Mr Elliot's letter to Charles Smith
Mr Elliot's letter to Charles Smith is a brief but devastating document that shatters the carefully constructed facade of William Walter Elliot. Written in July 1803, when Mr Elliot was a young man of twenty-three, the letter was preserved by chance among the papers of Charles Smith, Mr Elliot's intimate friend and later the husband of Mrs Smith. It was Mrs Smith who, after years of silence, produced the letter for Anne Elliot in Bath, providing the irrefutable proof of Mr Elliot's past contempt for her family and his fundamentally selfish nature. The letter, which Anne read with a glow of shock and mortification, reveals a man utterly devoid of the respect and family feeling he had so recently professed in Camden Place.
Contents and Revelations
The letter, addressed from London, opens with a dismissive reference to Sir Walter Elliot and Elizabeth Elliot. Mr Elliot writes that he has "got rid of Sir Walter and Miss," who have returned to Kellynch Hall, and that they "almost made me swear to visit them this summer." His true intention, however, is anything but filial: "my first visit to Kellynch will be with a surveyor, to tell me how to bring it with best advantage to the hammer." This casual mention of selling the ancestral estate, the very property Sir Walter was determined to transmit "whole and entire," reveals Mr Elliot's complete indifference to family honour. He further speculates that the baronet "is not unlikely to marry again; he is quite fool enough," and that such a marriage would "leave me in peace, which may be a decent equivalent for the reversion." The letter culminates in a cry of personal disgust: "I wish I had any name but Elliot. I am sick of it. The name of Walter I can drop, thank God! and I desire you will never insult me with my second W. again, meaning, for the rest of my life, to be only yours truly,—Wm. Elliot." This explicit renunciation of his own family name and title stands in stark contrast to the respectful, even obsequious, manner he later adopted toward Sir Walter and Elizabeth.
Context and Preservation
The letter was written during a period of Mr Elliot's life when his primary object was to make his fortune by marriage. Mrs Smith, who had been privy to his confidences, explained that he had deliberately drawn back from Sir Walter's overtures because he suspected the family was designing a match between him and Elizabeth, a match that would not have answered his ideas of wealth and independence. The letter was saved, Mrs Smith said, because even then she was "very little satisfied with Mr Elliot" and determined to preserve every document of their former intimacy. She kept it through years of friendship and, later, through the bitter experience of Mr Elliot's cold-hearted refusal to act as executor for her husband's will, a refusal that left her in desperate financial straits. The letter thus became a time capsule of his youthful cynicism, a weapon against his later pretensions.
Impact on Anne Elliot
For Anne, reading the letter was a moment of profound disillusionment that confirmed her deepest suspicions. She had always felt there was "something more than immediately appeared" in Mr Elliot's sudden desire for reconciliation, and the letter provided the proof. The language, she felt, was "highly disrespectful," and she could not immediately get over the shock of finding such words applied to her father. The letter, combined with Mrs Smith's oral testimony about Mr Elliot's current schemes—his determination to prevent Sir Walter from marrying Mrs Clay in order to secure his own inheritance—completed the picture of a "disingenuous, artificial, worldly man, who has never had any better principle to guide him than selfishness." The letter's exposure of his true character freed Anne from any lingering tenderness or obligation toward him, and it steeled her resolve to be decidedly cool in his presence. It also provided her with the necessary evidence to enlighten Lady Russell, who had been dangerously deceived by Mr Elliot's polished manners.
