectations in Austen’s time affect. n. v i n C U both a woman’s body and mind.hChapter the connection between e n gThree c h iinvestigates illness and happiness in Persuasion. I argue that the representation of illness in Persuasion reflects Austen’s understanding of the nature of genuine happiness.. Keywords: Jane Austen, Persuasion, body, social significance, emotion, illness, happiness. xi. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(14) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. xii. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(15) Introduction. Jane Austen’s last finished novel, Persuasion1 (1818), frequently dwells on the physical condition of her characters. Anne Elliot, the heroine of the novel, appears haggard and old in the beginning of the novel. “A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but her bloom had vanished early” (P 6). But when she visits Lyme Regis, a sea wind blows onto her face and restores her youth. Little Charles Musgrove breaks his collar-bone: “His collar-bone was found to be dislocated, and. 治政 such injury received in the back, as roused the most大 alarming ideas” (P 57). Louisa 立. Musgrove falls on her head and loses her consciousness. Captain Harville is lame due. ‧ 國. 學. to an injury sustained in wars. “[He] had never been in good health since a severe. ‧. wound which he received two years before” (P 101). Mrs. Smith is a crippled widow,. sit. y. Nat. who “had had difficulties of every sort to contend with, and in addition to these. io. er. distresses had been afflicted with a severe rheumatic fever” (P 165-66). Mrs. Clay has freckles on her face, “a projecting tooth, and a clumsy wrist” (P 36). The examples go. al. n. 2. on and on.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. This feature does not escape the attention of Austen scholars. A. Walton Litz, for instance, asserts that Austen’s Persuasion “build this sense of physical life into the language and structure of a novel” (225). And Judy van Sickle Johnson maintains that “Persuasion is Jane Austen’s most unreservedly physical novel [. . .] the real power of the novel resides in Austen’s success in sustaining the credibility of a renewed emotional attachment through physical signs” (60-61). As Wiltshire points out,. 1. This novel is hereafter referred to as P. Quotations from this text will be cited parenthetically with page number(s). 2 John Wiltshire notices in particular that Persuasion is full of unhealthy bodies (164-65). 1. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(16) “through the novel [. . . Austen] remind[s] us [ . . . ] that physical life is necessarily also physical vulnerability” (164). These critical views about the importance of bodies in Persuasion are convincing and insightful. Wiltshire further discusses the topic of “body” particularly. In his book, Jane Austen and the Body, he discusses “body” in Austen’s various works. However, for the chapter about Persuasion, health and illness are the only targets to be discussed. In this dissertation, I want not only to focus on the ill body in Persuasion but also to push the boundaries of existing scholarship by arguing that bodies in Persuasion are important not only for their own sake, but also. 政治大. for three other key issues that they help to bring to light: social significance, emotions and happiness.. 立. First of all, I want to define the word I use specifically. The Oxford English. ‧ 國. 學. Dictionary (OED) defines the word “body” as: “The complete physical form of a. ‧. person or animal.” Not only the body itself is the target I focus on but also the. sit. y. Nat. appearance and the movement of it. In addition, chapter three discusses the inner. io. al. er. situation of the body and physical illness. In this dissertation, I will use physical. n. appearances, movements and health to discuss social significance, emotions and happiness.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Tony Tanner has argued that in Persuasion the indicators of social significance are in flux. Inheritance and titles of nobility are no longer well-respected. He writes: The normal sources of stability and order in Jane Austen’s world would include social position, property, place, family, manners and propriety, as generating a web of duties and responsibilities which together should serve to maintain the moral fabric and coherence of society. In this novel all these institutions and codes and related values have undergone a radical transformation or devaluation. There are values, but many of them are new; and they are relocated or resited. 2. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(17) Instead of a heedful regard for position and property and family, we have a new obsession with “rank”, “connexions”, money and private relationships. (216, original emphasis) In other words, in other Austen novels, having “position and property and family” is a sign of social superiority. But in Persuasion, it is “‘connexions’, money and private relationships” that determine whether one individual is important in a social setting. Laura Mooneyham maintains that in Persuasion one can see the tension between different classes, a tension that can be seen in how characters use language to. 政治大. delineate their value system. Mooneyham writes:. 立. Throughout Persuasion social class is delineated through language—titles,. ‧ 國. 學. modes of address and habits of reference [ . . . ] The Sir Walters of the world see. ‧. language as a way of classifying and asserting social hierarchy; Anne and her. y. sit. io. n. al. er. (159). Nat. evaluation of moral worth stands opposed to such a shallow use of language.. i n U. v. Indeed, in Persuasion, it is Anne who believes that one’s social value should be based. Ch. engchi. on “moral worth” and that inherited titles of nobility carry little significance. On the contrary, Anne’s father, Sir Walter, is a snobbish gentleman who insists that hereditary titles of nobility is the only sign indicating a person’s social significance. When Mr. Shepherd mentions Mr. Wentworth, Captain Wentworth’s brother, Sir Walter’s response is: ‘Wentworth? Oh! ay,--Mr Wentworth, the curate of Monkford. You misled me by the term gentleman. I thought you were speaking of some man of property: Mr Wentworth was nobody, I remember; quite unconnected; nothing to do with the 3. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(18) Strafford family. One wonders how the names of many of our nobility become so common.’ (P 26). Tanner and Mooneyham have rightly pointed out that Persuasion is a novel centrally concerned with who is important in a social setting and what makes him/her so. I wish to point out there is another indicator of social significance in Persuasion that goes generally unobserved by Austen scholars: bodies. In Chapter One of my dissertation, I demonstrate how the movement and the condition of the characters’ bodies reflect their positions on a social ladder.. 政治大. The theme of feelings is another important critical approach which Austen. 立. scholars employ to examine Austen’s novels. In her essay “Lost in a Book: Jane. ‧ 國. 學. Austen’s ‘Persuasion,’” Adela Pinch argues that “the novel of manners, [is principly concerned] with the traffic in men’s and women’s feelings” (140). In addition, “the. ‧. novel of manners puts feelings into motion by making them difficult to know” (Pinch. Nat. sit. y. 142). Since Austen’s works are exemplary novels of manners, we can reasonably. n. al. er. io. assume that they explore how feelings are transmitted and understood. Miranda. i n U. v. Burgess’ essay, “Transport: Mobility, Anxiety, and the Romantic Poetics of Feeling,”. Ch. engchi. on the other hand, shows that the idea of sympathy can be useful for understanding Austen’s novels. Believing that sympathy can succeed in “eras[ing] the difference between self and other, home and away,” she shows that Austen’s contemporaries are very interested in how feeling moves around (Burgess 237). Chapter Two of my dissertation draws on her essay heavily. In this chapter, I show how, in Persuasion, bodily movement and emotional expression are closely intertwined and how this interconnection speaks to Austen’s attitude towards women’s feelings more specifically. Happiness is another important theme of Persuasion. Mooneyham describes 4. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(19) how the hero and the heroine in this novel search for happiness. She writes:. Anne and Wentworth are the only characters who learn that happiness cannot be regained until they seek it. And in their restricted society, the only means of regaining happiness is through language. Thus the barrier between Anne and Wentworth is appropriately linguistic. Words keep them apart; only words can bring them together. Anne’s search for happiness, her transition from passive suffering into a more roused struggle against fate, must lie in her breaking through the barrier of silence or the equally deadly barrier of common speech,. 政治大. the “nothingness” of polite talk. (Mooneyham 146). 立. Mooneyham’s discussion of happiness takes on an extra layer of significance if we. ‧ 國. 學. situate the issue of happiness in the historical context surrounding Austen’s novels. As. ‧. Adam Potkay argues, the eighteenth-century was an era when “[p]ublic happiness,. sit. y. Nat. private happiness, and the relationship between the two were issues entertained on. io. er. both sides of the Channel [ . . . ] the goal of happiness is enshrined in marmoreal. al. utterances from the American Declaration of Independence to the French Declaration. n. v i n of the rights of Man” (qtd. inCMarkovits “Potkay shows that the ranks of the h e n g780). chi U happiness-obsessed also include Austen’s self-declared favorite moralist, Samuel Johnson” (Markovits 780). Since Austen’s favorite moralist, Samuel Johnson, is interested in the pursuit of happiness, it is not surprising that happiness is an important theme in Austen’s works.. Stefanie Markovits specifically points out that, in Austen’s works, happiness is related to the theme of falling. In her essay, “Jane Austen and the Happy Fall,” she observes: Austen’s understanding of falling relates intimately to her conceptions of both 5. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(20) happiness and education, that is, of making people ‘better.’ And while Austen’s novels commonly include falls, they positively radiate happiness; the word happiness is sprinkled generously throughout their pages. This tendency should come as no surprise, given when she lived and wrote; her era was peculiarly preoccupied with the notion. (780, original emphasis) While I agree with Markovits’ view that happiness is generally an important theme in an Austen novel, I wish to argue specifically that in Persuasion, Austen explores what it means to be happy. As I show in Chapter Three of my dissertation that in. 政治大. Persuasion, Austen relies on her representations of sick bodies to dramatize different. 立. kinds of happiness.. ‧ 國. 學. In summary, this MA dissertation seeks to explain why there are so many references to bodies in Persuasion. I believe this question can best be answered if we. ‧. Nat. y. closely examine how the issues of social significance, emotions and happiness. n. al. er. io. sit. intersect with the drama of bodies in this novel, and vice versa.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 6. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(21) Chapter One Bodies and Social Significance. The heroine of Persuasion, Anne Elliot, appears in the beginning of the novel as a negligible person. Interestingly, to describe Anne’s marginal status in her family, Austen draws our attention to Anne’s body. One major reason why Anne is unloved and uncared for in her family is that she sits uncomfortably with a family that prides. 治政大one fair claim on his attachment; be valuable assets: “His good looks and his rank had 立 itself on lasting beauty. Her father, Sir Walter, values beautiful faces because they can. since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing. ‧ 國. 學. deserved by his own” (P 4). Sir Walter’s physical beauty appears to defy the decaying. ‧. power of time. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, having reached twenty-nine, still. sit. y. Nat. appears “as blooming as ever, amidst the wreck of the good looks of everybody else;. io. er. for he could plainly see how old all the rest of his family and acquaintance were growing” (P 6). Elizabeth Elliot inherits Sir Walter’s good looks and the lasting. n. al. beauty:. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before; and, generally speaking, if there has been neither ill health nor anxiety, it is a time of life at which scarcely any charm is lost. It was so with Elizabeth, still the same handsome Miss Elliot that she had begun to be thirteen years ago. (P 6). By contrast, Anne is unable to retain her youth and beauty, as her father and elder sister miraculously do. “A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty 7. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(22) girl, but her bloom had vanished early; and as even in its height, her father had found little to admire in her [ . . . ] there could be nothing in them, now that she was faded and thin, to excite his esteem” (P 6). Unable to retain her beauty, Anne loses the affection of her vain father and sister: “Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way--she was only Anne” (P 6). The word “nobody” in the above passage carries not only familial but also. 治政大 her words are writes: “[N]o rank, no effective surname, no house, no location; 立. social ramifications, as Tony Tanner discusses in his book, Jane Austen. Tanner. weightless, and physically speaking she always has to ‘give way’—that is, accept. ‧ 國. 學. perpetual displacement [ . . . ] She is a speaker who is unheard; she is a body who is a. ‧. ‘nobody’” (209). Tanner’s insight are twofold. First, Anne’s lack of influence in her. sit. y. Nat. home easily translates into her social insignificance. Having failed to persuade her. io. er. father to accept her proposal of economic retrenchment, Anne is obliged to “accept perpetual displacement.” She has to move from one house to another, often against. al. n. v i n her own inclination. Second, TannerCnotices between a person’s h e nthegconnection chi U. physical existence and her social significance. That is why he argues that Anne is “a body who is a ‘nobody.’” This ingenious play of words also suggests that a body is not always visible. Its presence can be ignored or obliterated for various reasons. Throughout Persuasion, Anne’s social significance is closely related to the extent to which her physical body is ignored, cared for and observed. The famous walk to Winthrop bears this point out. When Anne walks to Winthrop with Captain Wentworth, Mary, Charles and Miss Musgroves, Anne stays behind and has no conversation with others. She sinks in her own poetic world. 8. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(23) Hiding behind and being quiet, Anne’s body is almost invisible in this group. When the group walks into a path leading to Winthrop, Anne says: “Is not this one of the ways to Winthrop?” (P 91). With all the “bodies” walking in front of her, “nobody heard, or, at least, nobody answered her” (P 91). Her words are ignored. Unheard and uncared for, Anne’s body is all but non-existent for her walking companions. Elizabeth Bennet’s walk to see her sick sister, Jane, in Pride and Prejudice serves as a great point of comparison. Austen’s description of Elizabeth’s walk in that novel is obviously different: “Elizabeth continued her walk alone, crossing field after. 治政大house, with weary ancles, dirty activity, and finding herself at last within view of the 立 field at a quick pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient. stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise” (Pride and Prejudice 23).. ‧ 國. 學. Austen describes Elizabeth Bennet’s action, movement, body parts, clothes, and her. ‧. complexion all within one sentence, vividly presenting her body to readers. After. sit. y. Nat. Elizabeth Bennet leaves the room, her body becomes the subject of ridicule, criticism. io. n. al. er. and unkind discussion. Mrs. Hurst says:. i n U. v. ‘I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild.’. Ch. engchi. ‘She did indeed, Louisa. I could hardly keep my countenance. Very nonsensical to come at all! Why must she be scampering about the country, because her sister had a cold? Her hair so untidy, so blowsy!’ ‘Yes, and her petticoat; I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud, I am absolutely certain; and the gown which had been let down to hide it, not doing its office.’ ‘Your picture may be very exact, Louisa,’ said Bingley; ‘but this was all lost upon me. I thought Miss Elizabeth Bennet looked remarkably well, when she came into the room this morning. Her dirty petticoat quite escaped my notice.’ 9. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(24) [...] ‘I am afraid, Mr. Darcy,’ observed Miss Bingley, in a half whisper, ‘that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine eyes.’ ‘Not at all,’ he replied; ‘they were brightened by the exercise.’ (Pride and Prejudice 24-25). This conversation examines the body of Elizabeth Bennet with a forensic eye, covering a variety of details from her appearance to her petticoats, from her gowns to her eyes. In this particular episode, Elizabeth Bennet is definitely not a nobody. Her. 政治大. body draws people’s attention. Her social significance derives from her conspicuous. 立. body.. ‧ 國. 學. In contrast, when describing Anne Elliot’s walk, Austen focuses almost exclusively on her thoughts, not her body:. ‧. sit. y. Nat. Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view. io. er. of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves, and withered hedges, and. al. from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant. n. v i n C hand inexhaustible U of autumn, that season of peculiar e n g c h i influence on the mind of. taste and tenderness, that season which had drawn from every poet, worthy of being read, some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling. She occupied her mind as much as possible in such like musings and quotations. (P 90) There is no description of Anne’s body, movement, or clothes. What are presented to readers are the autumnal scenery that Anne sees, the feeling that she feels, and the quotations that she thinks of. Subordinated to non-bodily features, Anne’s physical presence is blurred. This nearly-obliterated physical presence mirrors Anne’s social insignificance on this occasion. No one cares about her. She is left to her own devices. 10. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(25) In sharp contrast, when Austen describes other people in the walking group, she stresses their bodily movement. Louisa Musgrove, for instance, “eagerly tak[es] her sister aside” to persuade her to walk down the hill and pay a visit to their cousins and aunt in Winthrop (P 92). Wholeheartedly opposing this plan to walk further just to visit insignificant relatives, Mary Musgrove imagines that “walking up that hill again would do her more harm than any sitting down could do her good” (P 92). After a heated debate about the propriety of paying such a visit, Charles and Henrietta Musgrove decide that they should “just run down for a few minutes” (P 92). The. 治政 draw attention to themselves in their debate. Having大 a body and insisting on 立. physical movements of these characters, real or imaginary, parallel their attempt to. displaying it becomes a means to become conspicuous in a social setting. Throughout. ‧ 國. 學. this debate, Anne remains silent. No one asks for her opinion. And she chooses not to. ‧. offer unsolicited advice. In other words, she withdraws from this debate and therefore. sit. y. Nat. appears socially insignificant. Her social insignificance manifests itself not only. io. er. through her silence but also through her apparent inactivity. Austen gives no description of Anne’s bodily movement during this debate, once again reinforcing the. al. n. v i n C h body to becomeUsocially important, to become a idea that one needs a conspicuous engchi “somebody.”. At the early stage of Persuasion, Anne’s body is inconspicuous for everyone, except for Captain Wentworth, with whom she had an unsuccessful romance nearly eight years before. One episode in particular demonstrates that Wentworth pays attention to Anne’s physical condition. On their way back home, the walking party mentioned earlier in this chapter meet Admiral Croft and his wife riding their carriage.. Upon hearing how long a walk the young people had engaged in, they kindly offered a seat to any lady who might be particularly tired; it would save her a full 11. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(26) mile, and they were going through Uppercross. The invitation was general, and generally declined. The Miss Musgroves were not at all tired, and Mary was either offended, by not being asked before any of the others, or what Louisa called the Elliot pride could not endure to make a third in a one horse chaise. The walking party had crossed the lane, and were surmounting an opposite stile, and the Admiral was putting his horse in motion again, when Captain Wentworth cleared the hedge in a moment to say something to his sister. The something might be guessed by its effects. ‘Miss Elliot, I am sure you are tired,’ cried Mrs Croft. ‘Do let us have the. 治政大three, I assure you. If we pleasure of taking you home. Here is excellent room for 立 were all like you, I believe we might sit four. You must, indeed, you must.’. ‧ 國. 學. Anne was still in the lane; and though instinctively beginning to decline, she. ‧. was not allowed to proceed. The Admiral's kind urgency came in support of his. sit. y. Nat. wife's; they would not be refused; they compressed themselves into the smallest. io. er. possible space to leave her a corner, and Captain Wentworth, without saying a. al. word, turned to her, and quietly obliged her to be assisted into the carriage.. n. v i n C hin the carriage, andUfelt that he had placed her Yes; he had done it. She was engchi. there, that his will and his hands had done it, that she owed it to his perception of her fatigue. (P 97-98) This passage demonstrates the way through which the significance of Anne’s body emerges out that of others’. It begins with describing a medley of fatigued bodies. Having taken so long a walk, everyone in the walking party, including Anne, is presumably tired. That the Crofts invite one of them to sit in the carriage with them proves this point. Interestingly, by the end of this passage, only Anne’s tired body is given a privileged seat in the Crofts’ carriage. 12. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(27) This seat in the Crofts’ carriage is a privileged one in one important sense. Because it guarantees faster speed and greater comfort, a carriage is a superior means of transport that differentiates different social classes. As Elizabeth Bleicher has argued, “[p]eople worth knowing were once easily and visibly distinguishable from others by virtue of possessing transport that literally raised them up off the ground and maintained a physical distance above those on foot” (Bleicher 35). In other words, raised above the ground literally and able to sit comfortably when travelling, Anne appears a social superior to her sisters and sibling-in-law, who have no other alternative but to walk their way home. Her “raised,” elevated bodily position. 