Jane Austen's Persuasion

The works of Jane Austen are often dismissed as “quaint” novels focusing on romance and other domestic themes, however much of Austen’s works serve as social commentaries and criticisms, and touch on such controversial topics such as: the social hierarchy, social mobility, gender constructs/constraints, etc. Of her novels, Austen’s Persuasion is (arguably) the most blatant example of criticism for the aristocracy/social stratification. Set during the Napoleonic War, Persuasion portrays the tensions of a society in transition as a new class rises to social power: the returning troops. During their service members of the military were given the chance to acquire wealth and titles that placed them above the stations of their birth, or pre-enlistment
In the article, “Persuading the Navy Home: Austen and Married Women's Professional Property”, Monica Cohen states that the practice of passing down land/titles/rank served as an “evocation of generational continuity, historical order, and what can be understood as ownership or mastery” (Cohen 5). It wasn’t just the wealth or the land that made up the value/power of the aristocracy it was the sense of tradition, of a continuous past; a class based upon a name and reputation rather than deeds. The Navy, which bases merit and success on actions and ingenuity (and chance) rather than on birth and inherited status, threatens the “natural order” of the society as, in case of Captain Wentworth, a man of no rank can, move in the same circles as, and even surpass, those who are of a far higher rank, simply by having amassed a
The sailors in Persuasion signify a change in the values of society, the beginnings of a meritocracy-based class and social system. As Anne points out: “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 all must allow” (Persuasion, 14). Unlike the aristocracy, those in the navy have earned their status, their wealth, and their position in