After reading this, one might think that the lesson is to avoid being inconstant, to never change in your character and to never be persuaded. However, Louisa’s character shows that sometimes the most constant women need a little persuasion. Austen allows the reader to judge whether persuasion is a positive or negative force depending on how you use it. The constant and age-old trope of the inconstancy of women is one to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes there are instances where women are easily persuaded, but that does not make them manipulative and set to ruin lives like Walter Map and many others have thought before him. The gendered views on marriage are tackled well in Austen’s Persuasion as she puts men and women on an equal field and portrays the values as well as pitfalls of constancy and inconstancy of
After reading this, one might think that the lesson is to avoid being inconstant, to never change in your character and to never be persuaded. However, Louisa’s character shows that sometimes the most constant women need a little persuasion. Austen allows the reader to judge whether persuasion is a positive or negative force depending on how you use it. The constant and age-old trope of the inconstancy of women is one to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes there are instances where women are easily persuaded, but that does not make them manipulative and set to ruin lives like Walter Map and many others have thought before him. The gendered views on marriage are tackled well in Austen’s Persuasion as she puts men and women on an equal field and portrays the values as well as pitfalls of constancy and inconstancy of