治政大 signifies her elevated social significance. 立. Remarkably, Anne owes this sense of superiority to Captain Wentworth, who,. ‧ 國. 學. unlike her unsympathetic family members, is willing to observe Anne’s physical. ‧. condition, able to defect her inability to walk further and ready to offer a helping. sit. y. Nat. hand. After everyone declines the offer of the Crofts, he goes to Mrs. Croft and. io. er. suggests that she insist on taking Anne into her carriage. Indeed, Wentworth’s. al. assistance does not stop at offering advice but takes on a more physical manifestation.. n. v i n C hand quietly obligedUher to be assisted into the He actually “turned to [Anne], engchi. carriage.” Anne’s body is not only noticed and taken care of but also moved from a lower place (i.e. the ground) to a higher one (i.e. the carriage). Having the privilege to travel in a more efficient and comfortable manner, Anne is no longer a nobody here. Her body, carefully observed and kindly assisted, indicates her social significance, at least in the minds of Captain Wentworth. Captain Wentworth is not the only man who recognizes that Anne is a “somebody” who deserves to be noticed. Walter Elliot is another. Once again, Austen emphasizes Anne’s bodily condition when dramatizing how her heroine moves from a 13. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(28) nobody, unnoticed and uncared for, to a somebody whose value commands serious attention. When Anne, Wentworth and the young Musgroves visit Lyme, they accidentally meet a gentleman, who is later revealed to be Anne’s cousin, Walter Elliot.. When they came to the steps, leading upwards from the beach, a gentleman, at the same moment preparing to come down, politely drew back, and stopped to give them way. They ascended and passed him; and as they passed, Anne's face caught his eye, and he looked at her with a degree of earnest admiration, which. 政治大. she could not be insensible of. She was looking remarkably well; her very. 立. regular, very pretty features, having the bloom and freshness of youth restored by. ‧ 國. 學. the fine wind which had been blowing on her complexion, and by the animation of eye which it had also produced. It was evident that the gentleman, (completely. Nat. sit. y. ‧. a gentleman in manner) admired her exceedingly (P 112).. io. er. This passage documents the rise of Anne’s social significance through the interesting portrayal of characters’ bodily movement. In her family circle, Anne is a negligible. al. n. v i n presence. One of the first sentencesC of h Persuasion reads: “[she] e n g c h i U was nobody with. either father or sister; her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way” (P 6). But here, a gentleman literally gives way to Anne, prioritizing her convenience over his own. There is a remarkable change in Austen’s use of the idea of “giving way.” She moves from tapping into the symbolic meaning of this idea to stressing its literal meaning. Giving way symbolically means in the earlier instance being sacrificed or marginalized. In the later instance it literally means stopping one’s bodily movement and allowing another to pass a narrow staircase first. It is significant to notice that the restoration of Anne’s youth is juxtaposed with the upward movement 14. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(29) of her body. The former recalls Anne’s youthful romance with Wentworth, a time when there was a man who cared about her happiness. The latter results from a gentleman’s polite acknowledgement that Anne’s convenience and comfort are more important than his own. Both illustrate Anne’s social significance, in the sense that she is able to exert her influence on another man’s mentality and behavior. Both focus on Anne’s bodily conditions. Through the arrangement, Austen places bodies in a social context and shows how they inform social interactions. Like Anne, Wentworth also gradually gains social significance as time goes by. If Anne’s physical condition represents a platform on which her social (in)significance. 治政大neither aristocratic blood nor can be played out, so does Wentworth’s body. Having 立 connections with any noble family, Wentworth appears a negligible person beneath. ‧ 國. 學. the attention of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot. Talking about Wentworth’s brother, Sir. ‧. Walter observes: “Mr Wentworth was nobody, I remember; quite unconnected;. sit. y. Nat. nothing to do with the Strafford family” (P 26). That is why, when he learns that his. io. er. second daughter Anne is engaged to Frederick Wentworth, he “thought it a very degrading alliance” (P 28). Sir Walter’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, is as snobbish as. al. n. v i n C h as a social nobody him. She also perceives Wentworth e n g c h i U unworthy of the distinction that an alliance with the Elliot family can confer. But while Sir Walter is satisfied with describing Wentworth as a nobody, Elizabeth literally treats him as if he has no body to recommend him. During the concert at Bath, Elizabeth sees Wentworth but chooses to pretend otherwise.. It did not surprise, but it grieved Anne to observe that Elizabeth would not know him. She saw that he saw Elizabeth, that Elizabeth saw him, that there was complete internal recognition on each side; she was convinced that he was ready 15. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(30) to be acknowledged as an acquaintance, expecting it, and she had the pain of seeing her sister turn away with unalterable coldness. (P 191). Three bodies jostle for attention in this passage. Anne sees that Elizabeth sees Wentworth and vice versa. Anne also sees that Wentworth is ready for greetings as common courtesy dictates. But the focus of this passage in fact falls on the elision of bodies. Elizabeth “turn[s] away,” as if Wentworth’s body does not exist. The body that supposedly endures “coldness” on this occasion disappears, as Austen does not show how Wentworth responds to Elizabeth’s incivility. Being a nobody metaphorically is equal to having no body literally.. 立. 政治大. Of course, Elizabeth has grossly underestimated Wentworth’s social. ‧ 國. 學. significance. When Wentworth shows up in the Bath concert, he is no longer the obscure and poor Wentworth that he was eight years ago. His professional career in. ‧. the navy, which plays a significant role in defending Britain’s national security during. y. Nat. sit. the Napoleonic Wars, has given him great social prestige. This prestige comes largely. n. al. er. io. from the fact that, given their contribution to Britain’s national well-fare, naval. i n U. v. officers have become a distinctive social class that is much superior to the idle landed. Ch. engchi. gentry such as Sir Walter who does virtually nothing to save Britain from national crisis. Indeed, as Tony Tanner has argued, the navy “bring[s] back [ . . . ] a wholly different scheme of values, and a potentially new model of an alternative society or community, alive and functioning where the traditional land society seem[s] to be moribund and largely ‘stagnant’” (Tanner 228).3 The social distinction that the navy enjoys is not lost on Austen. Many characters in Persuasion celebrate the virtue of naval officers enthusiastically. Louisa Musgrove,. 3. For more information about the importance of the navy in Persuasion, see Cohen. 16. