1814

The year 1814 serves as the temporal anchor for the central action of Persuasion, a summer and autumn that bring profound change to the Elliot family and their circle. It is a year defined by the peace that has ended the long war with France, a peace that sends wealthy naval officers ashore in search of homes and, in doing so, precipitates the novel's central romantic reunion. The narrative opens in the summer of 1814, with Sir Walter Elliot, at fifty-four, still a very fine man, taking up his favourite volume, the Baronetage, to read his own history. The specific date of the present time is established when Elizabeth Elliot, at twenty-nine, is described as wearing black ribbons for the wife of Mr William Walter Elliot in the summer of 1814. This peace, which turns all rich naval officers ashore, is the very circumstance Mr Shepherd seizes upon to suggest a tenant for Kellynch Hall, arguing that it could not be a better time for having a choice of very responsible tenants. Sir Walter's objections to the navy, voiced in the same year, reveal his snobbery: he objects to the profession as the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction and as cutting up a man's youth and vigour most horribly, citing the deplorable-looking Admiral Baldwin as an example. The peace of 1814 thus directly enables Admiral Croft to become the tenant of Kellynch Hall, setting the stage for Captain Frederick Wentworth's return to the neighbourhood. The year also marks a period of financial distress for Sir Walter, who has been constantly exceeding his income since his wife's death, leading to the decision to let the family estate and move to Bath. For Anne Elliot, now seven-and-twenty, the year brings a painful reassessment of the past. She reflects that she had been forced into prudence in her youth and learned romance as she grew older, the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning. The events of 1814 also encompass the revelation of Mr Elliot's true character, as Mrs Smith, a widow and poor, whose husband died about two years before, provides Anne with a letter written by Mr Elliot in July 1803 that proves his earlier contempt for the family. The year concludes with the reconciliation of Anne and Captain Wentworth, a union made possible by the social and economic conditions of the peace, and with Anne's final reflection that she gloried in being a sailor's wife, but must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance.