One Man's WInce is Another Man's Contentment

Cheryl Weissman argues that throughout Persuasion, the reader is provided with limited view of the characters as Austen exercises a generous amount of refrain in her writing. This limited point of view coincides with the sense of ambivalence, which Austen expresses towards each of the characters. Weissman stresses that this ambivalence creates an uncertainty within the reader and creates a conclusion, which is unbelievable and dissatisfying. In reflection of Anne's ending with Captain Wentworth she states, "even Anne's dizzyingly narrow escape from a wasted life is not as properly satisfying as we expect fictional escapes to be." In regards to this statement, she does not offer evidence to support the claim; only that "we wince with ambivalent desires and beliefs." Austen writes that Anne and Wentworth return to their past in a wave of glee and that this time their feelings may even be greater than those of the past. Austen's conclusion promises nothing for what their future may hold. The novel does have a happy ending: after many years of separation, their love does prevail and they are finally reunited despite the great amount of time that had passed. Weissman complains that the novel does not provide a "happy ending" as Austen's other novels do, but it does. The language that Austen uses hints at the uncertainty of the actual quality of the relationship after all this time. Austen uses "perhaps" to signify that they may not be as happy as they had once been. Anne and Captain Wentworth were both weathered by many years of pain and though they may not be as naive and blindly happy as they had been as young lovers, their love persisted and grew greater through the realization that there was no one else that could make them feel as they had. In the part "more tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other's character" the reader recognizes that the characters have matured and grown, allowing them to understand the greatness of their feelings for each other while also coming to terms with each other's faults. Austen's language, here, creates a satisfaction within the reader that is much deeper than a simple "happily ever after" ending. The reader understands the deep level on which Anne and Wentworth are able to connect now that they have grown from the trials of the past. Weissman's dissatisfaction with this ending is really a distaste for anything less than perfection. It is a more realistic ending which suits the ambivalent characters. The uncertainty and multifaceted nature of each of the characters requires such an ending.