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(31) for instance, “burst forth into raptures of admiration and delight on the character of the navy; their friendliness, their brotherliness, their openness, their uprightness; protesting that she was convinced of sailors having more worth and warmth than any other set of men in England; that they only knew how to live, and they only deserved to be respected and loved” (P 106-7). Anne also speaks for the navy: “The navy, I think, who have done so much for us, have at least an equal claim with any other set of men, for all the comforts and all the privileges which any home can give. Sailors work hard enough for their comforts, we must all allow” (P 21).. 治政 labor those military men have invested in defending大 Britain against French invasion, 立 If Louisa praises the navy for their friendliness and Anne recognizes the hard. Elizabeth and Sir Walter Elliot understand the social significance of the navy through. ‧ 國. 學. reconsidering the value of the bodies of naval officers. One major reason why Sir. ‧. Walter fails to respect naval officers is that their weather-beaten faces are “not fit to. sit. y. Nat. be seen” (P 22). Sir Walter ridicules “a certain Admiral Baldwin” on the grounds of. io. er. his ugly appearance (P 22). This admiral, Sir Walter tells us, has “the most deplorable-. al. looking personage you can imagine; his face the colour of mahogany, rough and. n. v i n rugged to the last degree; allC lines nine grey hairs of a side, and nothing h eandnwrinkles, gchi U but a dab of powder at top” (P 22). Apart from disagreeable appearances, Sir Walter refuses to respect naval officers because they tend to come from obscure families without inherited titles. He describes the naval career “as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction, and raising men to honours which their fathers and grandfathers never dreamt of” (P 21). Remarkably, Sir Walter changes his mind in the course of time. Austen emphasizes the role bodies play in this shift of attitude. …when he saw more of Captain Wentworth, saw him repeatedly by daylight, and 17. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(32) eyed him well, he was very much struck by his personal claims, and felt that his superiority of appearance might be not unfairly balanced against her [i.e. Anne’s] superiority of rank; and all this, assisted by his well-sounding name, enabled Sir Walter at last to prepare his pen, with a very good grace, for the insertion of the marriage in the volume of honour. (P 271). This passage suggests that Sir Walter comes to a belated understanding of Wentworth’s value only after he has “repeatedly” examined the naval officer’s physical appearance and found it unusually fine. Indeed, Wentworth appears so. 政治大. superior to his fellow naval officers in terms of good looks that Sir Walter thinks that. 立. “his superiority of appearance” confers on him such social significance as the. ‧ 國. 學. “superiority of rank” can do. In other words, having an agreeable appearance is as good as occupying a high social rank. Wentworth finally enters Sir Walter’s “volume. ‧. Nat. y. of honour,” the Baronetage and joins the family of the landed gentry. It is his fine. sit. bodily shape that paves the way for this entry in the first place.. n. al. er. io. Similarly, Elizabeth Elliot renounces her coldness towards Wentworth in due. i n U. v. course. Once again, her change of mind draws our attention to the condition of. Ch. engchi. Wentworth’s body. When Elizabeth decides to invite Wentworth to her family party, the narrator provides the rationale underlying her decision:. The truth was, that Elizabeth had been long enough in Bath to understand the importance of a man of such an air and appearance as his. The past was nothing. The present was that Captain Wentworth would move about well in her drawingroom. The card was pointedly given, and Sir Walter and Elizabeth arose and disappeared. (P 245-46) Elizabeth is able to forget Wentworth’s obscure family background and treats him 18. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(33) graciously because, in order to give her family party extra social prestige, she needs a fine young man such as Wentworth to “move about [ . . . ] in her drawing room”. Wentworth’s walking becomes, to borrow Olivia Murphy’s words, “social, economic, and sexual display, a performance of dress and deportment that demanded an audience” (132). The movement of Wentworth’s body, in other words, becomes a valuable asset, one that can glamorize the home of an English gentlewoman. Through the increasing importance of Anne and Wentworth in the eyes of their friends, Austen demonstrates how meaningful bodies can be in negotiating, producing and understanding one’s social significance. Just as the social significance of Anne. 治政 and Wentworth fluctuates with time, so their bodies大 move constantly. They walk, 立 ascend stairs or help others get into a carriage. What happens when bodies in. ‧ 國. 學. Persuasion stop moving? What role do motionless bodies play in this novel? What is. ‧. the relationship between the (im)mobility of bodies and the (im)mobility of feelings?. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. The next chapter will explore these questions.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 19. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(34) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 20. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(35) Chapter Two Bodies and Emotions. In her informative essay “Transport: Mobility, Anxiety, and the Romantic Poetics of Feeling,” Miranda Burgess investigates the role feeling plays in the cultural and historical contexts of Jane Austen’s time. Burgess’ main argument is that Austen’s time witnessed a serious ““concern with the vagrancy of emotions”4 and that this concern was inseparable from the means and systems of transport” (Burgess 234). To. 治政大to the importance of public illustrate her points, Burgess first draws our attention 立. transport system, more specifically to the canal system, in the Romantic age. Burgess. ‧ 國. 學. writes: “The growth of inland navigation was viewed as significant because it allowed. ‧. Britain to reconcile its domestic limitations with its overseas successes, bringing. sit. y. Nat. home the effects of its activities abroad” (Burgess 236). The development of the. io. er. canals not only connect each part of the Britain but also connect the inland to the coasts. “[N]ot only that Britain had effectively been turned inside out, wearing its. al. n. v i n C but heart, as it were, on its sleeve, that foreign transports could now, for the first h ealso ngchi U time, be brought home to the heart of middle Britain” (Burgess 237). While “the triumph of technology” is praised, “an occasion for anxiety” (Burgess 237) is simultaneously formed, not least because this transport system blurs the boundaries between the interior and the exterior realms. Just as foreign goods can come into Britain, “foreign” feelings can also enter into the hearts of British people. Burgess. 4. This phrase is in fact written by Adela Pinch. The whole sentence Burgess quotes to introduce her own ideas in the beginning of essay is: “Adela Pinch couples the tendency of feelings to “wander extravagantly from one person to another” with “a concern with the vagrancy of emotions [that] persists from the eighteenth century through the romantic period”(Burgess 229). Afterwards, Burgess uses the phrase many times in her essay. 21. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(36) writes:. It is out of this exchange between interior and exterior [. . .] that a specifically Romantic understanding of transport emerges. Romantic transport brings together the twin definitions the OED assigns to usage of the word in the period because it is doubly as well as powerfully connected with the expectation of wandering feelings. (Burgess 237)5 According to Burgess, the printing press in Austen’s age further strengthens the connection between “wandering feelings” and the movement of people or things.. 治政大 which in a moment Gilbert Austin writes about the printing press: “Potent invention! 立. communicates to thousands the same ideas! which in a moment directs the thoughts of. ‧ 國. 學. whole nations into one channel” (Austin 143, qtd. in Burgess 238). Austin’s praise. ‧. implies the existence both of a thriving network of readers and of the public transport. sit. y. Nat. system that allows printed materials to reach those readers. The fact that the readers. io. er. “of whole nations” can be fascinated by one set of particular thoughts and “the same ideas” evidences what Adam Smith means by “sympathy” at a distance (Burgess 231).. al. n. v i n C hand may never seeUeach other in their life Although people live in different places engchi. time, they can be touched, indeed, “moved,” by reading the same printed materials, such as books or newspapers. This also testifies to the existence of “wandering feelings.” Through printed materials, feelings can defy the obstacle of geographical and temporal distance and reach potentially everyone in Britain. In other words, the movement of feelings does not necessarily require the “contiguity between subject and object” (Burgess 231). As Burgess points out, William Wordsworth’s description. The OED defines the word “transport” mainly in two ways. First, this word refers to the movement of people or things. Second, it refers to the power of feeling to move people, that is, to “the state of being carried out of one’s normal mental condition; vehement emotion; mental exaltation, rapture, ecstasy.” That is why Burgess mentions “twin definitions” in her essay. 22 5. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(37) of a hermit’s reception of the news of the French Revolution best proves “the continual circulation of people, books, and feelings” (Burgess 239):. To the wide world’s astonishment, appeared The glorious opening, the unlooked-for dawn, That promised everlasting joy to France! [ . . . ] The voice of social transport reached even him! He broke from his contracted bounds, repaired To the great City, and Emporium then. 政治大. Of golden expectations, and receiving. 立. Freights every day from a new world of hope. (Wordsworth 2: 223-33). ‧ 國. 學. This passage describes the extraordinary mobility of feeling. It “circulat[es] first. ‧. within revolutionary France before crossing the [c]hannel, where it joins a larger,. sit. y. Nat. transatlantic traffic of “freights [ . . . ] from a new world of hope”” (Burgess 240).. io. er. Jane Austen appears to be very interested in the concepts of mobility and. al. movement that feeling brings about. As Burgess has pointed out in her essay, in many. n. v i n Cthat of Austen’s novels we can see the twin definitions of transport, h eshen dramatizes gchi U. revealing how the movement of bodies, literally or metaphorically, intersects with the presence of strong feeling (235). For instance, in Mansfield Park, when describing the heroine’s great joy at finding that she is going to leave her squalid home in Portsmouth and return to Mansfield Park, Austen writes: “To be finding herself, perhaps, within three days, transported to Mansfield, was an image of the greatest felicity” to Fanny Price. (Austin 342, qtd. in Burgess 235) In Emma, “[w]hen Emma Woodhouse reproaches Mr. Knightley for his inability to sympathize adequately with Frank Churchill, it is his failure ‘to be transported and placed all at once in Mr. Frank 23. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(38) Churchill’s situation’ that she criticizes” (Austin 116, qtd. in Burgess 235). In both instances, Austen uses the suggestive verb “transport,” indicating her belief that feeling is closely related to movement and mobility. Austen uses the verb “transported” to describe Fanny Price’s removal from Portsmouth to Mansfield, because she wishes to demonstrate that Fanny’s bodily movement from one place to another gives her great joy and that it takes her mentally to a realm of great delight. Austen uses the verb “transport” to illustrate Knightley’s failure to sympathize with Frank Churchill’s difficulty, because she believes that the imaginary movement of one’s body to another’s situation is key to cultivating sympathy. Feeling in Austen’s. 治政 novels, in other words, is highly mobile, in the sense that it大 can wander from one 立. person’s mind to another’s (such as sympathetic understanding of others’ difficulties). ‧ 國. 學. and that it infuses one’s physical movement (such as Fanny’s travel towards. ‧. Mansfield).. sit. y. Nat. But, if we pay close attention to how Austen represents bodies in her last. io. er. completed novel, Persuasion, we can see that it offers us an alternative account of the. al. supposed connection between feelings and mobility. As many Austen scholars have. n. v i n C h from other majorUAusten novels. Tony pointed out, Persuasion is very different engchi. Tanner, for instance, aptly argues that the heroine of this novel, Anne Elliot, is the only Austen heroine whose story is “a second novel”:. Indeed Persuasion is in effect a second novel. (Part of its rare autumnal magic [ . . . ] is that it satisfies that dream of a “second chance” which must appeal to anyone who has experienced the sense of an irreparably ruined life owing to an irrevocable, mistaken decision.) The “first novel” is what might be called (warily) a typical Jane Austen novel and is told in telescopic brevity in a few lines in chapter 4. (Tanner 211) 24. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(39) Unlike the other heroines whose stories, the “first novel[s],” are detailedly described, Anne’s “first novel” is only mentioned within her second one. Her main story is a “second novel.” Therefore, her lesson here is totally different from the other heroines. Austen states in Chapter Four that: “She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older” (P 32). While “[other Austen’s] heroines tend to graduate from romance to prudence” (Tanner 212, 213), Anne is forced to learn prudence first before she learns romance. If Persuasion offers us a fresh understanding of the connection between prudence and romance, I wish to argue that. 政治大. this novel, which focuses so intensely on the interesting movements of its characters’. 立. bodies, also sheds new light on the connection between feelings and mobility. While. ‧ 國. 學. Burgess has compellingly demonstrated the importance of “wandering feelings” in Austen’s age, I wish to show that Persuasion is a novel more interested in why the. ‧. alleged ability of feeling to wander is curtailed and in how this reduced ability speaks. Nat. sit. y. to the characters’ bodies, and vice versa.. n. al. er. io. Mary O’Farrell’s discussion of Persuasion in her book, Telling Complexions:. i n U. v. The Nineteenth-Century English Novel and the Blush, first gives me a clue that, in this. Ch. engchi. novel, Austen is interested not so much in giving feelings free reign as in restricting its free movement. As for O’Farrell, Anne resorts to self-mortification to strangle her otherwise overflowing emotions. O’Farrell writes: “Anne Elliot’s complex and perverse relation to mortification in Persuasion inheres in her desire to exploit its capacity to refine and to render insensible [. . . ] Described sometimes as ‘hardened’ or as hardening her nerves, Anne tries to manage her feelings by willful invocation of insensibility and indifference” (30-31). For example, after learning that Wentworth, her ex-lover, is going to come back to her daily circle about eight years after their youthful romance broke down, Anne feels agitated and uncomfortable. Under this 25. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(40) circumstance, she tries to recall Wentworth’s negative comments on her changed appearances to calm herself down. ‘Captain Wentworth is not very gallant by you, Anne, though he was so attentive to me. Henrietta asked him what he thought of you, when they went away, and he said, “You were so altered he should not have known you again.’” Mary had no feelings to make her respect her sister's in a common way, but she was perfectly unsuspicious of being inflicting any peculiar wound. ‘Altered beyond his knowledge.’ Anne fully submitted, in silent, deep mortification. (P 65). 立. 政治大. In this respect, self-mortification becomes a useful “tool” that Anne can use “to. ‧ 國. 學. handle her irritation” and to deaden her rigorous feelings (O’Farrell 31). This strategy,. ‧. as O’Farrell points out, can have a serious consequence. Anne’s ability and. sit. y. Nat. willingness to mortify herself carries “the danger” (for Austen, if not for Anne) of its. io. er. sometimes ending in numbness” (O’Farrell 31). According to the OED, numbness means “[t]he state of being numb.” And “numb” means “(of a part of the body). al. n. v i n C h Remarkably,UO’Farrell’s discussion of deprived of the power of physical sensation.” engchi Anne’s decision to curtail her feelings culminates in the suggestive word that draws our attention to Anne’s body. Indeed, as I shall show shortly in this chapter, to understand fully Anne’s strategy of controlling her feelings, we need to scrutinize the intricate ways through which Austen represents her heroine’s physical movement. One case in point lies in what happens when Anne and Wentworth first met about eight years after Anne broke her engagement with him. Wentworth pays Anne a surprise visit when she stays in the Uppercross Cottage taking care of her nephew, little Charles. This visit unsettles Anne’s peace of mind and unleashes a torrent of 26. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(41) feelings:. a thousand feelings rushed on Anne, of which this was the most consoling, that it would soon be over. And it was soon over. In two minutes after Charles's preparation, the others appeared; they were in the drawing-room. Her eye half met Captain Wentworth's, a bow, a curtsey passed; she heard his voice; he talked to Mary, said all that was right, said something to the Miss Musgroves, enough to mark an easy footing; the room seemed full, full of persons and voices, but a few minutes ended it. Charles shewed himself at the window, all was ready, their. 政治大. visitor had bowed and was gone, the Miss Musgroves were gone too, suddenly. 立. resolving to walk to the end of the village with the sportsmen: the room was. ‧ 國. 學. cleared, and Anne might finish her breakfast as she could. (P 64). ‧. The first sentence of this passage shows the agency and mobility of emotions. They. sit. y. Nat. can “rushed on Anne” unbidden. But the rest of the passage dramatizes how Anne. io. er. tries to reign in her overflowing feeling and to halt their rampant movement. First, she. al. chooses to avoid full eye contact with Wentworth. Common social courtesy forbids. n. v i n Anne to pretend that she is aC stranger But full eye contact would betray h e ntogWentworth. chi U too much of her emotional agitation and unease. Therefore, Anne chooses the middle way. She arranges her body in general, her eyes in particular, in such a way that only one of her eye meets those of Wentworth. In addition, Anne makes a “curtsey” in response to Wentworth’s bow. According to the OED, a “curtsey” means “a feminine movement of respect or salutation, made by bending the knees and lowering the body.” Bending and lowering are physical movements that imply a decision not to give your body the utmost freedom that it deserves. Anne’s bodily movement, in other words, suggests her attempt to repress those powerful feelings “rush[ing] on” her at 27. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(42) this moment. Lowering her body conveniently prevents Wentworth from seeing her face fully and thus helps her to conceal her emotional agitation from seeing Wentworth. It is important to notice that Anne does not say a word in this situation. Her silence coincides with her attempt to stifle her wandering emotions, alerting us to the social expectations that govern polite conversations in a social setting during Jane Austen’s time. Linda Bree discusses this situation at Austen’s time in her essay “Belonging to the Conversation in Persuasion.”. 政治大. But in Austen’s time the rules and regulations involved in conversational activity. 立. were far more stringent and constricting than they are now, and maintaining a. ‧ 國. 學. balance between observing niceties and achieving genuine interchange of ideas, opinions, and emotions was correspondingly more difficult. That Austen was. ‧. acutely aware of the straitjacketing nature of formal conversation is clear in the. Nat. sit. y. way she satirizes it, particularly in the early novels, through Henry Tilney’s. n. al. er. io. mock-courtesy to Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey (‘I have hitherto been. i n U. v. very remiss, madam, [ . . . ] I have not yet asked you how long you have been in. Ch. engchi. Bath; whether you were ever here before; whether you have been at the Upper Rooms, the theatre, and the concert; and how you like the place altogether’ [25]). (151) In Austen’s time, the rule of propriety governed daily conversations. People cannot speak as freely and openly as they please. In other words, Anne’s silence in a social setting draws our attention to how a woman’s freedom of speech was restricted in Austen’s time. Social etiquette forbids women in Austen’s age to speak as freely as they choose and circumscribes the 28. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(43) movement of their words. Their words cannot always move from their mind outwards to another listener. Instead, they can only be confined inwards, without the possibility of wandering outside their hearts.6 That is, women in Austen’s time could not freely express their true feeling. Austen is well aware of this restriction on women’s freedom of speech. Instead of seeing it simply as a liability, she transforms it into an asset, in the sense that it enables her to think more deeply about how this socially-imposed silence bears on a woman’s, to use Burgess’s words, “wandering feelings.” One measure of how interested Austen is in this issue can be seen in how she dramatizes Anne’s response when she realizes that it is Captain Wentworth who, upon. 治政大rescue and takes the child away seeing her annoyed by a naughty child, comes to her 立 from her back. After trying and failing to get rid of the naughty boy, Anne then. ‧ 國. 學. [finds] herself in the state of being released from him; some one was taking him. ‧. from her, though he had bent down her head so much, that his little sturdy hands. y. Nat. sit. were unfastened from around her neck, and he was resolutely borne away, before. n. al. er. io. she knew that Captain Wentworth had done it. Her sensations on the discovery. i n U. v. made her perfectly speechless. She could not even thank him. She could only. Ch. engchi. hang over little Charles, with most disordered feelings. His kindness in stepping forward to her relief, the manner, the silence in which it had passed, the little particulars of the circumstance, with the conviction soon forced on her by the noise he was studiously making with the child, that he meant to avoid hearing her thanks, and rather sought to testify that her conversation was the last of his wants, produced such a confusion of varying, but very painful agitation, as she. 6 Chris Ewers has spoken eloquently about a woman’s physical immobility in eighteenth-century England (169).Tim Cresswell and Tanu Priya Uteng also indicate that “how people move (where, how fast, how often, etc.) is demonstrably gendered and continues to reproduce gendered power hierarchies”(Cresswell and Uteng 2). I believe the issue of a woman’s (im)mobility can be extended to the movement of their words as well. 29. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(44) could not recover from, till enabled by the entrance of Mary and the Miss Musgroves to make over her little patient to their cares, and leave the room. She could not stay. It might have been an opportunity of watching the loves and jealousies of the four--they were now altogether; but she could stay for none of it. […] But neither Charles Hayter's feelings, nor anybody's feelings, could interest her, till she had a little better arranged her own. She was ashamed of herself, quite ashamed of being so nervous, so overcome by such a trifle; but so it was, and it required a long application of solitude and reflection to recover her. (P 86-87). 立. 政治大. In this passage, Anne is “perfectly speechless.” Her inability to open her mouth does. ‧ 國. 學. not mean that she is a cold-hearted woman unable to appreciate Wentworth’s kind and timely assistance. Instead, it is the result of experiencing powerful feeling, one so. ‧. powerful that it shuts down her ability to talk: “She could not even thank him.” Such. Nat. sit. y. powerful feeing does not only take away Anne’s verbal skills but also freezes her. n. al. er. io. body. It is important to notice that the naughty child Walter climbs onto Anne’s back. i n U. v. while she is nursing little Charles and that “he had bent down her head so much” that. Ch. engchi. she could not shake him off. After Wentworth has taken the child away, Anne theoretically is able to move as freely as she pleases. But, Austen tells us that she “could only hang over little Charles” and maintain the same position she is in when Walter climbs on her back. Anne’s physical “paralysis” prevents her from thanking Wentworth. And her failure to do so risks giving Wentworth an impression that, nearly eight years after their separation, she has no remaining affections for him. To underscore this apparent lack of feeling, Austen draws our attention to the potential reasons why Wentworth “was studiously making [noise] with the child.” Allegedly, he does so because he 30. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(45) seeks to “testify that [Anne’s] conversation was the last of his wants”, videlicet, because he no longer loves Anne. But the truth is that both Wentworth and Anne still love each other despite the failed youthful romance. That is why Wentworth decides to rescue Anne and why Anne feels overwhelmed by powerful emotions upon discovering Wentworth’s kind gesture. The appearance of indifference, first suggested by Anne’s silence and then by Wentworth’s obvious refusal to listen to Anne’s words, is misleading. By emphasizing this appearance of indifference, this episode dramatizes the failure of emotional communication. Anne’s true feelings cannot travel to Wentworth. Wentworth’s true feelings cannot reach Anne. Their real feelings are. 治政大 have physical ramifications. confined into their hearts. And this immobility of feelings 立 Anne could not move her body even after she is free to do so, just as she could not. ‧ 國. 學. speak to Wentworth openly about her resilient love for him.. ‧. Anne’s physical immobility and the failed emotional communication that. sit. y. Nat. surrounds it has the potential to challenge and revise what other Austen scholars see. io. er. as successful communication of feelings between Anne and Wentworth. For instance, in his essay, “Mishearing, Misreading, and the Language of Listening,” Roland Hall. al. n. v i n C h Anne and Wentworth argues that the interaction between e n g c h i U is characterized by. “underspeaking” (143). Although they do not speak much to each other, “a high emotional electricity invests their few exchanges, which stand out in strong relief” (Hall 143). To illustrate his point, Hall cites the example of Wentworth’s rescuing Anne from the mischievous child Walter. He writes: So too do the instances of Wentworth’s concern and attention expressed in physical terms without any verbal exchange: his relieving Anne of the troublesome child (80) and his handing her into the Crofts’ gig (91). Silent agitation is her response to these gestures: a quiet preparation, of course, for her 31. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(46) later growing conviction that he still cares for her after all. (Hall 143). As for Hall, through non-verbal language, Anne and Captain Wentworth are actually communicating their feelings to each other successfully. Judy van Sickle Johnson offers a similar argument. In the interaction between Wentworth and Anne, Johnson sees the “renewed emotional attachment through physical signs [ . . . ] seductive halfglances, conscious gazes and slight bodily contact” (43). In other words, Johnson also believes that Anne and Wentworth communicate their genuine feelings to each other successfully.. 政治大. However such positive reading of the emotional exchange between Anne and. 立. Wentworth is only partially correct, in the sense that it only applies to the last few. ‧ 國. 學. chapters of Persuasion, when Anne successfully lets Wentworth know that she does not love Mr. Elliot at all. In the first volume of Persuasion, Austen focuses more on. ‧. how Anne consistently misunderstands Wentworth’s true feelings for her and on how. y. Nat. sit. her bodily movement mirrors the circumscribed movement of both her and. n. al. er. io. Wentworth’s true affection.. i n U. v. One particular scene in Persuasion bears this point out. During her trip to. Ch. engchi. Winthrop, Anne overhears a conversation between Wentworth and Louisa Musgrove. They are talking about how Louisa has succeeded in persuading her sister Henrietta into visiting their aunt living in Winthrop. ‘She would have turned back then, but for you?’ ‘She would indeed. I am almost ashamed to say it.’ ‘Happy for her, to have such a mind as yours at hand! [ . . . ] woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not 32. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.

(47) resolution enough to resist idle interference in such a trifle as this. Your sister is an amiable creature; but yours is the character of decision and firmness, I see. If you value her conduct or happiness, infuse as much of your own spirit into her as you can. But this, no doubt, you have been always doing. It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on. You are never sure of a good impression being durable; everybody may sway it. Let those who would be happy be firm. [ . . .] ‘My first wish for all whom I am interested in, is that they should be firm. If Louisa Musgrove would be. 政治大. beautiful and happy in her November of life, she will cherish all her present powers of mind.’ [ . . . ]. 立. Louisa spoke again.. ‧ 國. 學. ‘Mary is good-natured enough in many respects,’ said she; ‘but she does. ‧. sometimes provoke me excessively, by her nonsense and pride--the Elliot pride.. sit. y. Nat. She has a great deal too much of the Elliot pride. We do so wish that Charles had. io. al. er. married Anne instead. I suppose you know he wanted to marry Anne?’. n. After a moment's pause, Captain Wentworth said,. Ch. ‘Do you mean that she refused him?’. engchi. i n U. v. ‘Oh! yes; certainly.’ [ . . . ]. The sounds were retreating, and Anne distinguished no more. Her own emotions still kept her fixed. She had much to recover from, before she could move. The listener's proverbial fate was not absolutely hers; she had heard no evil of herself, but she had heard a great deal of very painful import. She saw how her own character was considered by Captain Wentworth, and there had been just that degree of feeling and curiosity about her in his manner which must give her extreme agitation. (P 94-96) 33. DOI:10.6814/NCCU201900619.